A10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, OCTOBER 25 , 2021
the streets of Charlottesville and
will not end in a Charlottesville
courtroom, even if the jury finds
evidence of a c onspiracy.
Words and images that were
jolting in 2017 are no w ing rained
in the conservative mainstream,
perhaps most notable being the
“Great Replacement Theory,” the
conspiratorial idea of an engi-
neered demographic replace-
ment of White Christians. That
idea is frequently repeated by
right-wing pundits such as Fox
News’s Tucker Carlson, who has
millions of viewers.
“Repugnant, conspiratorial
views that seemed bizarre and
shocking to most Americans on
August 11 and 12, 2017, are abso-
lutely being mainstreamed now
every single day,” said Megan
Squire, a professor in computer
science at Elon University who
tracks online far-right organiz-
ing, including the planning
ahead of the “Unite the Right”
rally. “You can add vaccine con-
spiracies, covid hoax conspira-
cies, QAnon-type stuff — it’s all
completely mainstream on the
right at this point.”
Pete Simi, a longtime re-
searcher of far-right movements
who will testify as an expert
witness at the trial, said the
trial’s importance is twofold.
First, he said, it is important to
“correct the historical record” by
showing evidence that the vio-
lence was a planned feature of
the two-day event, not a sponta-
neous outgrowth. Second, he
added, pressure from the lawsuit
already is hampering the defen-
dants’ ability to operate and raise
money.
The years-long suit has been
“financially crippling,” Spencer
said during a June 2020 court
hearing. A t least three defen-
dants face tens of thousands of
dollars in sanctions for flouting
multiple court orders, docu-
ments show. Most of the white
supremacists named in the suit
have been deplatformed by so-
cial media companies or have
removed themselves.
A few have walked back some
of their most extreme views or
even rejected the white power
movement altogether. As if to
show how out of step he is with
today’s right-wing concerns,
Spencer said that he voted for
Biden, is fully vaccinated against
the novel coronavirus and views
the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S.
Capitol as “utterly buffoonish.”
That sidelining impact is im-
portant, Simi said, because many
of the defendants represent what
was seen as the new guard of the
white supremacist movement,
which had lost veteran organiz-
ers to death and prison in the
early 2000s. Squashing the
emergence of new leaders
through public pressure and the
courts is useful, Simi said, but
the problem is far more complex
than can be remedied by a single
lawsuit.
“This case alone is not a m agic
bullet — no interventions in and
of themselves are magic bullets,”
Simi said. “They have to be part
of a much broader strategy to
combat, essentially, this type of
fascism, this type of hatred, this
type of extremism. And, unfortu-
natel y, we really haven’t yet de-
veloped that broad-based strat-
egy.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Brook said in a s tatement.
The plaintiffs and their advo-
cates, including several of the
nation’s civil rights groups, argue
that the First Amendment does
not protect the methodical plan-
ning of racial violence.
“If they had simply gone to
Charlottesville and stood on the
street corner with their swasti-
kas and their flags, and their
bigoted, racist, antisemitic
chants, that would’ve been pro-
tected speech,” said Amy Spital-
nick, the executive director of
Integrity First for America, a civil
rights nonprofit organization
backing the lawsuit.
“But that’s not what they did,”
Spitalnick said. “They planned
violence, and then they went to
Charlottesville and engaged in
that violence, and they celebr at-
ed the violence.”‘Not a magic bullet’
The fiery scenes from those
two days in August 2017 have
made the name Charlottesville
shorthand for the racism and
bigotry that seeped into the
mainstream under Donald
Trump, whose comment that
there were “very fine people, on
both sides” of the event caused
outrage even among some of his
supporters.
“Charlottesville, Virginia,”
were the first words Joe Biden
said as he declared his 2020
candidacy in a campaign video
that showed chilling scenes from
the rally he called “a defining
moment” for the nation. Since
taking office, Biden repeatedly
has invoked the city in discus-
sions of far-right extremism,
which federal authorities consid-
er the deadliest and most active
domestic threat. And when the
White House in June unveiled
the nation’s first strategy to com-
bat domestic terrorism, Char-
lottesville was mentioned in the
introduction.
Still, extremism analysts say,
the nation’s problem with far-
right violence did not begin onOhio who previously said h e took
on this case to “oppose Jewish
influence in society.” Kolenich
did not respond to a request for
comment. His co-counsel, Elmer
Woodard, replied with a one-
word email: “No.”
At least five defendants are
representing themselves at trial.
Among them is Cantwell, who
was dubbed the “Crying Nazi” for
a viral video that showed him
weeping upon learning that he
was wanted by authorities in
connection with the rally. He
later pleaded guilty to two counts
of misdemeanor assault and bat-
tery for pepper-spraying coun-
terprotesters. He is in prison and
could not be reached for com-
ment.
In one court filing, Cant well
cited a passage from Hitler ’s
“Mein Kampf.” In another, he
used the word “Holocaust” with
a registered trademark sign, as if
to cast doubt on Nazi Germany’s
atrocities. Cantwell also made a
threat to the plaintiffs’ attorney
Roberta Kaplan, who is Jewish
and well-kn own for Supreme
Court arguments that were in-
strumental to federal recogni-
tion of same-sex marriage.
Cantwell called Kaplan an
a nti-J ewish slur and a “whore”
and said th at after “she loses this
fraudulent lawsuit, we’re going
to have a lot of [expletive] fun
with her,” according to a May
2020 filing. Cantwell has asked
the court that his “perceived
biases” against Jewish people be
excluded from proceedings.
One of the many peculiarities
of the trial is that because the
white supremacists are repre-
senting themselves, plaintiffs are
likely to find themselves in the
uncomfortable position of being
questioned directly by the people
they’re su ing.
Spencer, who is representing
himself after failing to pay his
attorney, said it will be a “ben-
efit” for him to be able to directly
address the jury and cross-exam-
ine plaintiffs. He mainta ins thata possibility of great good com-
ing out of it.”‘We are not powerless’
I n 1870, with the KKK and
other White mobs terrorizing
Black citizens to deny them their
post-emancipation rights, Con-
gress passed three laws known
collectively as the Enforcement
Act to safeguard the right to vote,
hold office and se rve on juries.
The la st of the laws, the Ku
Klux Klan Act of 18 71, “was
designed to eliminate extralegal
violence and protect the civil and
political rights of four million
freed slaves,” according to a h is-
tory section of the U.S. House of
Representatives’ website.
Fast-forward 150 years. The
same law that targeted racist
vigilantes after the Civil War now
underpins the suit against the
modern-day hate groups that
planned the “Unite the Right”
rally. At least two KKK factions
are among the Charlottesville
defendants.
“What’s dismaying for me is
that it’s necessary to use a statute
like the Ku Klux Klan Act from
the 1870s in this day and age to
address civil rights violations by
white supremacists,” said Rich
Schragger, a C harlottesville resi-
dent and law professor at the
University of Virginia.
The plaintiffs in this lawsuit
represent the kind of American
diversity that the defendants re-
ject. They are of different reli-
gions, races and ethnicities,
court documents show. They in-
clude an ordained minister, a
Colombian American under-
graduate at the University of
Virginia, an African American
landscaper, and a multiracial
paralegal who was a c o-worker
and friend of Heyer’s.
When 20-year-old white na-
tionalist James A. Fields Jr. sped
his car into a crowd of counter-
protesters, he killed Heyer and
struck four of the plaintiffs, ac-
cording to court documents.
Marcus Martin needed surgery
for a b roken leg and ankle that he
suffered when he pushed his
fiancee, plaintiff Marissa Blair,
out of the path of the car. Plain-
tiff Natalie Romero was directly
hit by Fields, the blow throwing
her against a parked car and
causing her to suffer a skull
fracture. In the af term ath, court
documents say, Romero wanted
to lie down and close her eyes,
but worried that if she did, she
would die.
Plaintiffs who were not physi-
cally injured say they suffered
lasting emotional distress and
trauma. The suit does not specify
a dollar amount sought for dam-
ages.
“The organizers of the Unite
the Right Rally robbed me of my
ability to feel safe, feel secure,
feel at ease — e ven in my own
home,” plaintiff Liz Sines said in
a statement. “This case reminds
me that we are not powerless as
we face this seemingly relentless
campaign of violence and hatred.
And that constant reminder over
the last four years has helped me
move forward.”
Already, the plaintiffs have
received default judgments
against seven defendants who
refused to cooperate. Of those
fighting the suit, Jason Kessle r,
Nathan Damigo and the g roup
Identity Evropa are represented
by James Kolenich, a lawyer frompistols, mace, rods, armor,
shields, and torches.”
The planners’ messages, part
of a leaked trove from the group-
chat platform Discord, are laced
with slurs against Black and
Jewish people, along with violent
fantasies of cracking skulls and
driving into crowds. One meme
showed “John Deere’s New
Multi-Lane Protester Digestor,” a
made-up vehicle to steamroll
opponents — a macabre forecast
of the car-ramming attack that
would kill 32-year-old counter-
protester Heather Heyer and in-
jure at least 19 others.
Because only a handful of
participants faced criminal
charges, the plaintiffs’ lawyers
say, the civil suit is one way to
correct what they call a lack of
accountability that paved the
way for other extremist violence,
including the Jan. 6 attack on the
U.S. Capitol. The racist, bigoted
imagery on display in Charlottes-
ville in August 2017 — a shock to
much of the nation at the time —
is now regularly spotted at right-
wing gatherings throughout the
country.
“One message of this case is
that these events — like Char-
lottesville, like Jan. 6 — they’re
not these spontaneous, flukish
events that just happen,” said
Karen Dunn, a p rominent trial
lawyer serving as co-lead counsel
for the plaintiffs. “There is an
enormous undercurrent of plan-
ning, of intent and of purposeful-
ness that we all need to wake up
to.”
Suing two dozen white su-
premacists and hate groups
means that virtually everything
about the trial is unusual. The
judge has ordered litigants not to
discuss the extraordinary secu-
rity backdrop to the trial; per-
sonal security is the top expense
for the plaintiffs. Potential jurors
will be asked their opinions on,
for example, Black Lives Matter
and antisemitism. Court exhibits
will include vile messages that
come from more than 5 terabytes
of evidence. To make their case,
the plaintiffs’ attorneys are dust-
ing off a R econstruction-era stat-
ute that was designed to protect
newly emancipated Black people
from the Ku Klux Klan.
Then there are the defendants,
some of the most notorious rac-
ists in the country, including:
Richard Spencer, a neo-Nazi fig-
ure who was a f eatured speaker
at the rally; Andrew Anglin, who
publishes the hate site the Daily
Stormer; and Matthew Heim-
bach, a white-nationalist leader
with ties to far-right factions in
Eastern Europe. Defendant
Christopher Cantwell, who has
referred to the “supposed Holo-
caust” and quoted Hitler in court
documents, was dropped by his
own attorneys in part for alleged-
ly threatening a lawyer for the
plaintiffs.
Some of the defendants are
expected to testify, but court
documents show that many have
been uncooperative, failing to
comply with court orders. One
defendant, Jeff Schoep, former
commander of the neo-Nazi Na-
tional Socialist Movement, said
his cellphone “accidentally” fell
into the toilet, making it impossi-
ble to recover potential evidence,
the plaintiffs complained in
court filings.
A main argument of the defen-
dants is that the violent rhetoric
used ahead of that August week-
end was protected speech related
to a permitted rally to protest
city plans to remove a statue of
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The mayhem that unfolded, de-
fendants argue, stemmed from
planning failures on the part of
the police and from counter-
demonstrators who wanted di-
rect confrontation with the
marchers.
“Their entire case is based
around this concept that, like,
we’re bad people because of the
things we think, that are legally
protected speech,” Heimbach
said in an interview.
Most other defendants and
their attorneys did not respond
or declined requests for com-
ment.
For Charlottesville residents,
the trial will offer the most
in-depth look yet at the violent
incursion that stigmatized their
city.
Brenda Brown-Grooms, a 66-
year-old African American pas-
tor, recalled the fear she felt
when she saw the torch-bearing
mob that Friday evening, Aug. 11,
- The next day, she said, she
was at another church near the
Lee statue and had to close the
doors because chemical irritants
from the rally were wafting into
the building, stinging her eyes
and throat.
The trial will force many resi-
dents to relive those visceral
moments. Brown-Grooms calls it
difficult, but necessary.
“It’s a trauma we can’t avoid,”
she said about the trial. “There’s
CHARLOTTESVILLE FROM A
Extremists are back in Charlottesville, this time on trial
PHOTOS BY EVELYN HOCKSTEIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POSThe went to Charlottesville for the
rally as an invited speaker, not an
organizer. In an interview, he
made no excuses for his record of
hate speech but denied conspir-
ing with the other defendants
about actions on the ground that
weekend in Charlottesville.
“ They’re tasked with proving
that I entered into a conspiracy
to commit or inspire or direct
racially motivated violence,”
Spencer said. “They’re not going
to be able to demonstrate that.”
Joshua Smith, who is repre-
senting three of the defendants,
including Heimbach, blames the
day’s violence on the city’s lack ofsecurity preparation that put
rallygoers and counterprotesters
in the same area, a move the
defendants say made clashes in-
evitable. They point to an inde-
pendent report that found that
Charlottesville securi ty officials
were ill-prepared for the rally, a
failure that led to “disastrous
results.”
W. Edward ReBrook IV, a la w-
yer representing Schoep and the
National Socialist Movement, ar-
gued that the suit is motiv ated by
“a desire for vengeance.”
“If not for the fact that the
defendants are mostly white su-
premacists, the suit would have
been dismissed years ago,” Re-“One message of this
case is that these events
— like Charlottesville,
like Jan. 6 — they’re not
these spontaneous,
flukish events that just
happen.”
Karen Dunn, co-lead counsel for the
plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed by
Charlottesville residentsTOP: Hundreds of white supremacists and neo-Nazis carrying torches march through the University of
Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Aug. 11, 2017. ABOVE: Jason Kessler, an organizer of the “Unite
the Right” rally, is seen before the 2017 march. Kessler is among those fighting the lawsuit filed by nine
Charlottesville residents who allege physical harm and emotional distress from the rally, which led to
the car-ramming attack that killed counterprotester Heather Heyer.