One Patriot Front Member Has Got A New Lawyer, And You May Have Heard Of Him
Texas Court documents show former Proud Boys lawyer Jason Lee Van Dyke is giving legal aid to a member of the white nationalist group, Patriot Front. Antonio Barr, Van Dyke’s client, has been charged with a misdemeanor for graffiti including the words: “PATRIOTFRONT.US,” according to reporting by the Southern Poverty Law Center last month.
Filed on November 13, 2020, Barr’s case has been going on for two years in Williamson County, Texas.
“I do represent Antonio Barr” Van Dyke confirmed over the phone yesterday, but added, “as to whether he is a member of Patriot Front or not, I’m not gonna comment.”
Van Dyke has posted about Patriot Front numerous times in the past on his GETTR account following the release of the group’s private chats on Discord by Unicorn Riot early this year. In one post on January 23 this year, Jason wrote: “I would submit that, if Unicorn Riot is not punished for this, that NOBODY is safe from threats of doxing and stalking by antifascist trash.”
In another post a few days later, he wrote: “I still believe that Unicorn Riot committed a criminal offense here.”
Founded in 2017, Patriot Front is a violent white nationalist hate group known for its belief in the racist “replacement myth,” and identifies as American fascists, patriots, and nationalists, often used interchangeably. Their most common tactic is leaflet drops and posting fliers of their group’s propaganda. You can read more about the racist group here in an extensive report by ProPublica. You can also see evidence of Patriot Front’s membership here, as reported by Rose City Antifa.
The Law Center’s recent article mentioned Barr surrounded a fatal car crash which included several Patriot Front members, killing one member, Kevin J. Bersuch. Six others, including Barr, were also involved in the crash. Thomas Rosseau, Patriot Front’s leader, was hospitalized following the wreck.
Van Dyke has a long history of representing hate groups, the first being Michigan State Young Americans for Freedom back in 2007. In subsequent years Van Dyke has been featured in the media repeatedly for using slurs on social media, sending death threats to one of his legal opponents, Thomas Retzlaff, which got him suspended from practicing law for six months, and more. He also allegedly attempted to use one Arizona chapter of the Proud Boys to murder Retzlaff. For a time, Jason was the lawyer for the Proud Boys and was their leader for a short period. He has since dissolved the group’s trademark. In 2020, Vice reported on a leaked phone call of Van Dyke attempting to join the neo-Nazi terrorist group, the Base, but was denied access after being described as “a huge liability.” This year, the Daily Beast reported that Van Dyke has expressed interest in giving legal representation to the Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of North Texas, a group which has used campus resources to spread transphobic and other hateful materials across their campus.
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