The 2017 "Unite the Right" rally unleashed deadly racist chaos in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia when a mob of white supremacist neo-Nazis descended upon the community, terrorizing its residents and killing anti-racist protester Heather Heyer in the process.
Currently, organizers and participants of the Unite the Right rally are on trial for conspiring to commit racist violence against non-white Charlottesville residents and counter-protestors.
Among the violent racists on trial is crying Nazi Christopher Cantwell, who's representing himself. Cantwell and his fellow white supremacists have repeatedly mocked the proceedings, openly said the N-word in court, and whined about the supposed atrocities of antifa.
But the defendants' alliance with their online supporters is resulting in even more insidious white supremacist intimidation.
According to a new report by Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post, Cantwell and his ilk—many of whom are banned from social media for their bigotry—are using testimony to force witnesses to name their friends, potentially subjecting them to harassment and endangerment from white supremacists.
Among these witnesses was Devin Willis, who was testifying about the violence he and a group of friends faced from white supremacists marching in the infamous torch rally. While questioning WIllis, Cantwell demanded he name his friends. After Willis said he was "hesitant" to do so, District Judge Norman K. Moon said he was obligated to answer.
According to Silverman's report:
"Within minutes, the names of Willis's friends, and photos of at least one of their faces, spread to far-right chat rooms where extremist supporters were following the trial. One chatroom was led by another defendant, who was also live-tweeting this information.
'Cantwell needs to keep drilling down for more names,' one user wrote in the chat room the afternoon Willis testified.
The brazen display of doxing — or publicly uncovering personal information about a private individual — revealed the ways that white supremacists are weaponizing this federal civil trial about the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally weekend into a spiteful stage."
Four years after terrorizing the city of Charlottesville, white supremacists were using their trial to terrorize its residents once again.
Cantwell's antics in the courtroom have earned the ire of the country.
Cantwell is currently serving a 41 month prison sentence for cyberstalking and threats.
