AP: Attorney: Charlottesville organizer sought to mislead police

By the Associated Press. Read the full article here.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- An organizer of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville appeared to instruct supporters to mislead law enforcement about the potential size of the 2017 protest, according to communications presented in court Monday.

Jason Kessler is one of two dozen defendants who are testifying in a federal civil trial to determine whether they engaged in a conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence during the rally, according to The Washington Post.

Kessler filed the permit with local authorities for the rally that brought hundreds of white supremacists to Charlottesville on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, 2017, ostensibly to protest city plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

“If the police ask you how many people we have coming don’t tell them,” Kessler wrote in a July 18, 2017, Facebook message to another person. “If they think we have more than 400 they might be able to help the city pull our permit. Privately we can tout the 800-1,000 number better for our enemies to underestimate us.”

The weekend turned deadly when avowed Hitler admirer James A. Fields Jr. rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens. Fields is serving life in prison on murder and hate crimes charges. On Tuesday, a Virginia appeals court upheld the convictions.

The ongoing lawsuit in Charlottesville seeks monetary damages against two dozen white nationalists and organizations and a judgment that the defendants violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs. It's being funded by Integrity First for America, a civil rights nonprofit organization.

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