IFA Statement On Neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell Guilty Verdict

Cantwell Just Found Guilty of Extortion and Interstate Threats

Cantwell Still Faces Trial in IFA’s Charlottesville Suit for His Role Orchestrating the August 2017 Violence

Today, neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell was found guilty by a New Hampshire jury of extortion and interstate threats; he faces up to 22 years in prison. Cantwell is also a defendant in Integrity First for America’s Charlottesville lawsuit for his role orchestrating the August 2017 violence; he is expected to face trial in that case this spring.

“Today marks an important step toward accountability for Cantwell’s long history of violence and bigotry. It’s particularly powerful that this verdict was handed down on Yom Kippur – the Jewish day of atonement – against a neo-Nazi defendant who has made antisemitism central to his violence,” said IFA Executive Director Amy Spitalnick. “But justice has not yet been fully served when it comes to Cantwell. Our plaintiffs won’t back down from holding him accountable for the violence he brought to Charlottesville three years ago.”

Before the Charlottesville violence, Cantwell had urged his followers to join him in a race war and in “gas[sing] the k*kes.” After conspiring with his fellow defendants in person and online via the social media platform Discord in order to direct unlawful acts of violence, intimidation, and denial of equal protection, Cantwell marched on Charlottesville screaming things like, “Jews will not replace us!” as he terrorized students and employees on the University of Virginia campus on August 11, 2017. He followed through on his threat and assaulted counter-protesters and passersby with illegal gas.

The following day, as he continued to terrorize the residents of Charlottesville, Cantwell said to his co-conspirators, “We’ll f*cking kill these people if we have to.” He was subsequently arrested for multiple felonies, including for maliciously causing bodily injury to a counter-protestor by dispensing a caustic substance.

IFA’s suit, brought on behalf of a coalition of Charlottesville community members injured, alleges that Cantwell and his co-defendants orchestrated a racially-motivated violent conspiracy. The suit details how Cantwell and the nearly two dozen other defendants planned the violence for months in advance. Trial is expected this spring.

Cantwell’s violent threats have only escalated since the events in Charlottesville. He has likened himself to the perpetrators of mass shootings and advocated for the mass murder of those with opposing political views.

In July 2019, just two days after the threat that led to today’s verdict, Cantwell used the same social media platform (Telegram) to threaten Roberta Kaplan, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in IFA’s suit. In response to an article in a Jewish publication about the case and Kaplan, Cantwell wrote. “After this stupid k*ke whore loses this fraudulent lawsuit, we’re going to have a lot of f*cking fun with her.”

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Integrity First for America (IFA) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to holding those accountable who threaten longstanding principles of our democracy—including our country's commitment to civil rights and equal justice. IFA is backing the landmark federal lawsuit against the two dozen neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and hate groups responsible for the August 2017 violence in Charlottesville.To learn more about the case, click here.