Disgruntled Civil War reenactor allegedly framed Antifa by fabricating threats against his unit [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

https://qz.com/1800988/antifa-falsely-accused-of-threatening-civil-war-group/

February 11, 2020

By Justin Rohrlich
Geopolitics reporter

In 2017, Antifa, a loose collection of left-leaning militant anti-fascist groups, was blamed by many for a series of violent threats mailed to a Virginia organization that hosts Civil War reenactments, as well as a pipe bomb planted at one of its annual gatherings.

Now the FBI believes those threats likely didn’t come from Antifa at all, but instead from a member of the Civil War reenactment group itself.

A search warrant application seeking phone records for Gerald Leonard Drake, a former volunteer at the nonprofit Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation in Middletown, Virginia, was unsealed today in federal court. The filing lays out evidence that Drake, a 61-year-old registered sex offender who has spent time in prison, sent the letters to exact revenge on Cedar Creek after it kicked him out of his unit. The document does not say which side Drake fought for during the reenactments, but email addresses for Drake listed in public records include variations on the word “confederate.”

Drake, it appears, attempted to leverage existing tensions between Antifa and the far-right. Members of Antifa will often show up at rallies held by far-right white supremacist groups and organizations defending so-called “Confederate heritage.” Skirmishes between the two sides sometimes break out at these competing rallies.

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Remember this next time a fascist starts whining about the mean antifascists.