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Patriot Front

Patriot Front is an American white supremacist and neo-fascist group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017.

History and beliefs
Patriot Front is led by Thomas Ryan Rousseau, who was a teenager when he founded the group. In 2017, Rousseau took control of Vanguard America's web and Discord server several weeks before the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he participated as the leader of Vanguard America's contingent. Following the bad press arising from the rally, Rousseau rebranded Vanguard America as Patriot Front, writing in a Discord message "Vanguard America, as you know it, will now be the "Patriots Front"", and that the focus and goals of the group would remain the same. Rousseau has been arrested repeatedly in the group's activities. The group's members consist of eight regional networks, and its recruitment is primarily done online. The group avoids talking about guns or violence online as a policy. A 2019 investigation by ProPublica estimated the group had about 300 members; in leaked chats at the end of 2021, Rousseau complained about a "220's to 230's membership rut". According to ProPublica, Rousseau and others in the group "delight in seeing their actions reflected in the SPLC's nationwide map recording acts of hate and in the media". ==Activities and events==
Activities and events
Patriot Front's demonstrations, literature, and sometimes acts of service are "tightly choreographed and scripted to maximize propaganda value", according to the SPLC. The ADL estimated that Patriot Front generated 82% of reported incidents of distributing racist, antisemitic and other hateful propaganda in the U.S. during 2021, and 80% in 2020. According to leaked chats made public in January 2022, Patriot Front members are required to deface racial justice murals in their areas. 2019 On February 13, hundreds of racist and anti-immigrant signs and flyers were taped up in the East Boston section of Boston, Massachusetts, an area with many immigrants. Patriot Front claimed responsibility. Boston mayor Marty Walsh denounced the incident. On February 15, Boston police arrested three Patriot Front members; two faced charges of carrying weapons, and one was charged with assault on a police officer after allegedly slapping an officer's hand. 2020 On February 8, about 100 Patriot Front members marched in Washington, D.C., along the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the US Capitol grounds, and then headed north to a Walmart near Washington Union Station. The marchers wore khakis, matching dark blue jackets, hats, full white face masks, and dark sunglasses, and carried Patriot Front and Betsy Ross flags. In August, during protests and counter-protests in Weatherford, Texas, over a Confederate statue, police arrested three men including Rousseau who had plastered stickers on signs, parks and property. They were charged with criminal mischief, jailed on a $500 bond and released. 2021 On January 29, a group of men wearing khaki pants, matching blue jackets with patches, and white face masks marched on the National Mall toward the US Capitol carrying flags with Patriot Front symbolism. On February 28, seven members of the Patriot Front, including Rousseau, were involved in a car crash. One member of the group died and Rousseau was seriously injured, requiring emergency surgery. The Utah Department of Public Safety determined that the Patriot Front's vehicle was speeding at the time of the crash. On July 10, two members were arrested for vandalism after being accused of spray-painting graffiti in Salem, Massachusetts. On December 4, more than 100 members of Patriot Front held a rally in downtown Washington, D.C., chanting "reclaim America", carrying flags and plastic shields and wearing uniforms consisting of white gaiters, sunglasses, blue jackets, khaki pants, brown boots and hats. Some wore plastic shin guards. 2022 In January, members of Patriot Front were seen at the 2022 March for Life anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C. On June 11, police arrested 31 members of Patriot Front they stopped inside a U-Haul truck near an LGBT Pride event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. They were charged with conspiracy to riot. Rousseau was one of the members arrested. An anonymous caller tipped off police when they saw the group of men climbing into a U-Haul after retrieving shields from the back of a truck. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office released the mugshots and names of all 31 arrested, who were from at least 11 states. After the arrests, the Coeur d'Alene police chief said the police department received death and doxxing threats. By June 13, all 31 members were released on bail. Court documents stated police had recovered a typed document that detailed the group's goal and planning for the day. Rousseau was granted a continuance, with his pre-trial appearance moved from May to September 2023. Five group members were convicted of misdemeanor conspiracy to riot on July 20, 2023, and the next day sentenced to five days in jail, credited for two days already served, plus $1,000 fines and one year of probation. Rousseau's case was dismissed in November 2024. The presiding judge, Judge John Cafferty, was quoted in the Idaho Capital Sun, "This is an important case. It should not be dismissed lightly," and cited loss of evidence and delays among the reasons behind the dismissal. On July 2, about 100 masked members with shields and a banner marched through Boston, with stops at the Boston Public Library and Old State House building. Police said one man was injured in a confrontation with Patriot Front members. This incident led to a lawsuit which resulted in a federal judge ordering the group to pay damages of over $2.7 million in January 2025. In May, the group marched at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Five members of the group filed a federal lawsuit in June against an alleged leftist activist they said had infiltrated the group and publicly disclosed their identities—the plaintiffs alleged they lost jobs, incomes and family relationships as a result. Two members had been arrested in connection with the 2022 conspiracy to riot at a pride event in Coeur d'Alene; one was subsequently convicted and sentenced for his role. In July 2024, Patriot Front, the Goyim Defense League, and other white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations handed out flyers, asked passersby if they were Jewish, and disrupted a City Council meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, waving large Confederate flags. In response, the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville organized a peace rally, drawing about 400 participants. 2025 On January 13, 2025, a federal judge ordered Patriot Front to pay approximately $2.7 million ($755,000 in damages and $2 million in punitive damages) to Charles M. Murrel III for violating his civil rights. The group was alleged to have attacked Murrel, a black man, on July 2, 2022, during a march by the group in Boston. On February 22, about a dozen Patriot Front members rallied near the Massachusetts State House in Boston, apparently as a counter-protest to a group that was protesting police brutality. Following the flash flooding that occurred at Camp Mystic and its surrounding areas in early July, the Patriot Front claimed it was participating in disaster relief efforts and distributing aid to survivors. In a video posted to the group’s official Telegram channel, Rousseau stated they were “in central Texas, responding to the flooding, which has destroyed communities and taken the lives of scores of Americans.” He stated they were prioritizing "European peoples" when determining who would receive aid. 2026 On January 23, 2026, members of Patriot Front were reported to have attended and demonstrated at the annual March for Life near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Their presence prompted counter-protests from other demonstrators, who accused the group of espousing neo-Nazi ideology. On 8 March 2026, members of the Patriot Front made a pair of appearances in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and Manitowoc. Later, on 12 March 2026, a counter protest occurred at Shipbuilders Park in Manitowoc in protest of the earlier presence of the Patriot Front. ==Leaked online chats==
Leaked online chats
On January 21, 2022, Unicorn Riot, a left-wing nonprofit media organization, published more than 400 gigabytes of leaked audio files, chat logs, documents, photographs and videos from Patriot Front's chat server. The leak revealed the group's efforts to recruit new members and increase its public profile through private communications on Rocket.Chat, an open-source messaging platform. The chat logs showed the group struggled to expand membership, often reprimanding members for not meeting fitness and participation requirements, according to The Guardian. In a conversation with Patriot Front "lieutenants" on December 14, 2021, Rousseau wrote, "We are absolutely desperate for new people. We've been in the 220's to 230's membership rut for nearly a full year." The communications revealed the group attempted to inflate its membership numbers and importance; outlined plans to spread misinformation about public events on social media sites, such as Twitter, Reddit and 4chan, and send deceptive news tips to journalists at traditional media outlets; and detailed notes of interviews with potential members. In August 2023, five Patriot Front affiliated individuals filed a lawsuit against an alleged member of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club for the infiltration, demanding punitive damages and claiming the disclosure of their identities cost them their jobs. ==False flag conspiracies==
False flag conspiracies
In May 2023, some commentators, including Joe Rogan, suggested without evidence that the organization was an FBI sting operation or false flag by Antifa. Such claims have been debunked as conspiracy theories, and labelled as "False" by fact-checkers Snopes. In December 2023, X (Twitter) owner Elon Musk contributed to the speculation, replying to a user who described the group as "Fed Front" and echoing the user's question as to why group members who were arrested did not have their masks removed by police. ==See also==
tickerdossier.comtickerdossier.substack.com