Two Notorious 'Alt-Right' Figures May Play Key Roles in Russia Investigation
'Trump's Troll' Johnson, neo-Nazi hacker 'weev' implicated in Peter Smith's futile聽scheme to obtain聽Hillary Clinton's emails from dubious sources.
The alt-right鈥檚 presence seemingly pervades every corner of the Donald Trump administration, so perhaps it鈥檚 no surprise that key players in the extremist white nationalist movement are turning out to be involved in the president鈥檚 scandals as well 鈥斅爊amely, the ongoing investigation into potential collusion between Russian intelligence and members of the Trump campaign.
Two major alt-right figures 鈥斅燙harles C. Johnson, the white nationalist 鈥淭rump鈥檚 Troll鈥� who reportedly acted as an adviser to the administration鈥檚 transition team, and notorious neo-Nazi hacker Andrew 鈥渨eev鈥� Auernheimer 鈥斅爃ave been implicated in the Russia investigation, according to in Politico.
Their role became public when聽a Republican activist named Peter Smith, 81, committed suicide shortly after detailing his attempts to track down hackers he believed might possess the 33,000聽emails Hillary Clinton deleted from her private servers, the controversy over which was聽a major campaign issue raised by Trump during the election. Smith鈥檚 involvement could be a key to the investigation if evidence can be found that he acted as a conduit between Russian intelligence operatives seeking to affect the 2016 election outcome and Trump adviser Michael Flynn, Sr., the onetime National Security Adviser who resigned over his meetings with key Russian officials.
Johnson, a onetime Breitbart News writer who told Schreckinger he met Smith in 2013 while conducting 鈥渙pposition research鈥� on President Obama, had been in touch with Smith throughout the 2016 campaign, discussing 鈥渢actics and research,鈥� including Smith鈥檚 efforts in tracking down Clinton鈥檚 emails.
鈥淗e wanted me to introduce him to [Trump鈥檚 chief adviser, Stephen] Bannon, to a few others, and I sort of demurred on some of that,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think his operation was as sophisticated as it needed to be, and I thought it was good to keep the campaign as insulated as possible.鈥�
Schreckinger reported that Johnson instead contacted a 鈥渉idden oppo network鈥� of alt-right researchers (who he declined to identify) and urged them to back Smith鈥檚 efforts. Moreover, he suggested to Smith that he get in touch with Auernheimer.
Auernheimer, claiming he is contractually prohibited from speaking to reporters, would not confirm to Schreckinger that Smith had contacted him.
Smith鈥檚 confession to the Journal corroborated other aspects of the Russia investigation that have been uncovered by reporters. It explained: 鈥淭he operation Mr. Smith described is consistent with information that has been examined by U.S. investigators probing Russian interference in the elections. Those investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe Russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from Mrs. Clinton鈥檚 server and then transmit them to Mr. Flynn via an intermediary, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence.鈥�
Smith in a Minnesota hotel room on May 14, days after talking to the Journal reporters. He left behind a carefully arranged stack of documents explaining his suicide and a note exclaiming, 鈥淣O FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER.鈥�
Johnson rose to notoriety in 2014 as who led social-media harassment campaigns against people who were involved in mainstream news stories, including journalists, publishing their home and private information online and leading to threats at their residences. He also was notorious for using on his Twitter account, though he was from Twitter in 2015 for using threatening language.
In July 2016, Johnson was a guest on the racist radio show Fash the Nation, in which he claimed that he got interested in 鈥渞ace realism鈥� 鈥斅燼 phrase white nationalists use to refer to their racist ideology 鈥斅燼t a young age. On the show, he maintained that ethnic and racial stereotypes are 鈥渓argely true鈥� and he admitted to factoring them into hiring practices, predicated on the principle that blacks are dumber than whites.
And at a certain point you 鈥� If we鈥檙e all the same, you would have statistically expected that if blacks are 15% of the population, they would make up, you know, 15%聽of honors winners, you know, honor students or whatever. And yet that鈥檚 never the case. And so you have to sit 鈥� You have to believe 鈥斅爐hat every single school on the planet, and in every single environment that鈥檚 run by white people 鈥斅爐hat they鈥檙e systematically discriminating against blacks for some reason. Or you have to believe the more obvious thing which is that they鈥檙e dumber. And enough experience with them kind of persuades you that the dumber thing is probably true.
He claimed in December that he had been 鈥渄oing a lot of the vetting for the administration, and the Trump transition.鈥� Forbes reported that Johnson didn鈥檛 have an official position, but was working behind the scenes with members of the transition team鈥檚 executive committee.
Auernheimer, who became for exposing a hole in AT&Ts security system and wound up serving prison time for it before聽, has been closely involved in the activities of the overtly racist 鈥�1488鈥� segment of the alt-right. He helped Andrew Anglin set up his bulletin-board system for the neo-Nazi outlet Daily Stormer, and has been involved in sending threatening flyers out to Jewish community centers and colleges.
Johnson and Auernheimer in 2015 in an effort to release hours of covertly filmed interviews with Planned Parenthood officials.
