Each day, we’ll have the latest news from the courtroom in the Sines v. Kessler Unite the Right trial. For coverage from previous days, check the list of links at the bottom of this page.
Warm praise for Hitler, AWOL defendants, and a white nationalist antisemite cross-examining a holocaust scholar. These disturbing scenes played out on day eight of Sines v. Kessler, the lawsuit accusing more than two dozen white nationalist groups and individuals of conspiring to commit racially motivated violence at the Unite the Right rally in August 2017.
In a repeat of previous days, pro se defendant Christopher “Crying Nazi” Cantwell conducted the lengthiest cross examination of the day, a friendly, at times even jovial questioning of fellow defendant and Traditionalist Worker Party founder Matthew Heimbach.
“What’s your favorite holocaust joke,” Cantwell asked Heimbach in one of numerous exchanges that was interrupted by an objection from plaintiffs’ attorneys.
“I’ll withdraw the question,” Cantwell responded immediately.
Cantwell and Heimbach also talked about antifa, and Heimbach told Cantwell about his belief that counterprotesters at Unite the Right would use makeshift weapons.
At an event in Terre Haute, Indiana, “We were attacked by antifa with bike locks and locks in socks,” Heimbach said.
Cantwell also asked Heimbach if he believed James Fields did anything wrong when he drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, murdering 32-year-old Heather Heyer and maiming many others.
“No,” Heimbach replied, insisting that Fields had been acting in self-defense, even though he has been found guilty of murder.
Hitler was another subject for the pair’s cheerful banter, with Heimbach denying that the Holocaust had happened and testifying that he’d read Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf multiple times.
“He utilized democracy to gather votes of the German people,” Heimbach said. “He advocated for law and order.”
It wasn’t the last praise of Hitler the jury would hear on Wednesday.
“Adolf Hitler was the greatest political leader of all time,” said Robert “Azzmador” Ray in one of numerous videos from August 11 and 12. Ray worked for the racist and antisemitic website The Daily Stormer, and hasn’t shown up for the trial. He’s also one of several defendants who have been sanctioned in the case for failure to comply with discovery, and he’s a fugitive on two warrants, one from the August 11 torch rally and another for failure to comply with a court order last year.
In September, a federal judge sanctioned Ray by authenticating evidence that established as fact multiple allegations, including that Ray “entered into an agreement with one or more co-conspirators to engage in racially motivated violence in Charlottesville, Virginia,” on the weekend of the Unite the Right rally. Ray “was motivated by animus against racial minorities, Jewish people, and their supporters when conspiring to engage in acts of intimidation and violence,” the evidence shows.
In the videos, Ray is seen participating in the torch rally and spewing antisemitic vitriol near the now-removed statue of Robert E. Lee in downtown Charlottesville.
The plaintiffs presented extensive evidence from the Discord web platform showing Ray’s communications with other white nationalists in the months leading up to the rally.
“Our guys need to get a grip on the fact that they’re probably going to have to physically fight these people,” Ray wrote on August 7, less than a week before the rally.
Ray’s other posts expressed his hatred of Jewish and Black people and his desire to inflict physical harm.
“I just got done with an hourslong chat with some of the event organizers,” Ray wrote. “The plan is the same. Gas the kikes.”
The plaintiffs used the white nationalists’ Discord posts to lay the groundwork for conspiracy. In an August 7 post, Ray wrote, “This shit is incredibly complex. In the last three days, I must have spent 50 hours networking with various groups.”
Other witnesses on Wednesday included Diane D’Costa, a UVA graduate who moved into a room on the Lawn on August 11, 2017, hours before the white nationalists arrived with torches.
“In my young adulthood, I really stepped into my Jewish identity,” said D’Costa, who recalled being terrified as she peered through the peephole in her door that night and saw the torch marchers chanting “Jews will not replace us” mere feet away.
She removed jewelry with Jewish symbolism and flipped over a painting with Israeli flags before accepting an invitation from a professor to take refuge in a nearby Pavilion residence.
“I was scared for my life,” testified D’Costa, who said her grandmother fled the Nazis in Poland during World War II. “My chest started tightening up and there was ringing in my ears. I was in shock of what was happening and trying to process what was going on.”
On cross-examination, Cantwell again had the most questions from the defense, asking D’Costa about the distance of the flames and about her lack of access to a bathroom in her Lawn room. The historic rooms are offered as an honor to a small number of fourth-year students, who must leave their rooms to use a shared bathroom, D’Costa explained, prompting a sarcastic response from Cantwell.
“That’s harrowing,” he said.
In what may have been the most surreal exchange of the day, Cantwell also cross-examined one of the nation’s leading experts in holocaust denial.
“There’s a template of charges that you find, if not all of them, in present antisemitic rhetoric,” said Deborah Lipstadt, a professor at Emory University who has authored numerous books and peer-reviewed articles on antisemitism and holocaust denial.
Those charges, she said, include Jewish people having “inordinate financial power,” being “clever, conniving, crafty,” “controlling a large portion of society,” and finally, “being the devil,” working to harm the public for their own benefit.
“Antisemitism is ubiquitous,” she said, noting the logical fallacy of holocaust denial.
“For someone who believes in the ‘holo-hoax’ or holocaust denial, for them to be right, who would have to be wrong,” Lipstadt said. “All the survivors, all the survivors who lived in the towns and villages near the camps, who smelled the burning flesh. The thousands of historians, and finally the Germans themselves. There has never been a war crimes trial where a Nazi war criminal has said it didn’t happen.”
Cantwell also asked Lipstadt about antisemitic humor.
“Is it your opinion that there’s no such thing as an innocent racist joke,” he asked.
“As an expert in antisemitism and in hate generally, I would say yes,” Lipstadt replied.
“If someone were going to make a joke about the Jewish people, would the holocaust be an easy target,” Cantwell followed up.
“I find it hard to imagine using a genocide that killed six million people a topic for jokes,” she replied.
The final evidence on Wednesday was a video deposition of Elliott Kline, who helped plan the rally as a member of Identity Evropa.
Kline, who used the name Eli Mosley at the time of Unite the Right, admitted he may have referred to himself as evil “as a joke,” and described working with Jason Kessler to organize the rally, even though the two had different goals for the event.
“He really wanted to focus locally,” said Kline. “We were kind of focused on other areas, and he really wanted to focus on Charlottesville.”
Court will resume Thursday morning with the remainder of Kline’s videotaped deposition.
Previous Sines v. Kessler coverage
Pre-trial: Their day in court: Major lawsuit against Unite the Right neo-Nazis heads to trial
Day one, 10/25: Trial kicks off with jury selection
Day two, 10/26: Desperately seeking jury
Day three, 10/27: Jury selection wraps up
Day four, 10/28: Plaintiffs and defendants make their opening arguments
Day five, 10/29: “I hear it in my nightmares,” says plaintiff Romero
Day six, 11/1: “I stopped being an outgoing, sociable person,” says plaintiff Willis
Day seven, 11/2: “Strike that”