Far-Right Investigations Desk: Key Investigations

The following page is a compilation of key far-right investigations and coverage carried out by Unicorn Riot, whether on-the-ground, behind a screen or facilitating the public dissemination of leaked private chat messages. For up-to-date reporting on the far-right, visit our far-right investigations desk.

Operation Metro Surge Brings Far-Right Influencers to Minneapolis

Unicorn Riot covered the deluge of far-right influencers in January and February, 2026, during the federal government’s immigration surge after right-wing vlogger and former Mormon missionary Nick Shirley visited Minneapolis to target its Somali community with misinformation in a video that went viral.

In addition to Nick Sortor and Cam Higby’s antagonizing of protesters at the Whipple Federal Building to farm clips for social media, Unicorn Riot closely followed the utter humiliation of white supremacist and violent J6 rioter Edward Jacob “Jake” Lang.

Turning Point USA & AmFest

Unicorn Riot contributor L. Cam Anderson went undercover to Turning Point USA’s 2025 America Fest, the first of the organization’s annual get-togethers following the assassination of Charlie Kirk only three months prior. Unicorn Riot’s coverage of the event gives readers an inside glimpse of the bizarre spectacle of cult-like devotion and patriotic cruelty of the United States’ leading conservative youth organization.

Patriot Front Leaks

In January 2022, Unicorn Riot published a major leak from inside neo-Nazi group Patriot Front with more than 400 gigabytes, and 55,000 internal messages from the RocketChat platform. The files are hosted on our Vault server. A large index of all the media items was also released and in May 2022 this was followed with 22 audio recordings, which was more than 17 hours of material from meetings, and includes text transcripts.

III% Security Force Leaks

In Discord chat logs obtained by Unicorn Riot, 81 members and prospective recruits of the far-right militia Three Percenters were involved in messaging activity. (Not all of the Three Percenters in this group were active on Discord, so actual membership numbers are likely higher). Chat records obtained by Unicorn Riot from inside the ‘III% Security Force’, stretching from January into late April 2021, show the routines, temperaments, and topics that animate the group’s membership.

Discord at the Capitol

Eighteen publicly accessible Discord servers, chat logs from which were obtained and released by Unicorn Riot, show some granular details about some of the individuals present in, or near, the Capitol during the attempted coup on January 6, 2021.

Oath Keepers Leaks

Following Donald Trump’s decisive loss in the 2020 presidential election, the Oath Keepers militia group escalated their rhetoric: encouraging violent attacks on anti-racist and liberal protesters as well as members of the news media. Leaked private communications from inside the far-right group, obtained by Unicorn Riot and available to download, show their members are growing increasingly desperate and specific in violent ideations.

Boogaloo Boys Leaks

Boogaloo bois with their guns and Hawaiian shirts almost look like a stoner nephew imitating ‘The Dude’ from The Big Lebowski, except armed and ready for combat. The bois’ almost comical look is a specific choice of aesthetic – one that seems intended to downplay the seriousness of their actions. Throughout the earlier months of 2020, Unicorn Riot was actively monitoring ‘boogaloo bois’ via several Discord chat servers – Patriotwave, Boojahadeens of Liberty, and others – from which over 240,000 messages have now become available at our public DiscordLeaks database. Findings and themes documented are intended to be helpful in decoding ongoing ‘boogaloo’ phenomena. See also our 2022 reporting, Docs Show MPD Communicating With Military About Boogaloo Members and MPD Political Extremism Powerpoint Spotlights Antifa and Boogaloo.

Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement Leaks

In March 2019, Unicorn Riot leaked over a year of chat logs from inside Identity Evropa, the largest and most active neo-Nazi group involved with planning Unite The Right in Charlottesville. The chat leaks led to the exposure of Identity Evropa members working as police, schoolteachers, and active-duty soldiers in all three branches of the U.S. military.

Shortly after their chat logs were published, Identity Evropa rebranded itself as the ‘American Identity Movement’. Throughout 2019, Unicorn Riot continued to leak organizing chats from inside the ‘new’ American Identity Movement, showing that the group was still trying to insert itself into mainstream conservative and Republican spaces.

The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) Leaks

In April 2018, Unicorn Riot leaked internal TWP Discord chats showing the group’s organizing from January 2017 up until its untimely collapse. The chats provide a timeline into TWP members’ involvement in racist rallies and violent incidents throughout 2017 and into 2018.

TWP members were involved in some of the most violent assaults at Unite The Right. Formed in 2013, TWP continued to grow and recruit after the Charlottesville rally in 2017, but fell apart in March 2018 after its leader Matt Heimbach was arrested in disgrace after a domestic violence incident. At its height, the group represented the more radical violent wing of the alt-right movement and set itself apart from more PR-oriented far-right groups worried about ‘optics.’

Planning Leaks for “Unite The Right” at Charlottesville, VA

The deadly Unite The Right rally on August 11-12, 2017, was formed out of a collaborative effort between several white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. During our reporting on events in Charlottesville, Unicorn Riot received leaks from planning meetings preparing for the white supremacist rally.

Communicating over Discord, a group gaming chat platform, representatives from various fascist organizations as well as unaffiliated individuals were working together on a daily basis to plan for Charlottesville while also using the Discord platform to conduct outreach and recruit on a national scale.

Today, millions of posts from thousands of Discord users involved in Unite the Right and subsequent far-right organizing are searchable on Discord Leaks, a project of Unicorn Riot supporting data journalism. The Discord Leaks project opens up far-right activity centers to public scrutiny — records from more than 80 chat servers are currently available.

Charlottesville planning chats leaked by Unicorn Riot have been used as evidence in several lawsuits filed against the rally organizers, most notably the ongoing ‘Sines v. Kessler‘ case brought by lawyers with Integrity For America on behalf of survivors of the deadly car attack on August 12, 2017.

After Unite The Right, Unicorn Riot continued to track the main groups involved, going on to leak extensive chats from inside several of the key organizations.

Vanguard America & Patriot Front Leaks

Vanguard America was one of the neo-Nazi groups involved in organizing Unite The Right. After the deadly Charlottesville rally, most of the group’s membership splintered off and formed a new group called Patriot Front.

Unicorn Riot gained access to chat logs from a chat server used by Vanguard America and Patriot Front members before, during, and after Unite The Right. More extensive chat leaks from inside Patriot Front were published by Unicorn Riot in March 2018. At the time the second batch of Patriot Front chats were leaked, members were in Michigan to support alt-right celebrity Richard Spencer in what ended up being his last major U.S. campus speaking event.

White Supremacist Mass Shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota

White supremacists linked to the website 4chan targeted Black Lives Matter activists who were protesting outside Minneapolis’ Fourth Precinct police station seeking justice for Jamar Clark in November 2015. Neo-Nazi Allen Scarsella shot and injured five people, and was convicted in a court case covered closely by Unicorn Riot. One of Scarsella’s co-conspirators, Julio Suarez, would pop up years later in a far-right Discord chat connected to violence in Charlottesville.