Washington Post: Richard Spencer, questioned in Charlottesville trial, downplays evidence of racist and violent intent

By Ellie Silverman, Washington Post. Read the full article here.

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Richard Spencer, the white supremacist who led the 2017 torchlight march through the University of Virginia campus where the crowd chanted, “Jews will not replace us,” became increasingly agitated as he was questioned in court.

He claimed he didn’t lead the march, despite evidence showing he did. And he attempted to dodge questions about whether he intended to surround a group of counterdemonstrators, mostly college students, who were far outnumbered at a Thomas Jefferson statue that night.

Spencer, of Whitefish, Mont., is arguably the most prominent of two dozen defendants in the ongoing federal civil trial of leaders of the Unite the Right rally, which turned deadly when an avowed neo-Nazi drove into a crowd of counterprotesters and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Throughout the trial, Spencer has presented himself as a suit-and-tie-wearing intellectual whose beliefs are simply “controversial.”

But on Thursday and Friday, when he took the witness stand for questioning, his carefully crafted persona was challenged by plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Bloch, who presented evidence of Spencer’s racist statements, his planning for the Unite the Right rally and his celebration in its aftermath.

On Thursday, Bloch displayed a tweet from the night of the torch march, in which anti-fascist activist Emily Gorcenski wrote, “They surrounded us at the statue, they wouldn’t let us out.”

About 15 minutes after Gorcenski tweeted, Spencer responded by quoting Gorcenski’s tweet and adding, “Fact check: true.”

“Would you agree with me, Mr. Spencer, that the reason why you were trying to pin them in at the statue was as a sign of dominance?” Bloch asked.

“Um. Yes,” he responded.

Continue reading at wasingtonpost.com.