Far-Right Lawyer Drops Neo-Nazi Lawsuit, Celebrates Fascist Thanksgiving

Despite denying involvement in the Aryan Freedom Network and Patriot Front, lawyer Jason Lee Van Dyke has gathered with both groups.


In a quaint, sparsely populated neighborhood in Decatur, a small town of fewer than 7,000 people to the northwest of Fort Worth, far-right lawyer Jason Lee Van Dyke has been kept busy by two separate holiday season gatherings for Nazis and fascists.

Van Dyke recently sent a letter effectively giving up the privacy lawsuit he filed against Kris Goldsmith. Van Dyke sued on behalf of a neo-Nazi after Goldsmith spied on a large Aryan Freedom Network (AFN) gathering with an aerial drone—a conclave at which Van Dyke was an attendee, according to evidence reviewed by the Texas Observer.

“As the Aryan Freedom Network and the self-described fascist they hired as an attorney know well, the First Amendment and the Texas Citizens Participation Act provide strong protections against this kind of frivolous lawsuit,” Goldsmith told the Observer. “Task Force Butler will not be intimidated by nazis, fascists, and white supremacists anywhere—especially not in court—because justice is on our side.”

The incident occurred on October 22, when several dozen members of the Aryan Freedom Network gathered in De Kalb, a town two hours to the east of Dallas, at the home of Dalton Henry Stout. Stout, an AFN leader, had previously run a KKK affiliate known as the Church of the KKK. Goldsmith, founder of the Task Force Butler Institute (TFBI), an organization dedicated to researching and exposing fascist groups across the country, successfully gathered footage of the gathering using his drone. Days later, TFBI was hit with a lawsuit from Stout filed by Van Dyke.

Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/patriot-front-jason-lee-van-dyke/