Newly revealed court documents show threats against law-enforcement officials who dared to go after racist thugs. When members of a white supremacist street-fighting gang caught charges for their participation in a deadly riot, fellow travelers on the website Gab had a suggestion: Doxx the U.S. officials involved in the case, or maybe just kill them. A newly unsealed search warrant application from October 2018 reveals that feds were interested in threats made to federal law enforcement on the extremist-friendly social network. The threats concerned a Department of Justice official, a U.S. attorney, a prosecutor, and others involved in a federal case against members of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement. Months earlier, one of the Gab users involved had also helped doxx a blogger, attracting attention from another user who would later be accused of massacring worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue. The warrant sought information—including private messages and IP information—on Chad Bagwell, an Alabama man who posted on Gab and attended at least one white supremacist rally under his own name. The investigation appears to have begun when Bagwell suggested another prominent Gab user doxx (that is, reveal private information on) federal officials, particularly in the Justice Department. The search warrant’s unsealing this week came at an appropriate time: Earlier this month, at least 15 people were arrested in three different alleged far-right plots to kidnap state or local officials. Two of those plots, which targeted Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, were organized online. (…) Bagwell and Griffin may have had offline connections. Bagwell attended at least one rally (a “White Lives Matter” event in Oct. 2017) alongside the League of the South, of which Griffin is a member. Bagwell is also a frequent commenter on Griffin’s blog, including authoring a recent comment claiming to have joined the group.A Gab representative declined to comment on the search warrant.
“Like most technology companies with millions of users, Gab regularly communicates with U.S. law enforcement on matters concerning public safety,” the representative told The Daily Beast. “We consider all communications with U.S. law enforcement to be confidential and do not publicly comment on specific cases.” Court documents reveal that Gab complied with the warrant, emailing the relevant files to investigators. It was unclear whether Gab notified the involved users, specifically Bagwell. Doxxing and murder plots are technically against Gab’s rules. However, the site has sometimes turned a blind eye to users’ bad behavior, allowing them to stay on the site after posting private information. Bagwell’s account, for instance, is still live on Gab, and uses his legal name, despite Gab receiving a warrant for his alleged activity. Gab took a reputational hit after the Tree of Life massacre, which Bowers appeared to advertise on the website. But although some of its most prominent users moved elsewhere (or in multiple high-profile cases, went to prison), Gab did little to change the site’s culture, which had previously seen people like Bagwell build followings based on their incendiary remarks. Hayden said the lack of moderation, plus the comfort people like Bagwell felt in using their legal names, had real consequences. “Gab, from 2017, the lead-up to Charlottesville, up until the Tree of Life massacre, was the worst and most dangerous website I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It had this combination of this say-anything mentality, and it gave people a capacity to promote their brand and become public figures.”

via thedailybeast: White Supremacist Had List of Feds to Kill and Doxx: Unsealed File