Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Charlottesville's ‘Crying Nazi’ Accused Of Making Rape Threats On Messaging App
“So if you don’t want me to come and f--k your wife in front of your kids, then you should make yourself scarce," Christopher Cantwell allegedly told an unknown man on the app Telegram.
A radical far right podcaster and self-proclaimed white nationalist who emerged as a poster child of the 2017 Charlottesville riots is now accused of threatening to rape another man’s wife on the messaging app Telegram.
Christopher Cantwell, 39, was charged by a New Hampshire grand jury with extorting an unknown man by threatening to sexually assault his wife on the app.
“So if you don’t want me to come and f--k your wife in front of your kids, then you should make yourself scarce,” Cantwell told the man, according to an indictment obtained by Oxygen.com.
Cantwell allegedly threatened rape upon the man’s wife to extract “personal identifying information” of another man – only referred to as 'Vic' – who authorities said used the online pseudonym “VM.”
“Give me Vic, it’s your only out,” Cantwell allegedly said.
The messages were allegedly sent on June 16, 2019, investigators said.
Cantwell was widely mocked online following an overly emotional video monologue he posted documenting his participation in the racially charged Charlottesville riots, earning him the moniker "The Crying Nazi."
“Our enemies will just not stop,” Cantwell said in the viral 2017 video – in which he appears to shed tears – while trying to justify the deadly riot’s neo-Nazi presence. Cantwell had previously gained nationwide exposure after being profiled by VICE News during the Charlottesville riot, where protester Heather Heyer was killed by white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. Fields, who rammed his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters. He was sentenced to life in prison for Heyer's death.
Cantwell has a long history of divisive and discriminatory behavior, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was previously banned from Facebook and Instagram for his inflammatory statements.
“In Cantwell’s world, Blacks are prone to violence and have lower IQs; Jews spread communism and can’t be trusted; immigrants are outbreeding whites; and a race war is all but inevitable,” the hate speech watchdog said in a report on the 39-year-old.
In 2019, lawyers who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit related to the Charlottesville riots demanded that a judge prohibit Cantwell from making “vile threats” against one of their counsel, Roberta Kaplan, who had also allegedly become the target of the self-proclaimed alt-right activist. Cantwell allegedly bashed the attorney online using a barrage of anti-Semitic slurs.
“Today’s indictment describes only a tiny fraction of Cantwell’s horrifying track record of violence and bigotry,” Amy Spitalnick, executive director for Integrity First for America, the organization behind the lawsuit, said to Oxygen.com in a statement on Friday regarding Cantwell’s most recent grand jury charges.
“From orchestrating the Charlottesville violence with the intent of instigating a race war and gassing Jews, to vile threats against our lead counsel — as well as journalists and others around the country — this country is safer with Cantwell in custody,” the statement added. “However, Cantwell must face the consequences for his many other violent actions, and our plaintiffs will continue to fight for accountability.”
Cantwell’s court-appointed attorney, Eric Wolpin, declined to comment on the case on Friday.
