Summary: Newly leaked chat logs from an “elite” Alt-Right discussion server reveal additional information on racist leader and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School student Casey Jordan Cooper. Cooper states that he led the “ATL-Right” group operating in metro Atlanta. Cooper cites white nationalist leader Sam Dickson as an invaluable connection for his future law career and suggests that Dickson may have already helped Cooper get work from smaller law firms. Cooper also celebrates violence at “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville 2017 and spins a grotesque legal fantasy of suing on behalf of white supremacist murderer James Alex Fields, Jr., then using the proceeds to drive Black residents from an Atlanta neighborhood. Although Cooper has been exposed as the author of unequivocal lynching threats, his published comments make it clear he is confident about his future and expects his law career to go unopposed.
This August, the independent journalism collective Unicorn Riot published online chats from the “Vibrant Diversity” Discord server. Discord is a discussion app used by gaming communities but also by white power organizers; Unicorn Riot has published numerous “Alt-Right” Discord chat logs as part of its ongoing “Discord leaks.” The “Vibrant Diversity” chat server was described by one participant as “the most elite discord server in the Alt Right.” Unsurprisingly, racist leader and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School student Casey Jordan Cooper participated in discussion there, under the moniker “Phoenix – GA”.
Atlanta Antifascists have already exposed Casey Cooper and his history of racist agitation, including clear lynching threats made against a Black activist in Atlanta. Most recently, we also revealed that during much of 2017 and early 2018 Cooper lived at a Peachtree Hills white nationalist organizing hub owned by racist leader Sam Dickson.
Every personal detail revealed by “Phoenix – GA” matches Casey Jordan Cooper perfectly, from the time he was in 2L at law school to his father being an attorney. We have already documented that Cooper uses “Phoenix” or some variant on multiple other platforms.
In the latest leaked chats, Cooper/“Phoenix – GA” jokes about rape and casually makes racist remarks. Cooper twice references the bowl cut hairstyle, a common alt-Right tribute to racist mass murderer Dylann Roof. Roof gunned down nine worshippers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. Cooper also comments on his immediate law school surroundings, claiming that the legal community in Georgia involves “Blacks and Jews strongarming [sic] everyone” and that Black law students “get an easy bar pass.”
Crucially, the chats also reveal that in 2017 Cooper was working for three law firms, one of them as a volunteer. Cooper states: “I’m lucky because I’ve got Sam Dickson.” This comment suggests that racist figurehead Dickson not only helped Cooper with a place to live, but also helped Cooper to connect with small Georgia law firms for work. Cooper states that he has “connections in and outside of the [white power] movement so I can immediately be self employed” once he has passed the Bar. Cooper’s “outside of the movement” comment appears to be a reference to his own father, attorney Gary M. Cooper of Duluth. Despite being apparently being “outside of the movement,” Gary M. Cooper opened his Sweet Bottom Plantation, Duluth home for a white nationalist gathering on election night, 2016.
In another comment from the “Vibrant Diversity” chats, Casey Cooper/“Phoenix” states that “i lead ATL Right and my share started as the pool party lol.” The “pool party” language refers to face-to-face gatherings of supporters for the racist and antisemitic TheRightStuff website, which Cooper has been linked to before: he maintained a profile on TheRightStuff, wore TRS clothing, and flew to a TheRightStuff conference. Cooper’s comments reveal that the “ATL-Right” formation had roots in TheRightStuff support circles, and it was these people who Cooper brought into the broader “ATL-Right” organization. (Cooper made his comment while chatting with someone who participates in “book club” gatherings for supporters of the Daily Stormer, a notorious neo-Nazi website.)
As the “ATL-Right” name implies, that group was intended as an umbrella for Alt-Right organizing in and near metro Atlanta. Earlier leaked messages by Cooper indicate that in late 2016 Cooper took over state- and local-level leadership for “Alt-Right” circles from Patrick Nelson Sharp, who moved on to greater national-level organizing. During its brief existence the “ATL-Right” formation supplied materials for the May 2017 Alt-Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia – an event which set the stage for the bloody “Unite the Right” rally in that city months later. ATL-Right also brought Nathan Damigo – at the time the leader of Identity Evropa – to Atlanta for a forum in June 2017.
The “ATL-Right” formation has been largely inactive recently, with many of its members seemingly having moved to Identity Evropa. (Cooper has been an Identity Evropa member since 2016). “ATL-Right” winding down does not mean that Cooper is any less active as a white nationalist. Rather, Cooper just appears to be focusing on Identity Evropa.
Despite the overwhelming documentation of Casey Cooper’s white power agitation including explicit death threats, Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School has not taken any meaningful action around its student, instead helping him prepare for a career in law where he can further abuse members of marginalized communities. Indeed, Cooper feels comfortable telling someone who was worried about being identified after “Unite the Right” that “I was previously doxed […] IT’S ALL GOOD”.
Following Unite the Right, Cooper praised racist violence in the city, stating that “The night before [the main rally on August 12th] struck fear into the hearts of our opposition”. In that comment, Cooper refers to the white power mob carrying tiki torches which surrounded and beat a small band of students, community members and anti-racists on Friday night.
In the online chats, Cooper fantasizes about defending James Alex Fields, Jr. – the white supremacist who rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters on the Saturday of Unite the Right, murdering Heather Heyer and wounding dozens – and then suing the City of Charlottesville. Cooper wrote:
“I need this kid to be let go lol”
“I want to own a post-ch[*]mp Atlanta neighborhood for almost no money”
“Hes [sic] my ticket into the gentrification game”
Last year, we drew attention to Cooper’s desire to participate in Atlanta gentrification, just as Cooper’s mentor Sam Dickson has built his fortune from property in Atlanta. Cooper’s explicitly racist interest in the “gentrification game” further confirms our earlier findings.
The new leaked comments from Casey Cooper not only show the depths of Cooper’s involvement in the white nationalist movement. They also show how Cooper is poised for a law career upon graduation, a career enabled not only by his attorney daddy, but by the connections of racist “movement” lawyers. Cooper’s comments suggest that he is already being given work by small law firms friendly to Sam Dickson in Atlanta. Despite Cooper’s lynching threats demonstrating that he is unfit for the study and practice of law, AJMLS has for over a year demonstrated that it is unwilling to address Cooper’s behavior. Cooper therefore feels confident about a bright future ahead, propped up as he is by networks of monied racists, family contacts, and the convenient silence of his law school.
If you are concerned by the Cooper’s presence at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, please reach out to the private school. We also encourage letters about Cooper to the State Bar of Georgia. Details here.
We always welcome information about Casey Cooper and his white power associates in and around Atlanta, so get in touch if you can help.