(Stephen Horn, Headline USA) North Carolina paratrooper Kai Liam Nix has been identified as one of the Patriot Front members seen over the last several years marching in khakis, a blue polo and face mask. Apparently, the Justice Department may consider such activity to constitute as participation in an “insurrectionist” group.
Nix was arrested last week and charged with lying on a security clearance form for claiming he had “never been a member of a group dedicated to the use of violence or force to overthrow the U.S. Government.”
The DOJ hasn’t specifically named the “insurrectionist” group or groups Nix was allegedly affiliated with, but his arrest comes at the same time as the New Yorker and the Southern Poverty Law Center running exposés on his involvement with the Patriot Front—articles underpinned by information from Antifa researchers.
Nix was granted pretrial release to home detention under the custody of his mother at a hearing Thursday after a week in jail, with special release conditions including GPS monitoring and a ban on internet access.
The Appalachia Research Club, which describes itself as an “antifascist research collective”, obtained Nix’s name by running the license plate of a vehicle involved in a stunt designed to intimidate left-wing journalist Jordan Green at his North Carolina home, according to the New Yorker.
Based on social media and leaked Patriot Front material, ARC was able to match Nix’s face and birthday with a member going by the pseudonym “Patrick NC”. Nix can be seen in the video below, which was taken by this reporter in February 2022.
Man concealing his identity with a white balaclava passing out literature from the fascist/white nationalist organization Patriot Front pic.twitter.com/HvfGHZQnLT
— Stephen Horn (@stephenehorn) February 5, 2022
Although Nix denied any involvement in Patriot Front when questioned by the New Yorker, he has since been charged with violating 18 U.S. Code § 1001(a)(2) by falsely stating that “he had never been a member of a group dedicated to the use of violence or force to overthrow the United States Government and which engaged in activities to that end” on his Security Clearance Application Standard Form (SF) 86.
Patriot Front, a white nationalist organization characterized by their propagandistic vandalism and showy marches in matching khakis, is also known in right-wing circles for the pall cast by the pattern of widespread “fed” infiltration.
One image included in the SPLC’s “Hatewatch” investigation captures Nix, aged 17, in attendance at a 2021 Raleigh rally in the company of Michael Alan Jones, who has since been confirmed to be an FBI informant.
Patriot Front member Kai Nix was 17 when this picture was taken of him w/ FBI informant Michael Alan Jones.
The New Yorker and SPLC both reported on the now-20-year-old Nix’s arrest this week, but you won’t find any mention of how the FBI ran a sex-offender informant at the young… pic.twitter.com/R1KNGeG9SC— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 19, 2024
The detention hearing did not reveal any additional factual information on the government’s allegations beyond what is included in the grand jury indictment, which omits even confirmation that Patriot Front is the “group dedicated to the use of violence or force to overthrow the United States Government.”
Nix’s indictment and arrest in the federal Eastern District of North Carolina came just days after the New Yorker reached out to the Army based on the information provided by ARC. Five days after the arrest, Nix was separated from the Army, where he had been serving as an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Fort Liberty after joining in 2022.
Nix also faces one count of dealing in firearms without a license and two counts of possessing and selling a stolen firearm for a potential maximum penalty of 30 years, according to the Department of Justice.
Raleigh-based journalist Stephen Horn can be found on Twitter at @stephenehorn or on Substack (“This Week in the Triangle”).
