Connecticut Neo-Nazi & Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement Member Jonathan “Jac” Magnano

This identification was made possible with the assistance of Elm City Antifa, on Twitter as @ElmCityAntifa

The Background

Discord user “Hans Fassbinder” and Slack user “Johann Fassbinder CT” who appears on Identity Evropa’s “Nice Respectable People Server” and the American Identity Movement’s Slack channels that were leaked in March of 2019 by Unicorn Riot, has been identified as none other than Jonathan “Jac” Magnano of Middletown, Connecticut.

Identity Evropa, a Neo-Nazi organization, is most infamous for its involvement in organizing the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where antifascist Heather Heyer was killed by Neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr.

Identity Evropa’s former leader, Nathan Damigo, is infamous for assaulting an Arab cab driver in an armed robbery, where he pulled a loaded gun on an innocent man for “looking Iraqi.” Identity Evropa also has within their membership an attempted Amtrak hijacker Taylor Wilson, as well as Nolan Brewer, who was arrested for the attempted arson of a synagogue in Carmel, Indiana.

The connection between the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and Identity Evropa cannot be overstated. According to the SPLC, the white supremacist group was involved in the planning of the rally and that they are:

“at the forefront of the racist ‘alt-right’s’ effort to recruit white, college-aged men and transform them into the fashionable new face of white nationalism”

Identity Evropa re-branded as the American Identity Movement (AmIM) in March of 2019 after having their communication platforms – Discord and Slack – leaked by Unicorn Riot. IE/AmIM scrambled to re-brand as many of their dues-paying members were later exposed by antifascists under #IdentifyEvropa. They also re-branded tactically to get away from the Identity Evropa name which was tied to Unite the Right, lawsuits, and several other violent encounters.

The Trace
Jonathan “Jac” Magnano under the moniker “Johann Fassbinder” posted several photos of himself and his face in Identity Evropa’s Slack workspace, in the profile description on one of his Slack accounts, his face is displayed and his occupation is listed as “Optical Coating Technician/Former Police Cadet”

 

 

We were able to verify this by mirroring the image in the opposite direction and reading the badge displayed in the photo of Jonathan/Jac. Do note that Johann’s highly stylized profile picture is based off of this picture of Jac:

 

The Middletown Police Department does not have police cadets, but they do have police explorers, which is a youth training program. The program places youth alongside police officers to learn about policing as an occupation. On Facebook, the Middletown Police Explorers have their own Facebook page. This is where we find Jonathan, pictured alongside other police explorers and police officers as well [source, archive]:

and

From the Police explorers page we were able to identify his mother’s Facebook account, where we were able to obtain Jonathan’s full name. Jonathan’s mother, Deborah Magnano, seems to be complicit in Jonathan’s activities in an active Neo-Nazi organization, despite visual evidence of her family supporting the Democrats.

Debbie Magnano has donated to a GoFundMe started by white supremacist Sarah Dye of Schooner Creek Farms in Nashville, Indiana. Sarah Dye was exposed for her white supremacist activities by antifascists in Indiana after another member of Identity Evropa spoke to the FBI regarding their own involvement of an attempted arson of a synagogue in Carmel, Indiana [source]. Sarah’s proximity to this arson is written about extensively in our dossier about her. Deborah’s active funding of Sarah Dye’s GoFundMe confirms the Magnano family’s involvement in Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement:

Debbie also posts a photo of Jonathan holding a form of identification, which is the final confirmation of his name:

Activities

Jonathan’s regional coordinator for the white nationalist organization “Jason – CT” was outed as Jason LaGuardia, who as of March 2019, the Marine Corps had confirmed is a lance corporal in the Selected Marine Corps Reserve, per the Huffington Post article “Exclusive: 7 U.S. Military Members Identified As Part Of White Nationalist Group” by Christopher Mathias. Jason – CT aka Jason LaGuardia has thanked Jonathan for being a Patron, a significant donor to the organization, which meant he paid a monthly higher amount of dues than required by other members. The extra monthly financial contribution to the white nationalist organization offered access to special communications and meetings reserved for patrons, leadership, and the advisory council.

In August of 2019, it was reported that Jason Laguardia was “administratively separated” from the Marines following that investigation, per b87fm.

Jonathan admits on Slack to attempting to putting up white nationalist flyers at Wesleyan University in his hometown. However, he explains later on that Wesleyan is a private university and he instead hung up posters at University of Connecticut.

He additionally coordinates with Jason on several occasions to pick up stickers and put up Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement propaganda on different campuses. On Discord, he posted a photo of flyers he put up at the University of Connecticut campus [source]:

Only days after the Discord leaks were posted on Unicorn Riot and Identity Evropa re-branded, new AmIM white supremacist flyers popped up on the University of Connecticut’s campus [source]. We strongly suspect that these were put up by Jonathan, considering he has posted there in the past. He may or may not have been accompanied by Jason LaGuardia and/or user “Asa1117” both individuals who have posted with Jonathan in the past.