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”
Another picture he posted in the Slack channel was one of him in an MRAP owned by the Middletown Police Department.
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
Further, Jonathan is pictured on his mother’s Facebook in what appears to be camp gear, but the hat has a special insignia on it. The skull on the cap is a Totenkopf, a logo used by Hitler’s SS-Totenkopfverbände or “Death’s Hands Units” which were responsible for administering concentration and extermination camps for Nazi Germany during the Holocaust [source]. The insignia is used by Atomwaffen Division, a white power accelerationist death cult linked to five murders across the country. Atomwaffen began in the Iron March fascist forum and has been shut down since 2017 but former users continue to be identified at http://ironmarch.noblogs.org/ Jac is also photographed next to an unidentified rifle.
It is unclear if Jac still works as an Optical Coating Technician at a local factory. Any tips are greatly appreciated!
He is still active in the American Identity Movement as of March 2020. He appears with an American Identity Movement post made by leader Patrick Casey on Telegram. The post includes a photo of Jonathan, which we promptly downloaded before it was mysteriously deleted, and then reappeared.
You may read the full Slack screenshots of Jonathan’s communications with other dues-paying white nationalists in the American Identity Movement in several Slack work spaces here.
Due to the publishing requirements of this platform, we may not directly share personal information like phone numbers and home addresses. You may view this redacted information here.
And just because we found so many pictures of Jonathan “Jac” Magnano, please enjoy this gallery. We hope you’ll use it to compare his face with “Johann Fassbinder:”
If you have any additional tips on Jonathan “Jac” Magnano or any other white nationalists, please send them to panicinthediscord@riseup.net or DM them to @discord__panic on Twitter.