An alt-right organizer who has been indicted for perjury for allegedly lying about being assaulted in January has been indicted for perjury.
Unite the Right activist Jason Kessler – who was behind the deadly Charlottesville riots in August – was indicted on felony perjury on Tuesday by a grand jury in Piedmont, Virginia.
The charge stems from an altercation he had with left-wing protester James Taylor at Downtown Mall in Charlottesville in January.
Kessler, who was there collecting signatures for a petition to remove mayor Wes Bellamy, punched Taylor in the face after a war of words.
At the time, he allegedly told police Taylor assaulted him but later admitted to hitting him first.
Kessler pleaded guilty to assault earlier this year and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service.
Alt-right organizer Jason Kessler was indicted for felony perjury in Virginia on Tuesday for lying about being assaulted in January. He is pictured above in August after the Charlottesville march which he organized at which a woman was killed
On Tuesday, the extra charge of perjury was brought. Charging documents recount how Kessler admitted assaulting Taylor at the mall last year.
‘He and his buddy came over, they scribbled on my petition and vandalized it.
‘James didn’t want to have a conversation with me, he yelled you’re a….and he called me a name. I felt threatened and I hit him to get him away from me.
‘Man to man, yell in a man’s face and expect to get punched in the face.
‘I’ll admit that what I did was not legal.I was having a bad day. I’ve never done anything like this before and it will never happen again,’ he said at the time.
Kessler allegedly told police he had been assaulted by James Taylor. He later admitted it was the other way around
Taylor has always maintained that he did not assault the man.
In other interviews, Kessler said Taylor was one of the many ‘liberals’ in the town trying to mess with him.
‘People like James have been using the liberal nature of this city to really mess with me. I just don’t think you go after people, the way he’s been going after people and cause disruption.
‘I think if he spent as much energy trying to come up with a better idea, he could probably do so. He’s a smart guy,’ he said.
After Kessler was sentenced for assault in May, he told NBC 29: ‘I hold no ill will towards Mr. Kessler. We worked together. I considered him a friend.
‘I wish that he would spend as much energy building our community up rather than tearing it down.’
Kessler is held responsible for organizing the high profile Unite the Right march in Charlottesville earlier this year which cost a woman her life.
Kessler (left in his mugshot after being arrested for assault in May and right before the alt-right march in August) has admitted punching the man
Heather Heyer, a counter protester, died after being mowed down by a driver who sped his car into the crowds.
Kessler, complaining that he received death threats after her death, went into hiding after tweeting that Heyer was a ‘fat, disgusting Communist’.
Heather Heyer, a counter protester, died after being mowed down by a driver who sped his car into the crowds
The tweet said her death was proof that ‘it was payback time’.
Kessler blamed the vile comments on the fact that he was under stress and had been taken Xanax.
‘I repudiate the heinous tweet that was sent from my account last night. I’ve been under a crushing amount of stress & death threats.
‘I’m taking ambien, Xanax and I had been drinking last night. I sometimes wake up having done strange things that I don’t remember.’
He earlier tried to claim that he’d been hacked.
Kessler was quick to distance himself from the violence after Heyer’s death. He was booed and heckled as he spoke at a press conference in the days after the riots, telling crowds at a press conference shortly after it: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’
At the end of the press conference, he was punched in the face and tackled to the ground.
In August, Kessler tweeted this vile remark in the wake of Heyer’s death
After facing backlash over the comment he deleted it and claimed he’d been hacked
He then said it was the result of taking Xanax and Ambien
After the march in August, Kessler had to be taken to safety by a police escort when he told an angry crowd that Heyer’s death wasn’t his fault