Jason Kessler

Kessler was allowed to move to Ohio in October 2018. Earlier that month, Kessler was arrested on suspicion of doxing after local anti-racist activist Emily Gorcenski was swatted and reported the incidents to the police.

On September 6, 2018, a jury in Charlottesville ordered Jeffrey Winder to pay a fine of $1 and no jail time for the misdemeanor assault charge against Kessler that took place on August 13, 2017. Winder and his attorney James Abrenio appealed his original February 2018 guilty finding, which included a 30-day jail sentence.

In November 2017, Kessler applied for a permit to hold a rally in Charlottesville in August 2018, on the anniversary of the first march. In December 2017, the city of Charlottesville denied the permit, writing that Kessler's application "likely underestimates the number of participants" and that "no reasonable allocation of city funds or resources" could guarantee a violence-free event. Kessler sued the city, and in June 2018, Kessler sought a temporary injunction from the court to permit a rally in Emancipation Park on the anniversary. On June 24, 2018, during a court hearing, Kessler unexpectedly dropped plans to hold a rally in Charlottesville, and posted plans on Twitter for a rally in Washington, D.C. On August 3, 2018, after withdrawing his request for an injunction, Kessler voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit against the City of Charlottesville.

In January 2017, while attempting to gain signatures for his petition, Kessler was arrested for misdemeanor assault after punching a man in the face. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service and 30 days of suspended sentence. A charge of perjury was filed but subsequently dropped.

In April 2017, Kessler was contracted to write two pieces for The Daily Caller. He wrote another piece in May about the first protests in Charlottesville over the statue of Lee. Kessler also wrote several posts for the anti-immigrant white nationalist site VDare. One of Kessler's posts claimed that the government was waging genocide against white people by policies that cause low Caucasian birth rates.

Kessler was one of the organizers of the Unite the Right rally on August 12, 2017. The rally was a protest of the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee, a cause Kessler had taken up a year earlier when he began his crusade against Bellamy. Kessler was also involved in a smaller protest of the removal of the statue on May 14, 2017, which ended in a torch-lit march. At this event, he was arrested for failure to obey an officer's commands. On July 11, Kessler appeared at town hall to promote his rally and distanced himself from another rally that was held by the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

On August 18, 2017, Kessler contradicted his previous statement by tweeting "Heather Heyer was a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time." The next morning Kessler repudiated the tweet and blamed Ambien, Xanax, and alcohol for the tweet. He received criticism for the tweet from other white nationalists including Richard B. Spencer and Tim Gionet. Kessler subsequently deleted his Twitter account. Hacker and internet troll Andrew Aurenheimer, a.k.a. Weev, later claimed that he hacked Kessler's Twitter account.

In November 2016, he revealed lewd and offensive tweets made by Charlottesville vice-mayor and councilman Wes Bellamy, who is also a teacher at Charlottesville's Albemarle High School. Bellamy first drew criticism from Kessler when he called a press conference to call for the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville in March 2016. In December, Kessler began circulating a petition demanding that Bellamy resign or be removed from office. During the ensuing investigations, Bellamy voluntarily resigned from his teaching position at Albemarle High School in December 2016.

In late 2015, Kessler began his original blog JasonKessler.net. The site was used to publish a noir crime novel, Badland Blues, as well as a work of poetry, Midnight Road.

However, other far-right individuals and groups who participated in the first Unite the Right rally – including Richard B. Spencer, the League of the South, Christopher Cantwell, Andrew Anglin, and militia groups – indicated that they would not attend the anniversary rally, having distanced themselves from Kessler, who holds "pariah status among his fellow racists".

Jason Kessler graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor of arts in psychology in 2009. Prior to his involvement in political extremism, Kessler has written that he was employed in various working class jobs as a dishwasher, gym technician, truck driver and handyman.

Up to 2008, Kessler was a supporter of Democrats and held liberal views. He had worked for Secrest Strategic Services and had voted for Barack Obama during his presidential run. He also engaged in activism with the Occupy movement before being dismissed for attempting to register homeless individuals. According to a public Facebook post by former college friend, Jenny Rebecca, Kessler lived for a time in government-subsidized housing with a roommate who was described as an African Muslim.

Jason Eric Kessler (born September 22, 1983) is an American neo-Nazi, white supremacist and anti-semitic conspiracy theorist. Kessler organized the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 11–12, 2017 and the Unite the Right 2 rally held on August 12, 2018.