Examination of Patriot Front Phone Data Delays Rousseau Trial
Idaho court records show that Patriot Front leader and founder Thomas Rousseau was granted a continuance Tuesday in his trial in Coeur d鈥橝lene, Idaho, after attorney Kinzo Mihara argued that the defense needs more time to process 4 terabytes of data the FBI has extracted from Patriot Front members鈥� phones.
According to , 4 terabytes of storage is enough to hold 1 million 12-megapixel photos, 1,000 hours of high-definition video, or 26 million documents 鈥� or 5,200 filing cabinets full of paper.
Rousseau had been due to make a pre-trial appearance on Friday, May 5, on charges arising from the group鈥檚 alleged attempt to disrupt a Pride event聽in the city last June. But Kootenai County court minutes show that his publicly appointed attorney persuaded Judge John Cafferty to reschedule the hearing. Rousseau is now set to appear before Cafferty on Sept. 8.
In February minutes filed in Rousseau鈥檚 case, Coeur d鈥橝lene deputy city attorney Wesley Somerton explained that at the time of the arrests, Patriot Front members鈥� phones were 鈥渟eized and were in the control and custody of [law enforcement] as objects.鈥� Subsequently they were sent to an 鈥淔BI lab to extract that data from the phones,鈥� resulting in the massive cache that Rousseau鈥檚 defense must now contend with.
In Tuesday鈥檚 minutes, attorney Mihara, appointed as Rousseau鈥檚 public defender in December, said that an expert witness for the defense needs 鈥渁n additional 45-60 days to be able to analyze [the data] and coordinate with the defense.鈥�
Judge Cafferty agreed to give the defense more time, even though Somerton said that delays in discovery were due in part to Rousseau鈥檚 unresponsiveness.
鈥淲ithin 30 days of his appearance, Mr. Mihara received discovery,鈥� Somerton said, according to the minutes. 鈥淧rior to that date, all mailings to Mr. Rousseau were coming back.鈥�
Hatewatch attempted to contact Somerton via phone and email to ask when that data might be publicly available but received no immediate response.
Rousseau founded Patriot Front in 2017 as a rebrand of Vanguard America after seizing control of that organization from its founder, Dillon Hopper. Earlier that year, Rousseau had marched under Vanguard America鈥檚 banner in the deadly 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. More recently, legal and organizational troubles have been mounting for Rousseau and the group.
In August 2020, Rousseau was arrested during a propaganda run in Weatherford, Texas, along with longtime Patriot Front activists Cameron Pruitt and Graham Whitson. Rousseau was booked and fined on a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.
The same year, Rousseau was deposed in the Sines v. Kessler lawsuit brought against 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� organizers.
In 2021, Rousseau was badly injured in an auto crash involving seven members of Patriot Front聽in which one member died.
Last October, Rousseau was named in a , which seeks damages for the 2021 vandalism of a mural dedicated to African American tennis star Arthur Ashe in the Battery Park neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia.
And Rousseau, Pruitt, and Whiston are among 31 members of the group who were arrested last June in Coeur d鈥橝lene, as they were allegedly preparing a disruptive riot at a local Pride event. That event had previously been targeted by anti-transgender extremist influencers including , who runs the 鈥淟ibs of Tik Tok鈥� Twitter account.
Some of the Idaho defendants have been granted the right to attend pretrial hearings remotely via Zoom. However, Kootenai County Judge Cafferty ruled on Jan. 25 that Rousseau must be physically present in court at the pretrial conference and jury trial.
While most Patriot Front members have appeared at pretrial hearings on their riot charges, Hatewatch reported last month that five members were the subjects of arrest warrants in Idaho after failing to appear in court.
Following that reporting, one of the wanted men has presented himself in court. According to court minutes, James Julius Johnson of Concrete, Washington, appeared on April 24, telling Judge Cafferty that he had been prevented by a snowstorm from appearing at his scheduled pretrial hearing on March 20.
National Weather Service data does not record any snowstorm in the vicinity of Concrete or Coeur d鈥橝lene on or immediately before March 20. Nevertheless, Cafferty quashed Johnson鈥檚 warrant.
Additional information on Patriot Front鈥檚 activities can be found on Hatewatch鈥檚 interactive timeline.
Banner image: Members of white supremacist group Patriot Front make a speech in front of the Boston Public Library as they march through the city of Boston on July 2, 2022, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
