These kinds of ideological or racially focused paramilitary organizations have been around for a number of years, and while the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have received the lion’s share of the media coverage, similar groups that may be as menacing have received substantially less. One such group is Patriot Front, which according to a previously released FBI Louisville, Kentucky Field Office report, was formed after the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
Patriot Front is a white supremacist offshoot of the equally white supremacist Vanguard America. In June 2022, over 30 Patriot Front members were arrested in Idaho for allegedly attempting to disrupt a North Idaho Pride Alliance event. The Idaho-based Courier-Herald and
Bonner County Daily Bee reported this past week on the ongoing arraignments and trial preparations for Patriot Front members involved in the June 2022 incident. Their coverage makes for chilling reading about the mindset, and apparent intent, of Patriot Front members.
For over two years, the Cato Institute has attempted, via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to obtain existing FBI records on Patriot Front and other militia-style organizations (including domestic armed leftist militias). A limited amount of fairly heavily redacted, previously processed material on Patriot Front and some other groups has been released, but even as it has been acknowledged to Cato that more information on Patriot Front exists, the FBI has used a bureaucratic tactic in violation of the FOIA statute to delay the release of additional records on Patriot Front.