NEW from @IwriteOK and me: Leaked chats show how an Oregon-based pro-Trump group planned for violence ahead of Portland demonstrations, including the one planned for this weekend https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/oregon-portland-pro-trump-protests-violence-texts

We see the group discussing the acquisition of weapons, and how to use equipment like paintball guns to inflict maximum harm. They also constantly voice homicidal urges: towards both leftists and elected officials.

Mostly these folks appear to be from rural or non-metropolitan parts of Oregon and Washington, and they nurse an obsessive hatred of the city of Portland. They do not identify with any exotic extremist ideology - they see themselves simply as pro-Trump, pro-police "patriots"

There are even more detailed receipts on all of this, and more stuff that ties their plans to violence at rallies, in the sibling story we wrote for Bellingcat https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/09/23/patriot-coalition-far-right-chat-logs-violence/

I bet you're wondering what elected officials and law enforcement agencies make of this. So are we, and we hope to reveal more about that shortly.

Oh and if you have any idea who any of the pseudonymous users in the chat are, I am sure I speak for @iwriteok as well when I say that we are all ears.