Latest Twitter Threads by @stevanzetti on Thread Reader App

Sep 12 • 11 tweets • 3 min read

I acquired the police call report/recording the Federalist published to claim evidence of Haitian migrants hunting geese in Springfield, OH. The Federalist redacted the name of the caller and didn't quote law enforcement, who told me they have no other evidence of such claims.

The call recording I received included the caller's phone number. Their first name is Toby. I called the number and reached a man who sounded like the man on the recording. When I asked if he was Toby, he asked who was calling. I told him I'm a journalist. He immediately hung up.

Sep 11 • 11 tweets • 4 min read

SCCOP: TX Supreme Court ordered City of Dallas to remove ballot propositions that if approved would override those put forward by Dallas Hero, a shadowy initiative with undisclosed funders. The plaintiff in the case works for Ashford, whose chairman donated to TX SC justices.
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Monty Bennett, the chairman of Ashford, has donated thousands to the campaigns of Justices Brett Busby, Debra Lehrmann, Evan Young, Jane Bland, Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine, Nathan Hecht, and Rebecca Huddle. Bennett's website, the Dallas Express, openly supports Dallas Hero.

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Aug 23 • 10 tweets • 2 min read

Dallas, if you're confused by the provenance of the three charter amendments that will be on the ballot, let me spell it out for you: 🧵
1. A board member of a wealthy Republican donor's company created an organization called Dallas HERO to collect signatures for the proposals 2. Dallas HERO, which claims to be bipartisan, has received support from the Dallas County GOP. The director of the campaign was a Trump appointee, a fellow at the conservative Club for Growth, and doesn't even live in the city of Dallas. No Democrats have expressed support.

Jul 30 • 5 tweets • 2 min read

NEW: At least eight members or supporters of the neo-Nazi Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang attacked a mixed-race family in Martindale in a possible hate crime. Only one was arrested. I teamed up with @bellingcat to identify six of the eight perpetrators.

texasobserver.org/neo-nazi-marti… The Observer acquired footage of the attack recorded by an eyewitness and verified the contents with the victims. Video appears to show individuals who were part of the group that included the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas members or supporters instigating the fight.

Jun 13 • 6 tweets • 3 min read

Police are investigating homophobic and antisemitic flyers that were recently distributed in Flower Mound. The flyers are a product of the Goyim Defense League, a neo-Nazi organization with active members in North Texas who I recently identified.
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nbcdfw.com/news/local/nor… While it's still unclear exactly who distributed the Goyim Defense League flyers in Flower Mound, there's a solid chance that these guys would know who did.

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texasobserver.org/unmasking-texa…

May 8 • 8 tweets • 2 min read

NEW: A new coalition of Christian nationalist groups, the Remnant Alliance, is mobilizing congregations to take over Texas school boards. Several leaders of the coalition are members of the Council on National Policy.

texasobserver.org/christian-scho… The Remnant Alliance is an amalgam of independent organizations that share goals and sometimes personnel. Its political activism is framed as spiritual warfare against satanic evil in the pursuit of realizing the kingdom of God on earth.

May 8 • 13 tweets • 4 min read

SCOOP: the Princeton school district in Collin County is considering a school voucher program in partnership with Texas Foundation for Education Rights, a nonprofit led by megadonor Monty Bennett—who donated thousands to the campaigns of two Princeton school board trustees.

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In addition to Bennett, other Texas Foundation for Education Rights board members include Chris Putnam. Putnam, in addition to being the finance committee chair for the Tarrant County GOP, is the current CEO of the Dallas Express, Bennett's right wing website.

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Apr 25 • 6 tweets • 2 min read

I've seen no credible reporting of actual antisemitic incidents at the UT Austin protest. What I can tell you is that I've reported on numerous neo-Nazi events and Greg Abbott never once tried to put any of them in jail.

https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1783237229252346194

This was less than a year ago.

https://twitter.com/stevanzetti/status/1677780462402523136?s=19

Apr 22 • 6 tweets • 4 min read

NEW: Early voting for some school board elections in TX starts today, including the Grapevine Colleyville school district where sitting board president Shannon Braun recently made a false police report claiming people who shared some of her old QAnon style posts faked them.

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Shannon Braun, a right wing school board trustee in the Grapevine Colleyville district who was elected with the help of big money PACs and GOP consultants, publicly claimed on April 6 that someone manufactured fake tweets and posted them on Facebook. But the tweets are real.

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Apr 20 • 10 tweets • 4 min read

I'm at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas where Gov. Greg Abbott is about to give the keynote address to the annual Young Conservatives of Texas convention. I guess they let anyone in here!

Despite the press advisory Gov. Greg Abbott sent out about his speech I'm the only member of the press here at the Young Conservatives of Texas convention where he's about to speak. The lighting on stage is terrible.

Apr 10 • 9 tweets • 2 min read

Hotel magnate & publisher of right wing website Dallas Express, Monty Bennett, is under fire from an activist investor that holds shares in one of Bennett's companies, Blackwells Capital. They allege financial misconduct, claim Bennett used the Dallas Express to defame them.
1/ "Braemar’s external manager, Ashford Hospitality Advisors LLC...collected more than $60 million in advisory and service fees in 2023...a 575% increase over the last decade. During that same period, Braemar’s share price has declined almost 90%."
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nomoremonty.com

Apr 6 • 13 tweets • 7 min read

SCOOPLET: Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who not long ago switched to the Republican party, has hired a staff writer at the Dallas Express, a right wing website funded by GOP megadonor Monty Bennett, who took a leadership course with the Christian Nationalist group Wall Builders.

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In March, Mayor Eric Johnson hired former Dallas Express writer Noah DeGarmo as a comms and policy specialist. While working at the Dallas Express, DeGarmo wrote a handful of favorable articles about Johnson and his controversial switch to the Republican party.
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Mar 15 • 6 tweets • 2 min read

Texan politicians who made celebratory posts on X about PornHub pulling out of Texas in protest of the age verification law had porn spam bots in their comments. X currently does not have any age verification requirement for users.

My latest for @dailydot
dailydot.com/debug/bots-tex… "Pornhub has now disabled its website in Texas,” Paxton wrote victoriously. “Sites like Pornhub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children."

“P░*░S░S░Y░ ░I░N░ ░B░I░O░,” a bot commented in reply.

Mar 15 • 4 tweets • 3 min read

SCOOP: Patriot Front and various white nationalist active clubs hosted a fight event called "American Muscle" in Texas. Anonymous antifascist tipsters have informed me that the location was the Heritage Park event center in Muenster, Texas.

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What gave away the location was a table with "MVFD" branding in the announcement photos. MVFD stands for the Muenster Volunteer Fire Department. Image comparisons of the space confirm this is the announced location for the fight event featuring Patriot Front and Active Clubs.

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Mar 14 • 11 tweets • 3 min read

SCOOP: The largest newspaper chain in the U.S. has an ongoing business relationship with a company linked to a sprawling network of "pink slime" publications that do not disclose funding they’ve received from political sources. My first for @NiemanLab
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niemanlab.org/2024/03/a-comp… A Gannett spokesperson confirmed to me the company has a contract to produce “advertorial content” sourced from Advantage Informatics, a blandly named company founded by Brian Timpone, a conservative businessman and former TV reporter based out of Chicago.

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Mar 10 • 6 tweets • 3 min read

This great reporting about a secret society of wealthy right-wing Christian men who want to staff an “aligned future regime” that may come potentially via a “national divorce" notes the Dallas chapter is led by Nate Fischer, who I hadn't heard of but had already blocked me.

https://twitter.com/JoshKovensky/status/1766432326722969790

This report says Nate Fischer, who is a member of a fraternal organization whose founder has spoken of being at war with the US government, is also part-owner of an ammunition company that has contracts with the federal government and law enforcement.

theguardian.com/world/2023/sep…

Mar 7 • 15 tweets • 4 min read

EXCLUSIVE: A new social network built on a vision of Christian supremacy in America gains traction with GOP politicians—including two Congressional candidates in North Carolina who just won their primary elections. My latest for @dailydot.

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dailydot.com/debug/seven-mo… Three candidates for Congress, a candidate for lieutenant governor, three state House candidates, a county commissioner, and a school board trustee are all members of the Nexus Mountain Network, a social media platform created by proponents of the Seven Mountains Mandate.

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Feb 17 • 9 tweets • 5 min read

CEO of the Dallas Express and finance chair for the Tarrant County GOP laments that conservative efforts to take control of the Fort Worth school board haven't been successful and says the answer is to "destroy FWISD with school choice by flooding the city with charter schools"

Per my @TexasObserver investigation, school privatization supporting megadonors like the publisher of the Dallas Express have sought to influence school board elections across the state. Some say dismantling public schools is the goal.

texasobserver.org/school-board-p…

Feb 15 • 11 tweets • 3 min read

NEW: for @TexasObserver and @bellingcat, I identified the leader of the Parker County Active Club, part of a decentralized network of white nationalist groups, that distributed antisemitic and racist flyers in Weatherford, Mineral Wells, and Eagle Pass.
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texasobserver.org/rhett-murry-lo… In an online conversation with the Observer, Rhett Murry Loftis, a 23-year-old resident of Weatherford, admitted he leads the Parker County Active Club.

“I’m a fascist, there’s no denying that,” Loftis said in a series of direct messages.

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Feb 13 • 4 tweets • 2 min read

The DMN endorsement of Morgan Meyer notes his right wing opponents use anonymous interest groups to viciously attack him with bogus narratives.

Meyers' opponent, Barry Wernick, received 25k from a PAC funded by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilkes, and was profiled by the Dallas Express.

As I previously reported for the Texas Observer, the Dallas Express has been linked to the right-wing Metric Media network of paid propaganda sites. Tim Dunn sits on the board of Pipeline Media, one of the companies that is a part of the sprawling network.
texasobserver.org/the-dallas-exp…

Feb 10 • 11 tweets • 6 min read

The "objective" Dallas Express, which unsuccessfully sued me for calling it right wing propaganda and is funded by Republican megadonor Monty Bennett who was near the steps of the Capitol on January 6, has a new CEO.

He's the finance chair for the Tarrant County GOP.
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The new Dallas Express CEO Chris Putnam isn't just a Tarrant County GOP operative. In 2022, he formed Texans for Education Rights Institute with Bennett, which unsuccessfully pushed a school voucher scheme in Wimberly. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress.
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