Using a variety of cutting-edge, open-source investigative techniques, the Texas Observer‘s Special Investigative Correspondent Steven Monacelli–with help from Tristan Lee of Bellingcat in two of the three stories submitted–has identified: neo-Nazi perpetrators of a hate crime in Central Texas; the operators of four major neo-Nazi X accounts; and revealed that an ICE prosecutor was operating a white supremacist X account.
This investigation revealed the leader of a white nationalist group operating in Texas as well as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assistant chief counsel running a white supremacist X account. The team used publicly available information, social media activity, court observations and more in an innovative method to dive in dark networks and Osint. Their reporting and meticulous documentation left nothing to coincidence or chance, with congressional calls to action in one of the cases as a result of the investigation. The presentation and explanations were clear. And the team did a great job on a topic that is extremely difficult to investigate
