ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has connected the Black Hammer Party, a Black-led radical group based in Atlanta, to an alleged Russian plot to sow discord in the United States, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment.
The department announced Friday that Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian national with Kremlin connections, was secretly funding fringe political groups in Georgia, Florida and California, directing them to “publish pro-Russian propaganda, as well as other information designed to cause dissention in the United States and to promote secessionist ideologies.”
“Secret foreign government efforts to influence American elections and political groups threaten our democracy by spreading misinformation, distrust and mayhem,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. said in a statement. “The department is committed to ensuring U.S. laws protecting transparency in the electoral process and the political system are not undermined through foreign malign influence.”
According to the indictment, Ionov, who lives in Moscow, paid for members of the Black Hammer Party to travel to San Francisco in March to protest Facebook’s censorship of posts supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The influence went so far as to direct Black Hammer members on the designs of signs for the protest.
The group livestreamed the protest on its social media channels and accounts of the protest were carried in Russian media. Ionov even posted his appreciation of the Facebook protest on his own Facebook page.
Black Hammer and its erratic leader Gazi Kodzo have made criticism of America’s foreign policy regarding the Russian invasion a centerpiece of their recent social media campaigns, calling Ukraine a white supremacist country and backing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talking points for starting the war.
The indictment does not name the Black Hammer Party, referring to it as “U.S. Political Group 2.” However, details included in the indictment, including the March protest at Facebook and the career path of Kodzo, identified in the indictment as “Unindicted Co-Conspirator 5,” reveal the controversial group as the one allegedly under Ionov’s influence.
Ionov has been charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents for the Russian government, a scheme which Justice officials say dates back to 2014. Should he be convicted, he would face up to five years in prison.
The connections with Moscow are just the latest troubles for the Black Hammer group.
Last week, Kodzo, whose real name is Augustus Claudius Romain Jr., was arrested and charged with 11 felony counts, including party to the crime of false imprisonment, party to the crime of kidnapping, party to the crime of aggravated assault, criminal street gang activity, criminal conspiracy to commit a felony and aggravated sodomy, following a SWAT standoff outside the group’s communal home in Fayetteville. The standoff ended after police sent a robot into the home and found an 18-year-old man dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Another alleged member of the group, Xavier H. Rushin, 21, was charged in the incident with a misdemeanor and 10 felonies, including kidnapping, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal street gang activity.
Police said they responded to the house after they received an emergency call from inside from someone claiming to be kidnapped. Kodzo and Rushin are in jail in Fayette County on those charges awaiting a bond hearing in Superior Court.
The group routinely has had members arrested, although never for charges this serious. The Black Hammer Party holds regular “church” meetings in Woodruff Park on Sunday where Kodzo and other members proselytize to homeless people, some of whom are recruited to raise money for the group. These loud and usually profane meetings often draw the attention of the Atlanta Police and members of the group have been arrested for minor charges, including violation of the city’s noise ordinance.
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