Note: many of the links in this article go to individual messages on the Unicorn Riot Discord Leaks site; click the magnifying glass icon in those messages to view them in context.
Based on a tip from Chicago AFA, anti-racists in Michigan have unmasked “Alan MI”, the leader of the Michigan Patriot Front chapter (or “Network 15”) of the white supremacist organization. This Patriot Front (PF) member is from Swartz Creek, MI, and attends the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, where he is pursuing a Bachelors of Business Administration. As a reminder, Patriot Front requires all of their members use assigned aliases that are not similar to their actual names. “Alan MI” is by far the most active Michigan Patriot Front member in their chats, with 1,428 messages, and has been a member since October of 2020. According to their meeting minutes, he is also one of the most active in Michigan Patriot Front stickering / vandalism. He has organized many MI PF events, including their November 27th 2021 Thanksgiving event, which was attended by numerous PF members and a priest from the white supremacist church the Asatru Folk Assembly (which “Alan MI” would participate in further afterwards). “Alan MI” is the “network director,” or regional president, of the Patriot Front chapter in Michigan. As we’ll see later, “Alan MI” has orchestrated a wave of hate crimes across the state.
A wide array of data points lead us to identify “Alan MI” as Jackson “Jack” Charles Rex, 23. The vast treasure trove of Patriot Front messages, pictures, and videos from Unicorn Riot’s Far-Right Investigations Desk was especially helpful, especially the multiple pictures of “Alan MI” and his own messages about his activities. In several of the videos from a Patriot Front hike in Michigan, an unknown speaker calls the bearded individual in the picture above “Alan.” Our contact in Chicago AFA stumbled upon this Facebook post from Alliance Consulting Group welcoming Jackson Rex on as their VP of professional development (he no longer works there). This image, taken about a year and a half prior to the main leak stored at Unicorn Riot, was the key; Jackson C. Rex bears a strong resemblance to PF “Alan MI,” and this led us to much more evidence which increased our confidence in this identification.
Numerous photos from the Patriot Front Michigan hike bear a very close resemblance to the pictures of Jackson Rex above (click on each image in the gallery for a full-size version):
Video from the PF Michigan hike is also available at several places in the Unicorn Riot vault and on their YouTube channel; “Alan MI” appears often, and is referred to by his pseudonym multiple times:
- “Alan MI” leading the hike with PF members (including white supremacists who participated in the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally)
- “Alan MI” performing a carry drill
- “Alan MI” being identified during line drills
- “Alan MI” being thanked by Mitchell Frederick Wagner aka ‘Kyle MO’ from St. Louis, MO, for organizing the hike
As previously mentioned, “Alan MI” is one of the most active Patriot Front members in Michigan. He admits to having attended events in Chicago, Ohio, Philadelphia, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC (the trip to which he organized for MI). He also brags about specific locations where he put up white nationalist propaganda, such as Hell, MI, and shared video of himself directing other PF members in their vandalism, which he admitted to in text as well. “Alan MI” also regularly coordinates with PF members from out of state, including picking one up in Youngstown, OH on the way to DC, and giving another one a ride back to Indiana from DC, and expressed a desire to build white nationalist power in Indiana as well as Michigan. He has sent detailed messages regarding his desire to build his white nationalist hate group in Michigan. He is involved in national leadership too; he was added to and became active in the oversight channel on December 13, 2021, and he provided a detailed debrief of the PF DC demo to Thomas, the overall leader of the organization. He remains an active leader in Patriot Front, attending the anti-LGBT hate rally in Wadsworth, OH on March 12, 2023 (pictured above wearing his network director patch).
Unsurprisingly, “Alan MI” is also extremely racist, and bigoted towards LGBT folks. He regularly uses slurs and harmful tropes to refer to members of marginalized groups. He openly admits to being a fascist and promoting what he sees as the interests of “the white race”, including conspiracy theories about it being destroyed.
Jackson Rex attended Swartz Creek high school, near Flint, MI, graduating in 2018, and in this blurb mentions his plan to attend University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In the PF chats, “Alan MI” complains about having schoolwork to do, and a later message regarding the semester being almost over and the timing of finals aligns perfectly with the Fall 2021 UM academic calendar. He also states he will be on break in December, and mentions he lost power on December 10th, 2021, when a large windstorm affected SE MI.
Furthermore, we know from “Alan MI’s” messages that he vetted a potential PF recruit in Ann Arbor, and another member states that Ann Arbor is “Alan’s” territory.
Connections between “Alan MI” and the Flint area are numerous; he talked about making PF members drive to the Flint / Lansing area, mentioned doing PF stickering / vandalism in Flint, and even sent videos of himself putting up PF stickers in Flint to fellow Michigan PF member “Benjamin.” We note that PF stickering in Flint is often aligned with break periods in the UM schedule.
One minor but telling red flag is the fact that Jackson C. Rex has almost entirely scrubbed his internet footprint. He does not exist at all on data broker sites; these companies have vast databases of personally identifying information, and the lack of this information being available is evidence of deletion requests, a thing we know Patriot Front recommends their members do.
“Alan MI” takes credit for organizing and executing a major operation in which Patriot Front members painted over a Black Lives Matter mural in Ypsilanti, MI, referred to by PF members as “Operation Whitewash.” “Alan MI” and his fellow Michigan PF members, including one 18 year old bussed in from White Cloud, MI, take great pride in footage of their hate crime being featured in the September-October 2021 PF “action report”, even showing it off to their friends. He is so excited that he wants Michigan to “dominate” the next action report through a wave of white-nationalist propaganda. Indeed, Patriot Front and their fellow white supremacists ramped up their efforts in 2022, bringing Michigan to the fourth most heavily targeted state for white nationalist propaganda according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Ann Arbor / Flint regions: If you know more and have any tips please email lonegunmenafa@cryptolab.net. Jackson C. Rex / “Alan MI” may be finishing his business degree soon, and we would love to know where he lives and works so that his neighbors, classmates, and coworkers could be warned about the dangerous racist in their midst.