Ex-Blackwater CEO Erik Prince’s group chat brings together far-right 'cranks'

30 May 2024

"Off Leash" is not only the name of a podcast started by Erik Prince, former CEO of Blackwater (now part of the security firm Constellis Holdings) and brother of ex-Trump Administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It is also the name of a private far-right group chat Prince hosts via the instant messaging program WhatsApp.

The New Republic's Ken Silverstein describes the group chat in an article published on May 30, noting that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, GOP activist/organizer Kimberly Guilfoyle (Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée), Michael Flynn (former national security for the Trump Administration) and House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tennessee) are among the MAGA "cranks" who have been invited to participate.

"Collectively," Silverstein explains, "Off Leash provides an informal virtual gathering place for current and former political officials, national security operatives, activists, journalists, soldiers of fortune, weapons brokers, black bag operators, grifters, convicted criminals, and other elements in the U.S. and global far right…. Prominent figures in the Off Leash crew are well-known for their paleoconservative political views, but the private opinions expressed in the group chat are even more extreme and jarring than we normally see voiced publicly."

According to Silverstein, his investigation of Off Leash conversations via WhatsApp showed that some of the participants have "chirpily discussed the desirability of clamping down on democracy to deal with their enemies at home and regime change, bombings, assassinations, and covert action to take care of those abroad."

Silverstein reports, "The group's overall bloodlust periodically proved to be too much for a few more judicious individual members, who in almost any other setting, would be considered ultra-conservatives but in the context of Off Leash, sound like hippie peaceniks‎…. Many other Off Leash participants have also stated that they don't view the group chat as merely a forum to exchange ideas but want it to become a vehicle to put their theories into action."

Silverstein observes that it isn't uncommon for Off Leash participants to advocate "violence."

"On the roster of Off Leash participants," Silverstein points out, "there was one — a poster with the handle of 'S,' whom it took me weeks to identify — who stood out as a particularly dark character. There were some in the group who expressed more unhinged views and others who more casually called for violence against their enemies; what made S distinctive was his dry, bloodless manner and businesslike espousal of a disciplined worldview that was unmistakably fascist."

Read Ken Silverstein's full report for The New Republic at this link.

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