Buzzfeed has published documents exposing Milo Yiannopoulos’ links to white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
Yiannopoulos, a gay ultra-conservative, has earned a large following online as a prominent supporter of Donald Trump and as a ‘hero’ of the far-right.
The former Breitbart columnist, who was previously banned from Twitter for allegedly encouraging racist abuse, has repeatedly denied any connections to white supremacists or neo-Nazis.
But an explosive release by Buzzfeed News today revealed intimate details of his dealings, raising serious questions about his conduct.
One video released by Buzzfeed shows Yiannopoulos singing ‘America the Beautiful’ at a far-right karaoke event, attended by self-described neo-Nazi Richard Spencer.
Spencer and many others in the crowd are clearly visible in the clip performing Nazi salutes directly in front of the stage as Milo sang without any objection.
In a statement Yiannopoulos claimed that he has “severe myopia” that made it impossible for him to see the Hitler salutes, just feet away.
Buzzfeed also published multiple disclosures from Yiannopoulos’ emails and online documents, which reveal his connections to Breitbart chief Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former Chief Strategist.
The email trails also reveal that Yiannopoulos had communicated with Andrew Auernheimer, the admin of neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer – as well as self-described white nationalist Devin Saucier.
Yiannopoulos described Saucier as “my best friend” in one email to another contact, and regularly asked him for input on stories.
Elsewhere the documents appear to confirm what has been rumoured for some time – that the writer’s Breitbart columns are often ghostwritten by alt-right activists.
The primary ghostwriter for Yiannopoulos, Allum Bokhari, jokingly refers to him as “MEIN FUHRER” in emails as the pair discuss a 3,000 word feature penned by Bokhari that was later published in Milo’s name.
The columnist shared his passwords with his many ghostwriters and assistants.
One of his logins used the password ‘LongKnives1290’ – an apparent references to Hitler’s purge known as ‘the Night of the Long Knives’, and 1290, the year all Jews were expelled from the Kingdom of England.
Bokhari also added that one of Yiannopoulos’ passwords “began with the word Kristall”. Kristallnacht was a 1938 riot against Jews carried out by Hitler.
Yiannopoulos was sacked from Breitbart earlier this year after damaging tapes emerged in which he discussed men who have sex with underage boys.
In one video, Yiannopoulos attacks the age of consent as an “arbitrary one-size-fits-all policing of culture”.
He also claimed that “in the homosexual world, particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men help those young boys discover who they are”.
Yiannopoulos later confirmed he would be “resigning” from Breitbart in the wake of the row.
He was reportedly already in line to be sacked, with more than a dozen staffers prepared to quit if he was not removed.
The writer previously angrily hit back at critics in a Facebook post titled “A note for idiots”.
Referring to the unedited five-minute tape of his comments, he said: “There are selectively edited videos doing the rounds, as part of a co-ordinated effort to discredit me from establishment Republicans, that suggest I am soft on the subject.
“If it somehow comes across (through my own sloppy phrasing or through deceptive editing) that I meant any of the ugly things alleged, let me set the record straight: I am completely disgusted by the abuse of children.”
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