It’s White Supremacist Story Time!

by Travis Mateer

This is the first part of a series I’m writing that will cover some fascinating ideological terrain, like what might connect real white supremacists with Russian criminal networks in this part of the country. Are you ready for this? I sure hope so, because here we go!

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What does the FBI know about White Supremacists in Western Montana and their potential connection to Russian criminal networks? That’s a BIG question I’ve been mulling over these last few years, but until now I haven’t tried to articulate what I think the tips of the tentacles I’m looking at might actually lead to. Now, thanks to the curiosity of Monica Perez, I have a better framework to speculate on what might be in store for this country as the neoliberal project collapses in real time. Let’s begin.

What do we want and, more importantly, WHY do we want it?

Beyond the necessities of food, water and shelter, a theorist by the name of René Girard has argued that we determine our desires by MIMICRY, or copying those around us. Why should you care about this guy and what he claims about human behavior? You should care because, as Monica Perez has discovered, this somewhat obscure theorist has made a BIG impression on the tech-billionaire who is deeply tied to Trump’s pick for Vice President, JD Vance. With this meta-narrative of presidential politics in mind, I’m going to describe two situations in Montana that I believe the FBI is familiar with, and I say this based on VERY good sources.

The source I can name, Angela Mastrovito, told me directly about meeting with the FBI regarding the disappearance and subsequent death of her daughter, Rebekah Barsotti. In a recent op-ed, published by the Missoula Current, Mastrovito said this about the investigation:

The investigation into Rebekah’s disappearance and death remains open. The State Crime Lab faced challenges identifying her remains due to an inability to amplify DNA. Additionally, critical evidence, including some collected by a private pathologist hired by the family and some within the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office, was lost, raising questions regarding the chain of custody.

My proximity to this case allowed me to access and publish some of the evidence gathered by private individuals hired by the family, like the picture of Rebekah’s estranged husband, David Barsotti, with an individual the FBI should be VERY aware of, since he has his own profile page with the Southern Poverty Law Center regarding his ideological connection to Timothy McVeigh.

For those who aren’t familiar with my reporting on this case, here’s a small portion of what the Southern Poverty Law Center has to say about Steven Barry:

Eleven days after the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing, Sergeant First Class Steven M. Barry, a.k.a. “J.F.A. Davidson,” appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Questioned by reporter Steve Kroft, the Special Forces soldier — his face obscured and voice altered electronically to hide his identity — identified himself as the editor of an underground newsletter called The Resister. Introducing Barry’s “political warfare journal,” Kroft told his listeners that it used “the same inflammatory rhetoric espoused by the radical militia movement and portrays the U.S. government as the enemy.”

“The command says you don’t exist,” Kroft told Barry.

“That’s excellent,” replied Barry. “Great. Exactly.”

The other situation in Montana I’ve been told the FBI is aware of involves the chaplain of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Lowell Hochhalter, and his OTHER job presiding over his family-run non-profit, the LifeGuard Group.

What does this non-profit claim to do? Well, with the personal financial backing of Montana’s Governor, Greg Gianforte, this non-profit claims to “help” victims of human trafficking by providing education, a statewide HOTLINE, and a remote safe house in an undisclosed location somewhere in the Bitterroot valley. They also supposedly search for missing people, like Jermain Charlo, but, when I asked about their efforts regarding Rebekah Barsotti, I was told information about their alleged search that Rebekah’s mother, Angela, directly refuted.

According to my source, who knows Lowell Hochhalter VERY well, the former Sheriff of Missoula County, T.J. McDermott, was told by the FBI specific concern related to Lowell, like the existence of an open Adult Protective Services case, but McDermott ignored those concerns and continued employing Hochhalter anyways. Interesting.

And the Russians?

Another source, who owns a local pawn shop and once worked as a Reserve Deputy for the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, told me an interesting story a few years ago about a family member who had a car stolen. To understand the subtext of this story, you have to understand that the used car market in this region has chop-shop connections that are well-known to be influenced by Russian criminal elements. I’ve brought this up and received positive confirmation from so many casual conversations over the years, I feel quite comfortable making this general claim.

According to my source, the man’s family member had a car stolen, and the investigator on the case was T.J. McDermott. The stolen vehicle was actually recovered, but the strange thing that stood out to the man telling me the story was how McDermott supposedly DISCOURAGED his family member from pursuing criminal charges against the thieves, almost like McDermott was PROTECTING them. If this story is true, it raises the obvious question WHY someone with a badge would be protecting car thieves.

I’m going to pull back the lens now and introduce another character to our little story, a Russian thinker and provocateur by the name of Aleksandr Dugin. For a quick summary, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about him:

Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the 1980s. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Dugin co-founded the National Bolshevik Party with Eduard Limonov, a party which espoused National Bolshevism, which he later left. In 1997, he published Foundations of Geopolitics, in which he outlined his worldview, calling for Russia to rebuild its influence through alliances and conquest, and to challenge the rival Atlanticist empire led by the United States. Dugin continued to further develop his ideology of neo-Eurasianism, founding the Eurasia Party in 2002 and writing further books including The Fourth Political Theory (2009). His political views have been characterized as fascist or neo-fascist.

Dugin is given further context by a very insightful occult researcher and author, Gary Lachman, in his book Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump. The connective tissue between a thinker like Dugin, and the occult rationale for Aryan supremacy, is definitely there, and, like a muscle getting regular exercise, the strength of these connections appears to be growing in places like the fertile dirt of online meme culture.

Do we need to talk about Super Heroes with laser eyes now? Yes. Yes we do.

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Ok, that concludes the first part of this series, which I’ll be adding to in the coming weeks. If you appreciate my content, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF).

I’d like to give a special thank you to all the nice people I spoke with last night as I displayed my weapon of mass instruction in front of the Top Hat. I wasn’t even trying to solicit funds, but somehow managed to raise $82 dollars. Wow and thank you, the money is sorely needed, and one of the conversations I had helped expand my sense of the Russian presence in this part of the country, so it will be included in part 3 of this series.

Thanks for reading!