NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — An attorney for a national civil rights organization is celebrating recent defeats for a neo-Nazi group that stirred up trouble in Nashville and hoping it is a sign of more to come.
The latest blow for the Goyim Defense League came when the group’s websites were recently taken down following an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation into the online activities of GDL founder Jon Minadeo.
Minadeo also had three accounts suspended from X earlier this week.
These developments come as the Southern Poverty Law Center is pushing a lawsuit to hold Minadeo and his fellow neo-Nazis responsible for their actions during what the civil rights group calls an "intimidation tour" in Nashville in 2024. SPLC filed a second lawsuit Friday stemming from a separate incident at Nashville's Gordon Jewish Community Center.
"First of all, congratulations,” SPLC deputy legal counsel Scott McCoy told NewsChannel 5 Investigates, “because what you did is knock him off of what is the most common domain, the dot-com."
NewsChannel 5’s investigation revealed how Minadeo was livestreaming himself as he went into video chat rooms where kids often hang out, berating children of color while trying to recruit white kids. He often urges the white kids to get guns and to get ready to kill.
Related: Meet the neo-Nazi targeting kids online, teaching them to hate and to prepare to kill
We now know that, after NewsChannel 5 Investigates reached out to the companies providing services for Minadeo's websites to ask if his activities violated their rules, it was the domain registrar that yanked his dot-com domains, taking those websites down.
“Deplatforming these folks from things like dot-com, dot-org, dot-net — which are the big ones, right? — is actually a really meaningful thing to do because what we're worried about is them having a broad platform in order to traffic in this hate,” McCoy said.
Minadeo was soon back online, even continuing to interact with children — this time, using an obscure web domain that, by his own admission, was harder for people to find.
"Hopefully, you know, we get our website back. Obviously, the viewership has plummeted,” the neo-Nazi said during one livestream.
The SPLC’s Scott McCoy was not surprised.
“The more obscure the domain name is, the more obscure the platform is, the harder it is … to be found, honestly — and also it's worthwhile because it makes them expend time and energy rebuilding what they had before."
Minadeo has since complained in a post on the right-wing Telegram messaging app that he had three accounts "gassed on X" — what used to be Twitter — but insisted that he would be back soon with an “under-the-radar account."
McCoy noted that the setback means the GDL leader also has to start over on X.
"It is a game of whack-a-mole, let's be honest,” the SPLC lawyer added. “It is just a nature of the modern Internet. It is very expansive. You can eventually find someone to host this kind of content, but it does make a difference."
NewsChannel 5 noted that some of Minadeo’s followers complain that such efforts are a violation of the neo-Nazis’ free-speech rights.
"Well, listen,” McCoy answered, “I believe in the First Amendment – and absolutely it's out there. The problem is when their First Amendment speech crosses over into conduct and incites conduct. That's when there's a problem."
He also noted that the First Amendment only applies to the government, that Internet service providers are free to not do business with anyone whose views they find to be reprehensible.
During its 2024 visit to Nashville, the Goyim Defense League was involved in a violent attack on a downtown bar employee, as well as a nighttime assault on a young Jewish man.
Among the legal developments in 2025:
- GDL member Ryan Scott McCann, from Canada, was convicted and sentenced to almost four years in prison for those assaults.
- Louis Edward Dunn, from Arizona, was indicted for his role in the assault on the Jewish man and is awaiting trial.
- David Aaron Bloyed, from Texas, was convicted for his online threats against Nashville DA Glenn Funk and sentenced to three years in federal prison.
- And GDL member Travis Keith Garland, from East Tennessee, pleaded guilty to trespassing at Nashville's Jewish Community Center. He was sentenced to 11 months, 29 days in jail.
The charges against against Garland stem from a separate incident where he tried to force his way into the Gordon Jewish Community Center wearing a rabbi costume.
Wednesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of the JCC, accusing Garland, Minadeo and other GDL members of violating the rights of Nashville's Jewish community when they orchestrated that stunt. The lawsuit also names another prominent GLD member, Paul Miller, who is now feuding with Minadeo.
McCoy said in a written statement, "“Like our first lawsuit, it seeks to hold the bad actors who took part in these conspiracies accountable for stoking hatred and division. We cannot idly stand by as communities are terrorized by those who spread hate and fear. We, as a collective, can take a stand and show white supremacists like Miller and groups like the GDL that we can defeat hate.”
That follows an earlier lawsuit filed against GDL, Minadeo and a number of its members on behalf of the downtown bar employee. A federal judge recently ruled that the case can proceed.
It is similar to legal battles that SPLC has led over the years against the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups.
"We want them to be punished for what they did, the conduct that they did to our client,” McCoy told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
" And so now we move forward into discovery where we get to take their depositions and we get to seek information from them and other things to learn more about what they did and to support the claims that we're bringing."
The attorney added that, if successful, the lawsuit could eventually allow SPLC to go after the group’s assets, including its Internet domains.
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Do you have information that would help me with my investigation? Send me your tips: phil.williams@newschannel5.com
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