A State Department official is reportedly on administrative leave after being linked to a white nationalist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC published a report on Wednesday alleging Bureau of Energy Resources foreign affairs officer Matthew Gebert uses the alias “Coach Finstock” to advocate for white supremacy and white nationalism on social media and other places.
The State Department has placed Gebert on leave while it investigates the allegations made in the SPLC report, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday.
“[Whites] need a country of our own with nukes, and we will retake this thing lickety split,” a man identified as Coach Finstock said on a white nationalist podcast in May 2018. “That’s all that we need. We need a country founded for white people with a nuclear deterrent. And you watch how the world trembles.”
Gebert held white nationalist parties at his Virginia home, according to the SPLC. The left-wing civil rights group deduced that Gebert operates under the pseudonym “Coach Finstock” through a review of the Coach Finstock handle’s history on social media.
The SPLC has made false accusations of bigotry and radicalism in the past. In 2018, the SPLC publicly apologized to Maajid Nawaz, a former Islamic radical the group included in its “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” The SPLC also paid Nawaz a $3.375 million settlement.
