In a suburban Cincinnati office park, white nationalists have found their lawyer – and an ally

When a dozen neo-Nazis and white supremacists from the deadly march in Charlottesville were charged with crimes last year, they needed to find a lawyer.

Their search for one took them to Deerfield Township in suburban Cincinnati, where they found James E. Kolenich, a civil rights attorney who said he has only one thing in common with his new clients.

He believes white people must save and preserve their civilization from Jews, immigrants and minorities.

"My willingness to get involved is to oppose Jewish influence in society," he told The Enquirer. "It's plain that white people are the chosen people in the New Testament. It's the job that we were given, to spread Christianity around the world. That doesn't involve hatred of other races, not even of ethnic Jews. But it does involve opposing their un-Christian influence in society."

Kolenich is a new name in the pantheon of the "alt-right," a loose affiliation of racists, white nationalists and anti-Semites. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and their leaders, did not have him listed.

Local Jewish, Catholic and interfaith groups in Cincinnati condemned his views as "offensive," and "un-American."

"His views are an affront to all people of good will who want an accepting and just community for all people," said Robert "Chip" Harrod, convener of the Bridges of Faith Trialogue, a local interfaith group.

Kolenich's opinions reflect beliefs that, in part, prompted the Roman Catholic Church to issue its new doctrines in 1965, Harrod said.

Kolenich's involvement in the federal case has thrust the lawyer into what might prove to be one of the nation's most politically and racially-charged court battles in years.

He is one of two lawyers working to defend the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" organizers against charges of conspiracy to incite violence; he plans to argue they have a constitutional right to express their racist and anti-Semitic views even if violence and a deadly attack occurred during their assembly.

The case is also bringing Kolenich's own views on race and religion into focus. Although he said he considers some of his clients to be "godless heathens," he is more than just a hired gun representing people he doesn't like.

He said he got involved in this case because he believes some Jewish people are dead set on destroying America and turning it into a Third-World country thanks to "mass, uncontrolled, un-white immigration."

He said he got involved because his beliefs, on this point, align with the white supremacists he represents.

A phone call from a former U.S. House candidate

Before Kolenich, 47, agreed to become involved in Sines v. Kessler, he primarily represented clients fighting the police or the government. His clients often claimed their 4th Amendment right – which protects against unreasonable search or seizure – had been violated. In Cincinnati, his highest-profile case had been defending a Taiwanese software engineer accused of a series of rapes in the city's small Taiwanese community. Kolenich called the charges "a police fairy tale," Enquirer archives show, but Chien Tai Wu was found guilty and sentenced to more than a century in prison.

Kolenich said he was introduced to the Charlottesville case by a Cincinnati-area friend, James Condit Jr. Condit, of Green Twp., has denounced "Zionist" control of world politics and alleges Jews played a role in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (Those attacks were conducted by the al-Qaeda terrorist group.)

Condit, who has also run several times for a Southwest Ohio U.S. House seat, reached out to Kolenich when the Charlottesville organizers were having a hard time finding legal representation.

Born in Cleveland, but raised in Greenville, Pennsylvania, Kolenich came back to Cleveland to get his law degree from Case Western Reserve University. He started practicing law in 2003, shortly after he moved to West Chester Township in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Kolenich has been married for 18 years, and has nine children. His youngest is 2 years old, and his oldest is 15.

He said he, his wife and children are all "traditional Roman Catholics," but his siblings are in his words, either "standard issue American atheists," or "Vatican II Catholics."

Vatican II, or the Second Vatican Council, was an ecumenical council in the 1960s. It reconsidered Church practices, allowing Mass to be conducted in languages other than Latin and encouraged more open relations with other faiths.

"The last such council was Vatican II or as we call it, Vatican Jew," said Kolenich during an interview at his office.

Kolenich takes issue with most of the changes implemented by the Vatican. He does not recognize any Pope since Vatican II as the true leader of the Church, calling them "anti-Popes." Parishes and individuals who do not recognize the authority of the Pope are considered to be outside the Church, sometimes referred to as schismatic.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati said Kolenich's views in no way resemble Roman Catholicism, which preaches tolerance towards other faiths.

"Anti-Semitism is the antithesis of Catholic teaching and is an affront to any true Catholic," said Mike Schafer, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Among what Kolenich said are "false teachings," is the Church's shift towards building relationships with other religions and what he considers a de-emphasis of the belief Jewish people were responsible for Jesus' death.

Kolenich's views "patently un-American"

Similar to white supremacists, Kolenich has unapologetically strong views when it comes to immigration and non-white minorities.

"If you're going to let them all (immigrants) come up here, their problems are going to come with them, they're not going to magically get Americanized," said Kolenich. "They're going to turn it into the Third World that they left."

Jackie Congedo, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, the public affairs arm of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, called Kolenich's statements "offensive."

"Any effort to limit the rights of any minority to live freely in this country is discriminatory, and any effort to limit the freedoms of Jews is flat out anti-Semitic," Congedo said. "Every American has the right to their religious beliefs but saying that other Americans should not have full rights of participation in American society turns a personal theology into a doctrine of discrimination—which is patently un-American."

Organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish non-governmental organization, routinely monitor hate groups and other extremists throughout the U.S.

Kolenich is not on their radar. But those groups are on Kolenich's radar.

He firmly believes the SPLC and the ADL are "anti-Christian and anti-American." The SPLC and ADL did not respond to calls for comment.

Kolenich also called into question the estimated number of six million Jewish people killed during the Holocaust, and even if it actually happened.

He said he's never been called a neo-Nazi before, and that he wouldn't care if he was. "If being Christian is equated with being a neo-Nazi in this society, then that's just how it has to be," he said. "'It' (being a Nazi) is something that I would reject, all things being equal, but there's nothing I can do about it in modern society."

Kolenich said the Holocaust gets too much attention.

"You can't call the Jew Holocaust into question, right?" said Kolenich. "How many millions, tens of millions of Russians were slaughtered during the Soviet Union... you never hear about it right? Don't want to talk about it. Just the magic six million. So Christians really shouldn't fall for that. The Holocaust is the execution, the crucifixion of Christ. The most important event in human history is His Resurrection, not, this Jewish Holocaust even if it did happen."

No serious historians question the Holocaust.

“Holocaust denial is quite simply denial of factual history and it is anti-Semitic," said Sarah Weiss, executive director of the Holocaust and Humanity Center in Cincinnati. "Any attempt to rewrite or trivialize this important and catastrophic history underscores the need for Holocaust education."

Kolenich is involved in other "alt-right" cases as well.

He was named co-counsel with Michigan attorney Kyle Bristow in representing Cameron Padgett, who is suing University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University. Padgett claims UC is charging unconstitutional and excessive security fees for the planned visit of Richard Spencer. The initial set date of March 14 has been called off, with Padgett hoping to reschedule Spencer's appearance for summer or fall.

Kolenich made clear he will keep fighting. He intends to go on the offensive and file counter-claims against some of the private plaintiffs in the Charlottesville case, he said.

"They're not going to stop marching," said Kolenich of white nationalists. "They're not going to stop pushing their political beliefs no matter what happens, and the government can not stop them."

About the Charlottesville case

What happened: Organizers said the August 12 rally was planned to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in the city's Emancipation Park.

The Friday night before the rally, tiki-torch wielding white nationalists marched onto the University of Virginia's campus and clashed with counter-protesters while chanting phrases such as "Jews will not replace us," and "Blood and Soil."

Charlottesville Police declared the Saturday morning rally gathering to be an unlawful assembly roughly an hour before it was scheduled to begin at the park, a state of emergency was declared, and the streets of the city were filled with protesters and counter-protesters alike.

Three people died and dozens were injured including 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer, who was struck and killed by a car that drove into a crowd of marchers. The driver of the car, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, who grew up in Florence, Kentucky, is being held on charges including first-degree murder in a separate case.

Who is involved: The other lawyer on Kolenich's team is Elmer Woodard of Virginia.

The list of their defendants in Sines v. Kessler reads like a who's who in the world of white supremacy and white nationalism.

Besides Jason Kessler, "Unite the Right's" main organizer, the defendants include Matthew Heimbach, one of the founders of the Traditionalist Worker Party, Robert "Azzmador" Ray, a writer for the anti-Semitic website The Daily Stormer, Elliot Kline, a.k.a. Eli Mosley formerly of Identity Evropa, Vanguard America and Christopher Cantwell are among the 12 in total.

Kolenich and Woodard have filed motions on behalf of all the defendants to dismiss the case; a court date has not yet been set.

Fields is named as a defendant in Sines v. Kessler but he is being represented by other lawyers not affiliated with Kolenich or Woodard. The family of Heather Heyer are not among the plaintiffs.

Richard Spencer, one of the so-called leaders of the "alt-right," was also named in the lawsuit but is representing himself.

The case: In order for the plaintiffs to succeed in their lawsuit against Kolenich's clients, they have to prove there was intent to perpetrate violence in Charlottesville.

Roberta A. Kaplan, a high-profile lawyer from New York, is one of the main lawyers representing the nearly dozen plaintiffs, some of whom are remaining anonymous with names such as John and Jane Doe.

According to the New York Times and Kolenich, Kaplan is modeling the suit after one brought against an anti-abortion website, The Nuremberg Files, which posted names and addresses of abortion doctors online. The website was eventually brought down using civil conspiracy law, even though the website's founders argued it was protected under the First Amendment.

Kolenich thinks it's a stretch to compare this case to the Nuremberg case. He argued most of the talk online prior to the rally was simple boasting and Internet banter.

"Ms. Kaplan is trying to stretch that legal principle to cover I guess the Daily Stormer and the other defendants and say, 'because you talked about going to Charlottesville and maybe fighting with people therefore you're liable that people got injured in a fist fight' or what have you," said Kolenich. "I don't think it can work."

What's next: A court date has yet to be set. Several defendants’ replies in support of any motions to dismiss are due March 5 according to court documents.