A neo-Nazi activist who sent out hostile and abusive robocalls aimed at top politicians and others has been linked to threats to the publisher of a small local newspaper that first exposed his activities.



Scott Rhodes, who lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, was first identified by the Sandpoint Reader and linked with a campaign that targeted high-profile political races across the US and even murder victims with racist and antisemitic robocalls.



In recent days threatening robocalls and letters have been sent to the publishers of the Reader, an alternative newspaper, people linked to it and residents in the small rural town.



The robocall described journalist Ben Olson, the publisher of the Reader, as “a cancer on wholesome north Idaho”, adding that “cancer needs to be burned out”.



When Rhodes was asked about the call by the Guardian via email, he sent a link to a YouTube video that reproduced the robocall audio, and featured video of a large stack of copies of the Sandpoint Reader being set on fire.



That video has since been removed by YouTube. The hundreds of newspapers burned in the video represent a significant slice of the Reader’s print run, which Olson says is 5,000 a week.



The robocall was also embedded in an email sent to many residents, which read “Attached is a 56-second audio mp3 file of a public service alert”, and contained photographs of Olson.



One of those who received the call, retired journalist Jay Shelledy, said “it was very close to being, if not in fact, a physical threat”.

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Olson said he received dozens of text messages and calls in the hours following the robocall from people who had received it on Thursday night. He also said the community had rallied around the newspaper, and he had received a spike in donations to help keep it running.



On Monday this week, Olson’s business partner Chris Bessler also received a letter containing more threats.



The unsigned letter’s content resembled the robocall. It said that Olson and Bessler would each be “named publicly” and “privately to the right people”, and threatened to contact advertisers if Olson was not dismissed as editor.



Then on Tuesday night, yet another robocall to Sandpoint residents called the newspaper “hate mail” and “mind poison”, and advised recipients that “when you see The Reader, take a stack and throw it in the trash”.



The Reader unmasked Rhodes last December, after the neo-Nazi activist left racist propaganda at local high schools. They also revealed that he had carried out similar activities in Alexandria, Virginia.



Rhodes makes a virulently racist video podcast called The Road to Power. He has been associated with similar robocalls in Idaho and at least five other states.



In May, Rhodes’s robocalls in California targeted Senator Dianne Feinstein, referring to her as a “traitorous Jew”, and urging listeners to relocate to north Idaho “where very white is very right”. August robocalls in Iowa targeted at the Hispanic community featured an impersonation of murdered woman Mollie Tibbetts. Another in Florida in September featured a racist impersonation of gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gillum. In 2017, Rhodes’s robocalls targeted elected officials in Virginia.



Rhodes has also been associated with robocalls closer to his base in north Idaho. Calls in June defended an official in Spokane, Washington, who was accused of making racist remarks on Facebook. And in 2015, antisemitic robocalls attacked Sandpoint mayor, Shelby Rognstad, who was also later targeted in hateful print propaganda that Rhodes distributed. These calls came not long after Rhodes moved to Sandpoint.



Early last month, another robocall to Sandpoint residents promoted a visit by neo-Nazi and former California GOP senate candidate, Patrick Little. Little became notorious for openly antisemitic messaging in his campaign, and claims to have launched a blimp featuring the slogan “Jews Rape Kids” over San Francisco Bay.



In the August robocall, Little said: “I’ll be arriving shortly to make Sandpoint one of my new regional capitals throughout the country.”

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On the social network Gab, which is favored by the far right for its self-described “free speech” stance, Little has been promoting a national tour, in which he claims to have stopped in Sandpoint. Little’s antisemitic posts led Microsoft to threaten to kick Gab off its hosting service in August.



The voice on Thursday’s Sandpoint robocall resembles Little’s, and was identified as such by Olson.



Little did not respond to requests for comment.



In an email, Rhodes said that while “your assumption that by emailing to this address you are doing so to a specific person is incorrect … emails from this address can be accepted as representing the video podcast” – a podcast which only he has ever appeared on.

In reference to the robocalls, Rhodes did not directly claim responsibility, but accused Olson of using the paper to “threaten and coerce”, adding that “clearly people felt it was time for him to be called out for it and that his advertisers now be held accountable for financing his terrorism”.



The Spokane Spokesman-Review newspaper recently estimated that Rhodes may have made up to 10,000 robocalls nationally. Citing Rhodes’s campaigns, the Southern Poverty Law Center described robocalls as a “new method of delivering hate”.