Related Story: The Antifa files: how a leaked ‘Antifa’ chatroom revealed guns, gangs, and grooming in the Palmetto State – Part I
Charleston, South Carolina – A trans anarchist with numerous ties to “Stop Cop City” rioters in Atlanta, Georgia, has been federally subpoenaed to testify before a Grand Jury and risk informing on his Antifa comrades.
New information obtained by the Justice Report reveals the subject in question, 20-year-old Matthew “Cyprus” Hartford, was removed from the now-defunct “trans-liberation” group Organize Against Transphobia (OAT) after numerous members came forward to leadership with accusations of sexual assault and abuse.
Hartford—the privileged son of a retired United States Air Force Brigadier General previously exposed by the Justice Report in 2023—has now taken to the charity website GoFundMe in order to grift the movement for legal aid money.
Despite the newfound allegations, stories of his so-called “oppression” by federal agencies are being widely circulated in the Antifa sphere, uncritically promoted by anarchist social media accounts and podcasts, as well as their flagship gossip blog, It’s Going Down (IGD).
“My name is Cyprus Hartford. I’m a 20-year-old musician, trans woman, and anarchist,” read a statement by Hartford on IGD. “On June 5, 2024, I was stopped on the highway by federal agents and served a subpoena to testify before a Federal Grand Jury in Charleston, South Carolina on August 13, 2024.”
“After consulting with friends, family, and attorneys, I’ve made the decision to challenge this subpoena, and if necessary, to refuse to give testimony before the grand jury. I will not allow the state to intimidate me. I will not put my community at risk by giving the state information,” he continued.
Hoping to leverage the generosity of far-left extremists and their penchant for “mutual aid,” Hartford says he plans on speaking with “movement lawyers” to represent him in court. He also hopes to raise money to support him in the event he is sent to jail for refusing to cooperate with federal agencies.
“Although I don’t think this subpoena is justified, I wasn’t surprised to receive it because of similar repression happening in the Charleston area,” alleged Hartford. “In March, the same ATF agent who served me the subpoena left a card at the door to my family’s house.”
“During the spring of this year, several others in the Charleston, South Carolina area were subpoenaed and did give testimony. State and federal repression is ramping up all around the country,” he continued.
Hartford, a self-professed anarchist and member of numerous extremist organizations, cut his teeth in the “movement” by co-leading OAT, a short-lived South Carolina-based militant trans-liberation cell, alongside his friend Robin Hill. Counter-extremist researchers painstakingly chronicled Hartford and Hill’s escapades, uncovering the group’s close ties to college students, federal public defenders, boogaloo boys, former prizefighters, several local journalists, and even members of the infamous John Brown Gun Club.
As an organization, OAT attempted to portray itself as a coalition of humanists championing the plight of transgendered people and their never-ending battle for things like “increased visibility” and “human rights.” The leaked chats revealed the group was anything but.
Members were shown to have regularly conducted paramilitary training, organized street protests, violently attacked their political opposition, doxxed people they didn’t like, shared recipes for illegal bathtub hormones, and even speculated on how to groom minors on social media chat apps.
Hartford would even ask the group for monetary donations to the legally fraught Atlanta Solidarity Fund, an organization now suspected of being a money laundering ring and embezzlement scheme.
While OAT appears to have gone dormant after their leaked chats led to the identification of its core functionaries, newly obtained messages during the group’s final weeks suggest that Hartford may have been directly responsible for the predatory sexual abuse of up to five different antifascists.
“Cyprus Hartford has been banned from OAT spaces due to credible accusations of serial (sexual assault) and abusive behavior,” read a comment by moderator Bernard “Bernie” McIlnay to the Organize Against Transphobia Discord server on July 26th, 2023. “If you have experienced any inappropriate behaviour from Cyprus or any other server member, and if you feel comfortable doing so, please feel free to reach out to a moderator or community member you trust.”
The announcement was posted just three weeks after the leaked chats were first published on the William McKinley Institute (WMKI), receiving thirty “thumbs up” reactions from fellow members in response.
A follow-up to the post accusing Hartford of sexual abuse would come over an hour later from fellow OAT moderator and Carolina Socialist “Olivia McKinney,” shedding more light.
“Hey howdy, I just wanted to share a little bit more about the above ban because I know a lot of people have had questions,” McKinney said in the chat. “In talking with the victims, one of the prevailing themes has been that Cyprus would take advantage of people who were intoxicated and unable to consent, oftentimes when they themselves were sober.”
“This lead(sic) to multiple (less than 5) sexual assault victims. There was also a persistent pattern of sexual harassment in which they consistently and intentionally ignored boundaries that others had set. This was so common that frankly it is hard to get a count of people affected,” McKinney said.
At the time of press, it is currently unknown which specific OAT members faced sexual assault via militant trans activist Matthew “Cyprus” Hartford. With violent ideation, profound mental illness, and sexual paraphilias a common theme throughout OAT’s rank-and-file, it’s no surprise that the group would ultimately serve as a playground for Hartford’s predatory behavior.
Hartford comes from a very opulent family. His father is a retired USAF Brigadier General listed as the 29th Commandant of the National War College.
— Justice Report (@JR_Newswire) July 4, 2024
Cyprus abused that privilege to take bathtub hormones to push violence against rightwingers and police.https://t.co/hJaHe7orFD pic.twitter.com/ay1S4iuBpj
It is also unknown if those who foolishly donated to Hartford’s legal defense fund will request refunds. If ordered to testify before a Grand Jury, Hartford’s testimony would undoubtedly prove valuable to prosecutors and could potentially implicate those tied to antifascist terror attacks that have taken the country by storm in recent years.
Hartford’s intimate connection with organizers of the ongoing “Stop Cop City” protests is well documented. A purple-haired Hartford was previously filmed associating with several individuals accused of domestic terrorism and other crimes, including the equally privileged 21-year-old Geoffrey Parsons and 38-year-old Lee Ana-Gypsy, a woman accused of hurling molotov cocktails at Atlanta police in 2022.
A leaked antifascist Discord chat made public by the WMKI also revealed that Hartford maintained a “friendship” with autistic, Black 23-year-old Abeeku Osei Vassail, who went to others by the fake name “Wednesday.” Vassail had been arrested alongside two others for the harassment of an Atlanta cop but was later indicted on the much more serious charge of domestic terrorism by the Georgia Attorney General’s office.
Additionally, Hartford has also made statements that appear to suggest he was personal friends with the antifascist martyr Manuel Paez Terán, aka “Tortuguita.” In a folk song penned by Hartford titled 57 Gunshot Wounds, the aspiring musician claims that Terán was a “friend” who had given him backrubs sometime before his “objectively reasonable” shooting death by Atlanta police officers in January 2023.
Meanwhile, the alarming allegations of internecine sexual abuse would not at all be uncommon for those engaged in the shady underworld of American antifascism. Damning accusations of assault are a regular occurrence, often spitting in the face of the scene’s ostensibly sex-positive, anti-patriarchal, intersectional, and trauma-informed “wisdom” of the leftist fringe.
According to leaked chats from the militant anarcho-communist cell Bash the Fash, widespread sexual assaults and rapes were said to have played a key role in the implosion of the anti-White paramilitary organization known as Redneck Revolt (RR). Allegations of predatory behavior amongst RR organizers were feared to be so widespread it forced many local branches to rebrand as the Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) or glom onto the terroristic John Brown Gun Club.
In 2022, a 40-year-old Portland-based Antifa radio host—identified by authorities as Noah Whitefield Madrano—was arrested for grooming a 13-year-old Canadian girl and smuggling her into the United States. Prosecutors allege that Madrano would post on social media about his desire to rape babies and ultimately trafficked the teenager, raped her, and fantasized about abusing her corpse.
“Cyprus would take advantage of people who were intoxicated and unable to consent, oftentimes when they themselves were sober…This was so common that frankly it is hard to get a count of people affected”
Olivia McKinney, Organize Against Transphobia
In 2019, the infamous antifa doxxer and e-celebrity Anti-Fash Gordon—unmasked as 38-year-old St Lawrence University librarian Christian Exoo—was accused of being a sociopathic blackmailer and sex pest by a Black trans activist. Despite a laundry list of accusations, some of which allegedly involved minors and other vulnerable people in Exoo’s vicinity, many high-profile Antifa personalities would deny the allegations and close ranks around him, perceiving his value as a doxer of right-wing individuals too important to disavow.
Collectively, this group of unprincipled status-seekers would be referred to as the “trash network” by fellow Antifa and include big names like Nick Martin, Talia Ben-Ora, Heidi Lightenburger aka GothBotAlice, Daniel Harper, Kristopher Goad, and Hilary Sargent of the Anonymous Comrade Collective.
The trial and federal subpoena of alleged sex pest Matthew “Cyprus” Hartford is ongoing, and the Justice Report will continue to provide updates as they become available.
Were you a victim of abuse by Cyprus Hartford? The Justice Report would like to hear from you. In order to protect human dignity and deter future abuse, your identity will be kept strictly anonymous.
Please forward any tips or leads to the editors at [email protected]
