The operator of an anonymous Twitter account known to spew racist and anti-Semitic beliefs and associate with far-right actors has claimed in private conversations to work as a camera operator for right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media outlet Infowars, Right Wing Watch can reveal. Far-right sentiments are not out of place at Infowars, but the racist internet troll’s apparent employment reveals the lengths to which those extreme beliefs have permeated among its staff–or are prerequisite to working at Infowars.
Hiding behind pseudonyms, Texas man Jonathan Wolfe has stated that he wants Black Lives Matter protesters “to get shot,” claimed that concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in prisons is “only an important concern if you’re black,” and described George Floyd, who died pleading for his life beneath the knee of a police officer, as a “violent career criminal scumbag who reaped what he sowed.” Wolfe has referred to the coronavirus as an “Israeli bioweapon” and claimed that the 9/11 terror attacks were “an inside job by Zionists” and the military industrial complex.
In an online Discord chatroom, Wolfe—known to chat participants at the time only by the moniker “ghostcrab”—claimed in 2019 that he worked at Infowars. A trusted source who participated in the chat provided RWW recorded audio from the conversation on the condition of anonymity and offered corroboration that the voice speaking in the recording was Wolfe’s.
“Yeah, I work at Alex Jones,” Wolfe says in the recorded audio. “I could have a show at Alex Jones if I wanted to.”
RWW also reviewed text messages and Twitter chat records in which Wolfe shared behind-the-scenes photos from Infowars, taken from what appears to be the perspective of a camera operator on the Infowars soundstage. Operating behind a moniker, Wolfe discussed working for Jones, airing work grievances and bragging about his work on the set. In some photos, the images are captured from behind a jib crane—a specialized piece of camera equipment Wolfe specializes in operating.
On Wolfe’s personal LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as a “Jib Camera Crane Owner Operator” and “Jimmy Jib Owner Operator.” Wolfe’s online profiles that use his real name do not list his claimed work for Infowars, and the date of his last job listed on his IMDb page is 2015.
Right Wing Watch ran the images that Wolfe shared from the Infowars studio through Google and Yandex reverse image searches. No matches were found for the images, indicating they had not been publicly uploaded elsewhere online.
Infowars did not respond to an emailed request to confirm Wolfe’s employment sent last week. Infowars host Owen Shroyer, when reached via text message, said he “couldn’t confirm” Wolfe’s employment and then asked RWW to divulge our sourcing, which we declined. In preserved tweets, Wolfe is seen using his pseudonymous accounts to interact with several Infowars figures, but it does not appear Infowars staffers publicly responded to Wolfe’s interactions with their content on Twitter.
RWW identified Wolfe as the owner of a Twitter account with the handle @GucciferInfinit by cross-referencing posts made on the account with material present on other social media sites. Using that account, Wolfe claimed ownership of a small YouTube channel with the display name “GHOSTCRAB” and a Gab account by the same name. Wolfe used the same profile photo for the GHOSTCRAB Gab account as he did for another small YouTube channel with the display name “JibCamera.” Via cross referencing, RWW determined that Wolfe also operated two defunct Twitter accounts partially preserved in web archives: @JIBCAMERA and @GHOSTJIB.
On these accounts, Wolfe expressed a litany of bigoted and extremist sentiments.
In one instance, Wolfe attempted to make a joke where the n-word was the apparent punchline; in another, he responded to a sports radio excerpt about Black Lives Matter protests, saying, “Tell blacks to quit being violent criminals and raise their children.” Wolfe has used the hashtag “#WhiteLivesMatter” and once replied to a photo of a Black Lives Matter protest with an animated image of the Confederate flag. Wolfe has claimed that “most of” the Black community “are useful idiots psyopped into gangsta thug life drug alcohol addictions and victimhood.”
Wolfe has peddled conspiratorial anti-Semitism and publicly interacted with anti-Semites like neo-Nazi podcast host Mike Peinovich and YouTube commentator Adam Green. He suggested that Israel “planned” the COVID-19 coronavirus “like a #Silent911,” used the anti-Semitic “echoes” meme, and furthered the lie that Jews financed the transatlantic slave trade. In one tweet, Wolfe linked to an unlisted YouTube video on the JibCamera account titled “Dancing Israelis” that was uploaded in 2017 and contains content apparently meant to mock Jewish people. (Unlisted YouTube videos do not turn up in public search results and are only viewable to people who have a direct link given to the content uploader.)
Wolfe’s social media interactions also show a fondness for Thomas Schoenberger, a right-wing provocateur whom The Daily Beast reported allegedly discussed wire-tapping and surveilling the grieving family of murdered Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich with wealthy Texas businessman Ed Butowsky. Wolfe has repeatedly defended Schoenberger, whom court records show two unnamed individuals recently sought and received protective orders against.
Schoenberger told RWW via email that “Jib”—one of Wolfe’s digital nicknames—was “a random who sometimes defends me and at other times does not.” However, in a 2019 email shared with RWW, Schoenberger included Wolfe’s email address in the message and referred to “Jib” as part of a “team” he belonged to. It is unclear what team Schoenberger was referring to; however, fundraising documents obtained by The Daily Beast for Shadowbox, an “online reputation firm” Schoenberger worked on, claimed the firm addresses “smear assaults head-on by custom-creating shadow ‘bot’ campaigns as a counter strategy.” When confronted with sourcing that showed Schoenberger referred to Wolfe as part of a team he was on, Schoenberger again denied knowing Wolfe.
Wolfe and Schoenberger’s common interests seem to align to this day, as evident by the duo’s mutual disdain for Gabe Hoffman, a hedge fund manager who produced the film “An Open Secret” about child sex abuse in Hollywood. Hoffman is currently suing Schoenberger, alleging that Schoenberger created more 100 videos targeting him with defamation, stalking, and anti-Semitic hatred.
The legal complaint alleges that most of the videos created by Schoenberger contained allegations that Hoffman was involved in a conspiracy to murder Isaac Kappy, a relatively unknown actor who killed himself after he became a celebrity among right-wing conspiracy theorists for baselessly alleging that various Hollywood stars were involved in pedophilia. When reached via email, Hoffman declined to comment.
Wolfe has a standing obsession with Kappy’s suicide, social media posts show. He uploaded two videos to his YouTube channel containing recordings of calls he made to employees working the desk of the hotel that Kappy stayed at the night before he committed suicide. In the videos, he identifies himself as working for “Thunderbird Media”—a company that does not appear to exist. RWW reviewed audio clips of a Discord voice chat in which Wolfe echoes claims that Hoffman alleges Schoenberger made against him, including the claim that Hoffman is part of a Jewish mob.
