At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Varela wrote: “Start hurting people, the coronavirus is going to provide great cover for a real revolution.” He called for people to take up arms. The same month, he posted a rant wishing that both conservatives and liberals die of the coronavirus. In 2018, he wrote, “9/11 was good because the US is a Nazi state so we deserved it.”

Varela is a member of the forums at website Something Awful using the screen name “Doorknob Slobber.” He has a long history of making extremist posts and has been suspended repeatedly by the moderators. In a 2017 thread discussing Antifa’s organizational structure, Varela wrote, “I think it has something to do with … remaining decentralized in an effort to create cells instead of an organization structure that is easily targeted by law enforcement and other fascists.”

y. Days ahead of his arrest, a popular Olympia-based Antifa account on Twitter alerted the public that one of their comrades had been visited by agents with the FBI and ATF.

Varela, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, deleted most of his social media accounts before his arrest, but posts still available on Twitter show he corresponded back and forth with the Spokane and Olympia DSA chapters as well as Libcom.org, an anarchist-Communist website. Prior to deleting his Twitter account, his bio read, “professional anarchist, thug, and paid protester.” His YouTube account, which is still online but doesn’t have any videos available to the public, features a red and black Antifa flag as its profile image. According to the affidavit, Varela ran into an alley behind the Union Gospel Mission after the shooting and discarded his black uniform.

Originally Posted By orangetide⏩