Augustus Sol Invictus

✔

“	I think it's disingenuous for people to talk in their living rooms about government collapsing, the possibility of total anarchy, but when someone says it in public, it's so terrifying they have to persecute that person.	„
	~ Augustus Sol Invictus.

Austin Gillespie (born July 31, 1983), better known as Augustus Sol Invictus, is an American lawyer and politician who is connected to the Alt-Right and attended the Unite the Right rally. He is currently jailed on charges of domestic violence and kidnapping. 

Biography

Invictus was a candidate for the Libertarian Party nomination in the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida. Local party chairman Adrian Wyllie resigned over his candidacy and the unwillingness of the party to disavow it. He lost overwhelmingly in the primary to opponent Paul Stanton, garnering 26.5% of votes cast.

In a press release from 2015, Invictus was accused by the Libertarian Party of Florida of advocating for eugenics and "state-sponsored murder". In April 2017, the Libertarian Party of Florida, following a successful mediation, issued a full retraction of the 2015 press release, stating that "it exceeded the mandate of the executive committee", and declaring that "Mr. Invictus has always been a member in good standing, is a past chair of the Libertarian Party of Orange County, a sponsor of the 2016 and 2017 LPF State Conventions, as well as a dedicated volunteer on the Legislative Review Committee." In July 2017, Invictus changed his party affiliation to Republican, announcing his candidacy for the 2018 United States Senate election in Florida.

He was a headline speaker at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, that ended with three deaths. He has represented Marcus Faella, the former head of the white supremacist group the American Front, in court.

Invictus is the publisher of The Revolutionary Conservative, a publication which calls for a violent uprising and states that its aim is to restore the American Republic and defend Western civilization. He was controversial within the Libertarian Party for his neo-fascist political views and history of racist associations. He has been described by media reports as being associated with the alt-right movement.

Views

Invictus believes that the United States should embrace a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy, arguing that an interventionist approach has resulted in the loss of American lives and the accumulation of trillions of dollars in debt. He opposes using the U.S. military to interfere in the affairs of sovereign nations.

Invictus advocates for balancing the budget, shrinking the size of government, ceasing "reckless" government spending and deregulating American business. He is also in favor of repealing the personal income tax, abolishing the IRS and recreating the tax code. He is for an expanded federal role in protecting the environment. According to Invictus, he does not support mass immigration and is against open borders for the United States. However, he supports policies that would streamline the process of immigration and naturalization so that immigrants who wish to integrate and work in the United States can do so with ease. Invictus believes that abortion should be illegal in most circumstances.

Invictus is opposed to the War on Drugs and has labeled it a failure. He supports repealing the Controlled Substances Act and abolishing the DEA. He believes that America should find alternative forms of energy so as to reduce U.S dependence on foreign energy. He does not believe there should be a trade-off between economic freedom and the destruction of the environment.

Invictus has been accused of supporting state-sponsored eugenics for a paper he wrote as a law student. Invictus, however, wrote a disclaimer to the paper stating that although he believes the strong and intelligent should breed and the weak and stupid should not, he does not believe that the government can be trusted to implement such a program.

Invictus has been identified as a Holocaust denier and an anti-semite.

Criminal charges

He was accused of domestic violence by his ex-fianceé. The Huffington Post reported that in July 2017, police in Orlando, Florida, "recommended that charges of domestic battery by strangulation and aggravated battery be filed against Invictus." According to the article, charges were never filed due to both a lack of evidence and a lack of cooperation from the alleged victim.

He was arrested January 1, 2020, on "charges of kidnapping, domestic violence, and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence". On January 9, 2020, a judge in Rock Hill, South Carolina, ordered that Invictus be held in jail without bond. On February 19, 2020, kidnapping charges were dismissed after a judge found no probable cause; domestic violence and firearms charges remain.