New York Times reporter Emma Cott says it best: “Deception is baked into the ‘alt-right’, so Eli Mosley is a perfect match for the movement.” This particular deception, however, is beneath contempt.

The former head of the White Supremacist group Identity Evropa, who led the group in military formations during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, and often bragged online about killing Muslims for “fun” while serving in Iraq, is doing damage control after the New York Times reported that despite his pronouncements, was never deployed to the Middle East.

Elliott “Eli Mosely” Kline, who has been a constant presence over the past year alongside Richard Spencer, and became the head of Identity Evropa immediately after Charlottesville, only to step down weeks later after differences with the organization, agreed to participate in a video about him that the Times was producing, which included reporters joining them at rallies such as the last one they held in Charlottesville in October, which went unannounced. During the interview for the production, Kline, according to reporter Emma Cott, spun tales of being embedded with the Iraqi Army, of being on the lookout for Chechen snipers, and of killing “muds,” a racial slur for Arabs. Kline has regularly made such pronouncements, most notably on podcasts such as the Right Stuff podcast “The War Room” where in addition to bragging about firing people of color as an HR administrator, boasted about his supposed time in Iraq, both in the most vulgar of terms. “I work in HR firing niggers and spics all day,” he is heard saying in a podcast segment included in the video. “Before that I was in the Army and I got to kill Muslims for fun. I’m not sure which one was better, watching niggers and spics cry they can’t feed their little mud children or watching Muslims’ brains sprayed on the wall. Honestly both probably suck compared to listening to a kike scream.”

Cott notes in the video, however that when she contacted the U.S. Army regarding his military record, she learned that while he indeed serve as a member of the National Guard, his unit in the Pennsylvania National Guard did not deploy to Iraq or anywhere else during the roughly six years he served. Moreover, when confronting him about these facts that she learned, he stated that he was there in 2012, a year after the last U.S. troops left Iraq. “When I got paperwork back from the Army and the National Guard confirming that he had never deployed, I was not surprised,” Cott wrote. “At the same time, I couldn’t believe he would lie so boldly, first to his fellow members of the alt-right and then to a Times reporter, on camera.”

The story has been picked up by several blogs and newspapers, and became a topic of discussion on social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. Task & Purpose, a blog for and by military veterans took exception to Kline’s posturing and particularly enjoyed him being exposed, noting further that a recent survey among military members show a majority believing that White Nationalism is a bigger threat than Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. “On one hand, it’s an extremely fine point to deride for stolen valor a neo-Nazi who jokes gleefully about gassing Jews, starving black and Latino people, and shooting Muslims,” the article notes about the video. “On the other hand, watch that racist piece of crap twist in the wind as he realizes he can’t pile the shit any higher. It is glorious. ”

Yesterday, a Tweet from an account supposedly belonging to Kline – which if true would be his replacement for one Twitter suspended because of content – denied the allegations, a statement suggesting that the Army has not released his entire record, which would otherwise vindicate him. “I am going to begin the process of retrieving my full service record from the Army bureaucracy,” he wrote. “As soon as I get my hands on these files, I will post them for all to see and clear my name of this gross defamation.”

My statement regarding the NYT hitpiece released on me earlier today: pic.twitter.com/Rfkuez8WVY

— Sheli Shmosley (@Sheli_Shmosley) February 5, 2018

Meanwhile, the National Policy Institute, of which White Supremacist and friend Richard Spencer is president, published a statement of support indicating that after his real identity was exposed and a series of personal setbacks including dismissal from his job, presumably as a recruiter at Rentokil Exterminators in Reading, PA, he became more active as an organizer. “Although Eli has never been a paid staff person at AltRight.com, the National Policy Institute, or any project or organization we have lead, he has been an important collaborator and friend for almost a year,” the statement read. This is because he expresses a high level of energy and agency and has worked tirelessly as a volunteer to make possible several important events in which we participated. ”

One People’s Project provided some video segments for the New York Times production.