Former Proud Boy Lawyer Jason Van Dyke Says an Internet Stalker Is Destroying His Career

Jason Lee Van Dyke sat at a table next to his defense lawyer in a Denton County courtroom, listening as an attorney for the Texas State Bar spoke about how fearful she was when she received his email message threatening her life.At 38, Van Dyke is stocky like a pit bull yet mild-mannered like Clark Kent — in person, that is. Online, he has a habit of exploding with anger, and as the former attorney for the far-right, all-male organization Proud Boys, he has plenty to be angry at. As a proud, straight white man, he’s angry at the liberal activists who he believes are shaming guys like them for just existing. He’s pissed at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which calls the Proud Boys a hate group, though they say that’s not true. The State Bar is on the list, too.Then there’s the media. When he was the Proud Boys’ lawyer, Van Dyke’s mission was to sue or threaten to sue journalists who called his client a hate group. Meanwhile, he had been picking up his own bad headlines: “Prominent Lawyer Jumps Bail And Becomes A Fugitive,” “Former Proud Boy's trial canceled after witness disappears,” “Proud Boys Lawyer Jason Lee Van Dyke Suspended by Texas Bar.”Perhaps greatest of all is his fury at Thomas Retzlaff, the Phoenix man who has dogged Van Dyke’s heels, costing him jobs and filing professional grievances aimed at ending Van Dyke's legal career.On this afternoon in early January, Kristin Brady, assistant disciplinary counsel for the State Bar, told the court that she'd been investigating a grievance filed by Retzlaff, whom Van Dyke sued for defamation in March 2018, a day after he lost another job. Van Dyke blames Retzlaff for torpedoing the job with a Plano law firm. He claims Retzlaff used the pseudonym

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