![Ross began collecting cases in which far-right actors and vigilantes appeared at demonstrations and similar events starting on May 27, 2020. [ 1 ] Using this data, he developed an interactive map of the United States describing events and metadata such as involved groups. By early September, Ross had accumulated over 500 such incidents. [ 2 ] By mid-October, he had accumulated over 800 incidents. Approximately 90% of the data is sourced from social media and news outlets. The remainder comes from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a non-partisan, international political violence tracking group. Ross categorizes over 400 of the events as beyond harassment or intimidation. Ross found that, though vigilante-style attacks and threats had fallen since summer, the proportion of gun violence and vehicular attacks increased. Though demonstrations and violence at demonstrations were both decreasing, the severity of attacks was increasing, Ross found. The project has been praised by the research director at ACLED, and Heidi Beirich. [ 1 ]](/assets/images/2026-08-13T10-55-30-880Z-heidi-beirich-former-extremism-expert-praised-by-biden-ally-faces-federal-fraud-wikimedia-1280.webp)
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Heidi Beirich, Former Extremism Expert Praised by Biden Ally, Faces Federal Fraud Charges
Heidi Beirich, once lauded by the Center for American Progress as a leading expert on extremism, is now charged with wire fraud and money laundering.
1 source Single-source report