Leo Max Frank (1884 – 1915) was an American Jew who became the victim of a lynching after being convicted in 1913 for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a worker at a factory in Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as superintendent. Frank’s trial, conviction, and failed appeals sparked nationwide attention. His subsequent kidnapping from prison and lynching highlighted deep social, regional, political, and racial issues, particularly regarding antisemitism. Today, the vast majority of researchers agree that Frank was wrongfully convicted (See: “The Leo Frank Case,” by Leonard Dinnerstein).
Kingsley Wilson, who was appointed in January as deputy press secretary at the Pentagon, sparked controversy last year after tweeting a neo-Nazi talking point regarding Leo Frank, the Jewish lynching victim.
“Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime. The ADL turned off the comments because they want to gaslight you,” Wilson tweeted on August 17, 2024.
Wilson, 26, is a well-connected political brat. Her father, Steve Cortes, a right-wing commentator, is a longtime advisor to Donald Trump, spearheading the move to bring Latinos into the Republican party. Wilson worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign and led digital media and communications for the pro-Trump thinktank, Center for Renewing America, the brainchild of Russell Vought, who participated in creating the blueprint for Trump’s second term, Project 2025.
Neo-Nazis have claimed for years that Leo Frank was guilty, suggesting that the widespread belief in his wrongful conviction is proof of Jewish control over the media.
A spokesperson for ADL stated, “White supremacists and other antisemites have long used conspiracy theories about the Leo Frank case to cast doubt on the circumstances of his antisemitic lynching. We are deeply disturbed that any public official would parrot these hateful and false conspiracy theories.”
On Wednesday, Seth Mandel, senior editor of Commentary Magazine, tweeted:
The scapegoating and lynching of Leo Frank was the American version of William of Norwich, a foundational blood libel that is inseverable from the violence it provokes. This is the way a pogromist talks, and she’s now deputy press secretary in Trump’s DoD. See Drew’s tweet below https://t.co/4oK8V8qiqe
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) March 5, 2025
Wilson posted about Leo Frank at least twice, according to Mother Jones. She also explicitly supported the Great Replacement theory, a debunked white nationalist conspiracy theory, that the elites are replacing white people in Western countries with black and brown people from Africa and the Middle East.
Wilson tweeted in 2024: “The Great Replacement isn’t a right-wing conspiracy theory… it’s reality.”
Wilson has tweeted the phrase “Ausländer Raus” at least four times, including the slogan “Deutschland den Deutschen. Ausländer raus.” This phrase, which translates to “Germany for Germans, foreigners out,” is widely recognized as a slogan with Nazi roots in Germany.
