Adam Kokesh

In a jailhouse interview on July 18 Kokesh denied any connection to the drugs found in the raid, implying they were planted. On the same day, Kokesh announced his plans to run for President of the United States in 2020 on a platform of an orderly dissolution of the U.S. Federal Government.

In April 2020, he announced that John McAfee, the software developer running his own campaign for the nomination, as his running mate; McAfee also endorsed Kokesh.

Kokesh chose Larry Sharpe as his new running mate. Kokesh was eliminated in the second round of the 2020 Libertarian National Convention, and subsequently endorsed Libertarian nominee Jo Jorgensen's campaign.

He has announced plans to run for President of the United States in 2020 on the platform of an orderly dissolution of the federal government. Kokesh says that if he is elected, he will immediately sign his one-and-only executive order to declare the federal government bankrupt and of no authority. He will then resign to become "Custodian of the Federal Government" to oversee the process as a bankruptcy agent. Every federal agency will then either be liquidated, localized to the state level or privatized, over the next four years.

In January 2019, 204,453 copies of FREEDOM! were mailed for free to residents in many neighbourhoods of New Orleans, Louisiana. The distribution cost around US$131,000, which was primarily raised from cryptocurrency-related companies. The promotional campaign was named "Operation Big Easy Book Bomb" and intentionally timed before the 2020 Libertarian National Convention.

Kokesh routinely uploads activism videos to his YouTube channel, Adam vs. The Man. As of July 2019, the YouTube channel had 248,000 subscribers. Topics include Kokesh's political views, and videos about how to complete a DUI-checkpoint.

On January 16, 2018, Kokesh reaffirmed his candidacy for President. He was pulled over by Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers twice that day and arrested the second time on marijuana and controlled substance charges. He was bailed out on January 25.

In April 2017, Kokesh had organized a demonstration in front of the White House as a protest against the Syrian bombing campaign, but before it could start Kokesh was arrested on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court on charges related to him disrupting a TSA security line in Maryland in 2015.

In August 2016, Kokesh embarked on the "For the Love of FREEDOM!" tour. The tour, featuring over 60 stops and including all of the 48 contiguous states, served as an exploratory tour for his 2020 Presidential run. Free copies of his book were given away to all in attendance at each event.

Kokesh appears in the role of "A Soldier" in the 2016 film The Prey, and as himself in the documentaries The Road to Fallujah (2008), For Liberty: How the Ron Paul Revolution Watered the Withered Tree of Liberty (2009), Owned & Operated (2012), Derrick J's Victimless Crime Spree (2012), ShadowRing (2015), and Gray State: The Rise (2015).

In 2015, the Kokesh renamed the channel to Freedom!

On June 12, 2014, Kokesh, after entering an Alford plea in Circuit Court to two felonies related to his possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms while possessing a gun, was convicted of drug and gun charges, which he did not contest. In September, Kokesh received a suspended sentence.

Kokesh got the idea for the book while reading other libertarian tracts during his stay in jail. The book advocates for the use of cryptocurrency and claims the safest populace is a well-armed one. FREEDOM! was published on Independence Day (July 4) in 2014.

Adam vs. The Man was a talk show which was available in a variety of formats, such as AM radio, web-access, podcast and Facebook-linked YouTube channel. Initially airing in 2011 as an evening two-hour broadcast on KIVA AM 1550 talk radio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Adam vs. The Man then shifted to a half-hour video news format on RT before fully moving to the internet as an hour-long video podcast. On April 7, 2014, AVTM 4.0 was launched from Los Angeles, California, and could be viewed live daily from noon to 2 PM, Pacific Time Zone.

In May 2013, Kokesh announced an "Open Carry March on Washington" where thousands of marchers bearing arms would cross from Virginia into Washington, D.C. on Independence Day to protest strict gun laws. He described the event as a nonviolent demonstration to be coordinated with DC law enforcement and that marchers should respond "with Satyagraha" and peacefully turn back if met with force, and should be prepared to "submit to arrest without resisting."

On July 4, 2013, Kokesh posted a YouTube video of himself allegedly loading a shotgun in Freedom Plaza in the District of Columbia in open defiance of DC law. Police indicated they believed he may have used a green screen, though on his return to the plaza on July 8 he insisted data from government surveillance cameras in Freedom Plaza would show he was there.

On July 26, Kokesh posted bail in Virginia and was immediately rearrested by U.S. Park Police for breaking a D.C. law forbidding bearing arms which carries a penalty of up to five years in jail, in connection with his Freedom Plaza video. Magistrate Judge Lori Parker ordered Kokesh to remain in the D.C. jail over the weekend because, she said, he had violated the rules of his release in another case. Specifically, she noted that in June 2013, Kokesh was charged with possession of marijuana after he was arrested on the south side of the White House allegedly smoking a marijuana cigarette. On July 29 D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Sullivan, calling Kokesh "a very dangerous man," ordered him to remain in D.C. jail until trial.

On November 6, 2013, Kokesh was released from jail after waiving his right to a trial and pleading guilty to the July 4 weapons charges and a marijuana possession charge from the June 8 White House protest. On January 16, 2014, Kokesh was sentenced to two years of probation.

While in jail after his 2013 arrest stemming from his civil disobedience at Freedom Plaza, Kokesh began work on his book FREEDOM!

On July 23, 2013, Kokesh announced his candidacy for U.S. President in 2020 from a jailhouse interview with Fox 5, after he was arrested for the Open Carry incident earlier that month. He stated he was running on the single-issue idea of an "orderly dissolution of the U.S. Federal Government". He was the first Libertarian Party candidate to announce a presidential bid for the 2020 election.

On January 19, 2013, Kokesh appeared as a future version of himself at an anti-war-debt rally scene in the 2014 sci-fi thriller, Alongside Night. Kokesh wrote the speech he delivered, a tribute to the character of Dr. Martin Vreeland (played by Kevin Sorbo), in the background during an action sequence. Most of the speech plays during the movie's end credits and the unedited full speech is on YouTube.

Kokesh was a spokesperson for "Veterans for Ron Paul", a grassroots group in support of the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign.

On February 20, 2012, after a "Veterans for Ron Paul" rally organized by Kokesh, 500 marchers, including veterans, active-duty service, and their families, marched towards the White House. There they engaged in ceremonial flag-folding in memory of deceased soldiers and periods of silence for soldiers who died in battle and for those who committed suicide after returning.

On June 26, 2012, Kokesh organized a protest against the decision of Middleborough, Massachusetts, to ban cursing in public with punishment of a $20 fine. Kokesh said efforts to limit citizens' free speech was "more offensive, vulgar and obscene than any curse word."

In October 2012, the decision was overturned by the state's attorney general on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

Adam vs. The Man was licensed by the Russian affiliated RT America in April 2011. The move was criticized by Accuracy in Media's columnist Cliff Kincaid who referenced his own column entry from 2008 discussing RT's coverage of the Russia–Georgian War in which he condemned RT for "preferring to use foreigners, especially Americans, to make Russian propaganda points" before stating that "the American Marine Veteran, Adam Kokesh, seems to fit the bill, having emerged as an anti-war activist who ran as a Republican for Congress and supported Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) for president". Slate writer David Weigel quoted Kokesh describing RT's model, saying: "Truth is the best propaganda. I love it! I really love the concept of that. It's funny: People say we're hiding shit as a network. No, no—we put the fact that this is propaganda right out front. We're putting out the truth that no one else wants to say. I mean, if you want to put it in the worst possible abstract, it's the Russian government, which is a competing protection racket against the other governments of the world, going against the United States and calling them on their bullshit."

On May 28, 2009, Kokesh and other activists participated in a flash mob-silent dance at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. in protest of a recent ruling against dancing within the monument.

On October 15, 2009, Kokesh filed with the FEC to run for the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico's 3rd congressional district as a Republican.

On September 2, 2008, Kokesh spoke at Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In February 2007, he became an active participant in the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). On March 19, to mark the 4th anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Kokesh and twelve other IVAW members participated in an occupation-like mock patrol of Washington, D.C.

In April 2007, Kokesh and a number of other activists were arrested after protesting the Iraq war in the Senate Hart Office Building. Kokesh had performed a ceremony for lost service members using an American flag.

In June 2007, Kokesh, along with IVAW members Liam Madden and Nate Lewis, was arrested for crossing onto Fort Benning during an anti-war protest. A spokesperson for the IVAW said the three had accidentally stepped onto the base while talking to a guard. The trespass charges were dismissed.

Kokesh is a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, serving in the Iraq War in 2004. Upon his return from Iraq, he became an anti-war activist and an advocate for Iraq Veterans Against the War. He emerged as a radio talk show host in 2011 when his TV, radio and web access show Adam vs. The Man was licensed by RT America; this show was cancelled months later due to an FEC complaint.

Following graduation from high school, Kokesh volunteered to go to Fallujah, Iraq, with the 3rd Civil Affairs Group. For his tour in Iraq from February to September 2004, he received a Navy Commendation Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and was promoted to the rank of a sergeant. He worked in schools and mosques, observed house raids, and says he was in a couple of convoys hit by IEDs.

Adam Charles Kokesh (/ˈ k oʊ k ɛ ʃ / ; born February 1, 1982) is an American libertarian political activist, radio host, and author. Kokesh was a U.S. 2020 Libertarian presidential candidate running on the single-issue platform of an "orderly dissolution of the federal government."

Kokesh was born on February 1, 1982, in San Francisco, California. He was raised in a Jewish middle-class family, and is the oldest of five siblings. His parents divorced when he was 10, after which Kokesh says he took refuge in punk rock.