Neo-Nazi Says He’s Innocent Of Harassment Because Trump Said Similar Things
By Aiden Pink September 13, 2018
The publisher of the most prominent neo-Nazi website in America, who is being sued for urging followers to target a Jewish woman with a “troll storm,” is arguing in federal court that the case should be dismissed because President Trump’s use of similar language was recently found to be legally acceptable, the Montana newspaper the Missoulian reported Thursday.
In 2016, Andrew Anglin, who runs the hate website The Daily Stormer, published the contact information of Missoula resident Tanya Gersh and urged followers to “Hit Em Up” with an “old fashioned Troll Storm.” He followed up with “NO VIOLENCE OR THREATS OF VIOLENCE OR ANYTHING EVEN CLOSE TO THAT.”
Gersh, who is Jewish and who had been in a dispute with the mother of prominent white supremacist Richard Spencer, received numerous death threats and anti-Semitic. She went on to sue Anglin for emotional distress.
But an appeals court in Kentucky ruled on Tuesday that Trump did not incite violence at a 2016 campaign rally when he said “get ‘em out of here…don’t hurt ‘em,” and that his language was protected by the First Amendment. Anglin’s lawyers argued the following day that Anglin’s language was also protected speech since he similarly conditioned his “troll storm” request with “NO VIOLENCE.”
Anglin has also claimed that he can’t be held responsible for what third parties may have done to Gersh.
Anglin had previously been in hiding in order to avoid being served with process papers in this and other suits, but was ordered by a judge in February to reveal his location to the court.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
