Laura Loomer Sues Tlaib For $2 Million For Allegedly Grabbing Her Phone
Laura Loomer waits backstage during a “Demand Free Speech” rally on Freedom Plaza on July 6, 2019 in Washington, DC. Image by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
By Aiden Pink August 27, 2019
Conservative provocateur Laura Loomer filed a lawsuit against Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Friday, seeking $2 million in damages related to a incident in which Tlaib allegedly grabbed Loomer’s cell phone when the activist tried to confront the politician at a campaign event.
Loomer crashed a campaign event in Minneapolis in October for Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar when they were running to be the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. The activist, who has been banned from Facebook and Twitter – as well as Uber and Lyft – due to Islamophobic statements, yelled out questions about Hamas to Tlaib while recording the encounter.
Video that Loomer uploaded to YouTube seems to show Tlaib trying to yank Loomer’s phone away. Loomer’s attorney Larry Klayman claimed in a press release that this incident put Loomer in “alleged fear of immediate severe bodily injury.” Klayman added that Loomer filed a criminal complaint with the Minneapolis Police Department, which has yet to act.
The press release claims that the goal of the lawsuit is to “hold Tlaib accountable for her unhinged hatred of Jews and Israel.” Tlaib and Omar are the two members of Congress who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. They were barred this month from conducting a congressional trip in Israel and the West Bank due to that stance.
Loomer, who is Jewish, announced earlier this month that she was running for Congress as a Republican to unseat longtime Florida Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel. Loomer admitted in a fundraising email that one of her main motivations was the idea that being a congressional candidate would force the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter to un-ban her, The Daily Beast reported.
Loomer previously attempted to get back her account in November 2018 by handcuffing herself to Twitter’s New York office building while wearing a yellow Star of David. After several hours without a response from Twitter, Loomer had someone cut her handcuffs with bolt cutters and left the scene.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him 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
