Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Neo-Nazi Says He’s Innocent Of Harassment Because Trump Said Similar Things

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 [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.