Neo-Nazi troll Andrew Anglin's celebratory mood crushed by $14 million judgment against him

David Neiwert
and
Daily Kos
16 July 2019

Over the weekend, Andrew Anglin was in a celebratory mood, thanks to Donald Trump’s racist tweets telling congresswomen of color to go back to their native countries.

Then, on Monday, the hammer fell on the notorious neo-Nazi troll and publisher of The Daily Stormer. A judge in Montana, ruling in a lawsuit brought by a Jewish woman from Whitefish and the Southern Poverty Law Center, determined that Anglin owed the woman $14 million in damages for the “troll storm” he unleashed on her in early 2017.

Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch found Anglin had acted with “actual malice,” declaring his conduct was “egregious and reprehensible,” and recommended that real estate agent Tanya Gersh be awarded the maximum in punitive damages under Montana law ($10 million) and more than $4 million in compensatory damages. The findings now await final approval from a federal judge.

Suddenly, after crowing all weekend about Trump’s tweets, The Daily Stormer fell silent and disappeared from the “dark web” site where it now resides. On Monday, Anglin had posted several laudatory pieces about Trump: “This is the kind of WHITE NATIONALISM we elected him for. And we’re obviously seeing it only because there’s another election coming up. But I’ll tell you, even knowing that, it still feels so good,” he wrote.

Noting that among the people Trump attacked was an African American congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley, who was born and raised in Chicago, Anglin said, “This is not some half-assed anti-immigrant white nationalism. Trump is literally telling American blacks to go back to Africa.” He later added, “All Trump is doing is once again expressing our collective anger. … This is what elected Trump and this is what will always be the best way for him to gain support.”

Anglin and his fellow neo-Nazis have openly and avidly supported Trump since the fall of 2015 and all during the 2016 campaign, thanks in large part to the signals he regularly sent through social media and his speeches indicating his support for their views. After the election, these same white nationalists and far-right extremists have continued to march in his name, resulting in a wave of hate crimes in which the perpetrators have used Trump’s name to terrorize vulnerable minorities.

The Montana lawsuit resulted from Anglin’s attempts to defend fellow white nationalist Richard Spencer, who resides in Whitefish part time with his parents. Concerned by his rising national profile after the election, a number of community leaders in Whitefish, including real estate agent Tanya Gersh, began raising concerns about his presence there.

Anglin became involved in the controversy by publishing Gersh’s name and addresses, as well as the names of her children, as well as those of several prominent Jewish leaders in Whitefish, alongside their photos and superimposed Star of David patches, claiming they were responsible for the Spencers’ problems. Simultaneously, an online army of “trolls” descended en masse on some of the people in Whitefish who had been identified as opposing his parents’ business. Their Twitter and email accounts were flooded with anti-Semitic and misogynistic threats.

“So Then—Let’s Hit Em Up. Are y’all ready for an old fashioned Troll Storm?” Anglin wrote. He demurred that he was not advocating “violence or threats of violence or anything even close to that.” A week later, he published another post claiming he was preparing to bus in skinheads from the Bay Area of California: “I have already worked out most of the details with the leaders of the local groups,” he wrote. “We are continuing our barrage against the criminal Jews of Whitefish,” he wrote. “We are planning an armed protest in Whitefish … we can easily march through the center of the town carrying high-powered rifles.”

Anglin’s threats initially spurred Whitefish’s police chief to step up patrols, particularly for the people Anglin named in his posts.

For his part, Spencer attempted to tamp down the controversy—but only by heaping blame on his critics while rationalizing Anglin’s behavior and suggesting the whole thing was a “joke” and a “troll” prank. Appearing on white supremacist leader David Duke’s radio program, Spencer claimed he wanted to try to keep his part-time Montana home out of the limelight created by his white nationalist activism. “I don’t host conferences, I don’t hand out fliers here,” he said. “It’s just a place I go to get my work done. I like being out here. I don’t want my daughter growing up in Washington, D.C. – I don’t need to tell you why.”

The problem, he claimed, was caused by local Montana activists who had organized to oppose his efforts several years before, notably local anti-hate group Love Lives Here and the Helena-based Montana Human Rights Network. He claimed they had attempted to strong-arm his mother into denouncing him but had failed.

In a YouTube rant, Spencer called for the controversy to just go away: “I’m just saying this—let’s just end this. Let’s put it to bed. The controversy’s over. Don’t bring it up again. I won’t bring it up again. I’ve said all I need to say.” As for Anglin, Spencer explained, “He’s wild. We have different styles. But this is one thing I will say, and I will say this with confidence. Andrew Anglin is a rational person. Andrew Anglin has specifically stated that this is nonviolent and that no laws are broken. This is—this was a troll. So that’s what it is. People were pushing back.”

The larger Whitefish community’s response to the threats to Jewish community members spoke loudly. “It’s important to know that the businesses that were hit by this were strongly supported in the community,” said Will Randall of Love Lives Here. “Their businesses are booming now. They were hit at the beginning and were frightened, scared. And then the community came in and said, ‘Well, I’m going to buy your product. I’m going to buy your soap, or your services. We’ve got your back.’”

The threats created a national stir, with various media organizations ranging from CNN and The Washington Post to local Montana news outfits picking up the story and magnifying it. Eventually, it emerged that Anglin had not obtained the proper permit for a march, and he announced it was being postponed. He promised to file for a permit later, but never did.

In April 2017, the SPLC and Gersh filed suit against Anglin, noting, “The threats took an emotional and physical toll on Gersh. She experienced panic attacks and feared answering the phone. She often went to bed in tears and woke up crying. She had trouble leaving her home and felt anxiety in crowds. She gained weight, lost hair and was in physical pain. She had been prescribed medication and had sought other treatment, including trauma therapy.”

In response to the suit, Anglin allegedly fled the country to avoid being served the court papers—reportedly to places such as Cambodia and Albania.

Anglin lost a similar lawsuit earlier this year to comedian and pundit Dean Obedeillah, who was awarded $4.1 million in damages after The Daily Stormer falsely claimed he had masterminded a London terrorist attack.

Monday’s ruling is a court victory, but it’s unclear whether Gersh will ever collect the money from Anglin, who could remain in exile abroad in order to avoid being forced to pay. "The significance is not in whether we will collect the money," SPLC attorney David Dinielli said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. "The significance is that Tanya Gersh, a real estate agent from a small town in Montana, stood up to fight the most notorious neo-Nazi on the web, and she won."