Target of online trolls sues publisher of neo-Nazi site

A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the publisher of a neo-Nazi website who allegedly launched a tirade of anti-Semitic attacks against a Whitefish woman and her family, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced.

“Montana is a state that respects diversity and inclusion,” the plaintiff’s attorney John Morrison said during a telephone news conference. “We do not tolerate bigoted attacks on our state’s residents.”

Tanya Gersh’s lawsuit against Andrew Anglin was filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula. Morrison, of Montana, is named as the plaintiff’s co-counsel with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

An email to Anglin was not immediately returned.

The case alleges invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of Montana’s Anti-Intimidation Act arising out of a coordinated, repulsive, threatening campaign of anti-Semitic harassment directed at Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent.

The lawsuit says this terror campaign, known as a “troll storm,” was launched by Anglin, a well-known neo-Nazi operating out of Ohio.

A monetary figure has not been attached to the suit, although Gersh hopes to win at least $225,000 for three of the four counts asserted in the complaint.

The alleged flood of attacks began in December when Anglin wrote a series of articles critical of Gersh that caused Daily Stormer readers to send threatening emails, voicemails, text messages, letters and social media comments to Gersh, the lawsuit claims.

Anglin’s initial article inquiring his followers to “take action” was in apparent retaliation to a real estate squabble between Gersh and Whitefish business owner Sherry Spencer. Sherry Spencer is the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer, who garnered nationwide attention after a video surfaced of him at a Washington, D.C., conference leading a room of 200 people with an outstretched arm and chants of “Hail Trump.”

Talk of boycotting Sherry Spencer’s business quickly circulated through Whitefish and surrounding communities, leading to a conversation between her and Gersh regarding Spencer’s business. Gersh asserts in the civil complaint that Sherry Spencer contacted her looking for advice on how to handle the situation, to which Gersh suggested selling the building and making a donation as a public sign of goodwill and disavowal of her son’s beliefs. According to the lawsuit, Sherry Spencer also asked Gersh for help drafting a statement about the sale.

After further discussion, Gersh and Spencer decided Gersh would not be a part of the sale and, according to the civil complaint, that was the last communication between the two.

Whitefish celebrates ‘Love Lives Here’

About two weeks later, on Dec. 15, Sherry Spencer published a post on Medium, in which she described the interaction as threatening on Gersh’s part. She painted Gersh as an agent of human rights organizations such as Love Lives Here and the Montana Human Rights Network.

“I had no intention of selling ... until I started receiving terrible threats in the last couple of weeks,” Sherry Spencer wrote, referring to alleged threats by Gersh.

The next day, Anglin’s post appeared on the Daily Stormer, accusing Gersh of “extorting” Spencer and initiating a hailstorm of anti-Semitism against Gersh and the Jewish community of Whitefish.

“Andrew Anglin and his troll army have attacked me and my family to the very core of who we are and the very essence of what we stand for,” Gersh said.

Whitefish roiled by white supremacist ‘troll army’

She said she is no longer working, is in trauma therapy, is losing her hair, goes to sleep crying and has anxiety.

Morrison complimented Gersh for having the courage to file the lawsuit.

“It was a very brave thing to do, and I am proud of her as a friend,” he said.

The news from Whitefish reverberated throughout the state as Gov. Steve Bullock released a letter Dec. 23 calling for all Montanans to stand united against hate in the wake of the incidents.

“We will not tolerate hate and intimidation of any kind. Not now. Not ever,” he wrote. “… So I ask you — as governor, as a husband, and as a father of three young children — to join me and build on and protect the Montana we know and love.”

In a Dec. 27 post on Medium, a panel of high-ranking and bipartisan officials from Montana made a more pointed declaration against Anglin and the neo-Nazi blog in a post titled “Standing Together.” The post ended with the names of Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines, then-Congressman Ryan Zinke, Attorney General Tim Fox and Bullock.

“We stand firmly together to send a clear message that ignorance, hatred and threats of violence are unacceptable and have no place in the town of Whitefish, or in any other community in Montana or across this nation,” the post reads. “We say to those few who seek to publicize anti-Semitic view that they shall find no safe haven here.”

'We don't want bullies in Whitefish'

A January march in Whitefish organized by Anglin was postponed because the necessary paperwork had not be filed.

In an emailed statement to the Tribune on Tuesday, Love Lives Here administrator Paige Rappleye said the human rights organization could not comment directly on the case, but said the Whitefish-based group was pleased to see the suit filed.

“When radical right-wing extremists like Andrew Anglin use bully tactics to threaten, intimidate and harass through vigilante actions, there should be consequences,” Rappleye said in the email. “This suit seeks justice in a civil, measured way for the Gersh family and people of Whitefish.”

The Montana Human Rights Network, which challenges hate groups and other extremists, supported the lawsuit and said there should be consequences when people use bully tactics to threaten.

“This suit correctly points out that an out-of-state online radical right-wing activists tried to punish the entire town of Whitefish with his own white supremacist beliefs,” co-director Rachel Carroll Rivas said.

“He doesn’t represent the values of equity and inclusivity that most Montanans showed the people of Whitefish who were targeted by this hate.”

More online

To read the lawsuit, go to: http://bit.ly/2pxTzpM