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Fifth Column

Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally organizers ordered to pay $5 million in legal fees

2023-03-12

Lawfare.

[IsraelTimes] In decision, judge says plaintiff’s research shows planning of event led to violence; costs add substantial amount to debt incurred by demonstration leaders

The rally was called Unite The Right. This is the one that was a mix of conservative patriots objecting to the removal of historic statuary, neo-Nazis, and Antifa pretending to be neo-Nazis, both there to cause trouble. Many of the gun toters were from several chapters of Redneck Revolt/John Brown Gun Club — which calls itself Antifa’s militia wing — pretending to be white supremacists. In a just world, they would be the ones tried and fined...

The organizers of the deadly neo-Nazi

...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously and purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both....
Charlottesville rally in 2017 have been ordered to pay close to $5 million to plaintiffs for legal costs in a lawsuit, adding to the penalties already facing the mostly bankrupt crew of Death Eaters.

As seen in the Rantburg archives: at least one of the organizers, Jason Kessler, had previously been involved in the Occupy movement, raising the question of whether he was an Antifa and/or FBI agent provocateur.

The rally organizers were sued later in 2017 by Charlottesville residents who suffered trauma and injuries because of the deadly riots.

Are they also going after the Democratic mayor who invited Antifa to join in the festivities and the police leadership who not only refused to keep the two sides separate but forced the protesters to pass through an armed Antifa gauntlet?

The $4.91 million for lawyers’ fees and other expenses incurred by the plaintiffs is substantially less than the $13 million they sought but adds to the debt that will likely follow the defendants for the rest of their lives.

In his decision released Tuesday, Magistrate Joel Hoppe cited the massive amount of research that the plaintiffs’ legal team put into establishing that a conspiracy led to the deadly violence in the Virginia college town.

"Fact discovery in this case was complex, expansive and voluminous," Hoppe wrote. "When Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit in October 2017, the world had seen and heard reports of the torch march, overtly racist and antisemitic chants, and ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful festivities in Charlottesville a few months earlier. But ’the world had not yet seen or heard about the planning and coordination that enabled the conflagration,’" he added, quoting a filing by the plaintiffs.

The legal team used message exchanges between the conspirators, among other sources.

In January, the judge in the case, Norman Moon, slashed the $26 million a jury awarded plaintiffs last year to $2.35 million, basing his ruling on a Virginia law that caps punitive damages at $350,000. The amount was nonetheless burdensome to an array of groups and individuals who have said that they were broke.

The lawyers were funded by a nonprofit set up to litigate the case, Integrity First for America, and by donations.

"The impact of this case will be felt for years to come," Amy Spitalnick, the executive director of Integrity First for America, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "Not just on the defendants who continue to face major financial, operational, and legal consequences for their actions, but also in the broader fight against extremism as it serves as a model for accountability."

Related: Rantburg archive search for Charlottesville (December 2016-March 2018)
Instapundit archive search for Charlottesville, which among much else links to a study blaming the violence on how the Charlottesville police department organized themselves to increase rather than reduce violence between the parties.

Posted by:trailing wife

#1 ...Charlottesville rally in 2017 have been ordered to pay close to $5 million to plaintiffs for legal costs in a lawsuit... Nearly six years after the incident? There is something radically wrong with our legal system.

Posted by: Slavising Unineting5672 2023-03-12 10:38

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