Court calls for neo-Nazi writer to pay $14M in anti-Semitic harassment case

A federal court on Monday ruled that the publisher of a neo-Nazi website should pay $14 million to a woman he subjected to an anti-Semitic harassment campaign.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch recommended that Andrew Anglin, publisher of the Daily Stormer, be ordered pay the sum to Whitefish, Mont., real estate agent Tanya Gersh and remove posts encouraging readers to contact her.

{mosads}The Southern Poverty Law Center had sued Anglin on Gersh’s behalf in April 2017 after he launched a online campaign against her and accused her of trying to run the mother of white supremacist Richard Spencer out of town, which Gersh has denied.

After Anglin announced the campaign and posted her personal information, Gersh said she and her husband and then-12-year-old son received over 700 messages, many of them including death threats, between December 2016 and April 2017, culminating with Anglin’s announcement of an armed march ending at Gersh’s house. The event never took place.

“As a result of the attacks and threats on my life, I have lost my sense of safety and security and I don’t know that I’ll ever get it back,” Gersh said in a statement.

“But I am making it my goal to become the Tanya that has a lot more strength and a lot more toughness and to take the pain and to turn it into something that can ultimately change the world and make it a little bit better for others,” she added.

The recommendation must be approved by U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen before it takes effect.

Anglin also recently lost a libel lawsuit from Muslim comedian Dean Obeidallah and was ordered to pay $4.1 million in damages after falsely blaming him for the May 2017 terrorist attack on a Manchester, England, Ariana Grande concert.

He is also being sued by Taylor Dumpson, the first black woman elected student body president at American University, for posting her personal information and inciting a similar “troll storm” against her.