We at VDARE.com have unfortunately been forced to become interested in the subject of lawfare—defined by our friends at Wikipedia as the “use of legal systems and institutions to damage or delegitimize an opponent, or to deter individual’s usage of their legal rights.” [Links in original]
As VDARE.com Editor Peter Brimelow reported in NY Attorney General Letitia James’s Legal Lynching Of VDARE.com Moving Forward (With Help From REASON Magazine):
Last fall, the VDARE Foundation received a subpoena from the New York Attorney General, Letitia James…
In early December, 6,000 documents and a six-figure legal bill later, it became clear to us that we could finally demonstrate the NY AG was not acting in good faith…
We therefore filed suit in federal court, citing among other things, the obvious First Amendment violation by the NY AG.
Learning of this, the AG filed another action in NY State Court in a blatant attempt to preempt our federal suit. We filed our response last Friday, January 20. But on Monday, January 23, in one of the quickest and sloppiest decisions our lawyers have ever seen, Judge Sabrina Kraus abruptly ruled against us.
BREAKING NEWS: New York State’s Appellate Division has just (February 7) granted our application for a stay of Judge Kraus’s decision pending a full hearing of the issue.
The problem is that, unless we are blessed with a Federal Judge of great integrity and courage, Letitia James’ lawfare will continue metastasizing until the VDARE Foundation runs out of money.
She doesn’t even have to claim wrongdoing. The process of investigation in itself is the punishment.
Others are being attacked in the same way.
A Wisconsin federal judge has shot down bids by Kyle Rittenhouse and local law enforcement to toss out a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of slain Kenosha protester Anthony Huber.
Federal Judge Lynn Adelman, however, found that she couldn’t dismiss the suit at such an early stage…
[Kyle Rittenhouse loses bid to toss out lawsuit by family of slain Kenosha protester, by Priscilla DeGregory New York Post, February 2, 2023]
This decision flew absurdly in the face of the facts, as Rittenhouse’s lawyer timidly pointed out:
The only reason Kyle came into contact with Anthony Huber that night is that Huber struck Kyle on the head with a skateboard and knocked him to the ground while Kyle was fleeing a mob of other attackers and running toward Kenosha police to turn himself in.
Judge Adelman (actually male, and a Clinton appointee) has an established record as an unusually partisan Leftist: Judge attacking conservatives spotlights bias in court system, by Jonathan Turley, The Hill, March 14, 2020.
Another case with daunting ramifications: Most Important First Amendment Case You’ve Never Heard Of: Biden Regime Tries to Toss a Young Man in Jail for 10 Years for Anti-Hillary Memes, Revolver, February 6, 2023.
This extremely informative essay reports that Douglass Mackey, who ran the Ricky Vaughn Twitter account, of which
An MIT analysis estimated that Ricky Vaughn was a bigger influence on the 2016 election than NBC News.
…is being prosecuted by the Biden Justice Department for a couple of memes he posted, which are alleged to have possibly interfered with voting:
…the DOJ claims that the above meme merits a prison sentence of up to ten years, for violation of 18 U.S. Code § 241. The law, which concerns “Conspiracy against rights,” is a subset of the Enforcement Act of 1871, better known as the Ku Klux Klan Act.
As Revolver observes:
Reading the law, it’s obvious how it was aimed at the Ku Klux Klan. It is plainly, and obviously, meant to criminalize physical violence, threats, or intimidation used to prevent people from exercising constitutional rights, such as the right to vote.
Now, the DOJ claims that the law’s scope includes possibly tricking someone with a meme on Twitter… the law has never been used in this way before. This case is a drastic escalation in the use of “disinformation” as an excuse to target dissenting political voices.
The tweets happened in 2016, the prosecution commenced in 2021. Steve Sailer blogged about it at the time:
"This is a matter of National Security! Nobody could POSSIBLY have noticed that the Ricky Vaughn account was comic in intent and these tweets were jokes based on the concept that Hillary voters are stupid and would fall for anything." @Steve_Sailer https://t.co/L2FJeGhZ8c
— VDARE (@vdare) January 29, 2021
Unfortunately for Mackey (but perhaps not for his lawyers) he drew an exceptionally bad Judicial egg in the shape of Clinton-appointed district court judge Nicholas G. Garaufis. This individual brushed aside the watertight arguments of the defense for dismissal in January.
Judge Garaufis seems to have a bee in his bonnet about race. His handling of litigation alleging the NY Fire Department discriminated against Blacks was so egregious he was thrown off the case, as we reported in Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis Replaced On The “Vulcan Society” Case. More recently he emerged as a “go to” judge for those seeking to overthrow President Trump’s immigration policies by litigation: Kritarchs Cohen, Garaufis, Strike Again, Demand DACA Amnesty.
However these cases play out in the courts (and in this age of jury nullification Revolver is probably right to fear Mackey will not be treated fairly in the Brooklyn Federal Court), the first issue is cost.
Those attacked are certain to be faced with bankrupting legal costs even if completely innocent.
The chilling effect of this campaign by the Deep State is, and is meant to be, tremendous. It’s a special case of the War On Drugs–driven prosecutorial abuse epidemic identified more than twenty years ago (to the great dismay of his allies in the Reagan Era conservative movement) by Paul Craig Roberts.
I can only echo John Derbyshire’s closing remarks in NY AG LETITIA JONES vs. VDARE FOUNDATION: Why is lawfare legal?
How can it be legal for Leviathan, on a whim, or driven by ideological zeal, to prey on the time and resources of private citizens or small donor-funded organizations with the aim of driving them into poverty and silence? (Give to VDARE.com’s Legal Defense Fund here.)
Why don’t we have laws to restrain this?
If only we had a major political party that would stand up for the little guy against the mighty power of Leviathan!
Still, it must be said that there are, in fact, still judges of integrity and courage. A Clinton appointee, Judge Aleta Trauger, found for Jared Taylor’s American Renaissance when a Republican governor tried unconstitutionally to cripple its annual conference at the Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee with crippling security costs. A Clinton appointee, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts, found in favor of the Hutarees, framed in a precursor of the Gretchen Whitmer scandal.
Additionally, it is all too true that in the immortal words of Finley Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley: “The Supreme Court follows the election returns.” Public pressure, in the form of Revolver’s article (and, hopefully, this one) matters.
But this will only be true if we can keep fighting. That is why I must ask you to contribute to our Legal Defense Fund now.
All of us at VDARE.com, and our posterity will be most grateful.
Email Patrick Cleburne.
