American University Student Wins Lawsuit Over Neo-Nazi Site Publisher

According to the New York Times, the first African-American female student body president of American University won a $725,000 judgment on Friday in a lawsuit against Andrew Anglin, the publisher of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.

Stormer provoked a racist “troll storm” targeting the student body president, Taylor Dumpson.

On the day that Dumpson was sworn in as American University’s student body president in May 2017, bananas were found hanging on nooses around campus. The bananas had messages scribbled on them—one referred to Ms. Dumpson’s predominantly black sorority and another read  “HARAMBE BAIT”, a reference to the gorilla killed at the Cincinnati Zoo back in 2016.

After news outlets reported on the nooses, Mr. Anglin posted Ms. Dumpson’s personal information online and encouraged his followers to harass her. Among them, Brian Ade and Evan McCarty heeded the call, threatening her with racist and demeaning messages online, according to a lawsuit filed last year.

Mr. McCarty, of Eugene, Ore., reached a settlement in December in which he agreed to apologize, renounce white supremacy, undergo counseling and help civil rights groups fight hate and bigotry.

“Ms. Dumpson was targeted because of her race and gender,” Judge Rosemary Collyer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in her ruling on Friday awarding the judgment.

Ms. Dumpson was awarded $500,000 in punitive damages, $124,000 in attorneys’ fees and more than $101,000 in compensatory damages.

The ruling applied to Mr. Ade, Mr. Anglin and the limited liability company Moonbase Holdings, which provides The Daily Stormer and Mr. Anglin financial support, according to court papers.

This was the third judgement in the past three months against Mr. Anglin. In a separate case on Thursday, a $14 million judgment was rendered against him. Anglim now owes a total of nearly $20 million to three people, none of which have yet to be paid.

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