A federal court on Friday ordered Andrew Anglin, an elusive website publisher accused of leading an anti-Semitic “troll storm” against a Jewish real estate agent, Tanya Gersh, to disclose his net worth and other details sought by lawyers seeking damages.
Jeremiah C. Lynch, a U.S. magistrate judge for Montana federal court, ordered Mr. Anglin to reveal the details in a 30-page order entered as part of a civil suit spurred by articles published on his website, The Daily Stormer, starting in late 2016.
Mr. Anglin, a 34-year-old Ohio native, published Ms. Gersh’s contact information on The Daily Stormer in a crude, anti-Semitic post that accused her of attempting to extort the mother of Richard Spencer, a white nationalist activist, and encouraged readers to “call her and tell her what you think.”
“Tell them you are sickened by their Jew agenda,” Mr. Anglin wrote for The Daily Stormer. “And hey — if you’re in the area, maybe you should stop by and tell her in person what you think of her actions.”
Ms. Gersh said her family received hundreds of intimidating emails, phone calls and text messages following Mr. Anglin’s initial post, and she subsequently sued in April 2017 for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of Montana’s Anti-Intimidation Act, seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Mr. Anglin asserts that he left the U.S., and he has not been seen publicly since the lawsuit’s start.
Moving the discovery process in the case forward Friday, the court compelled Mr. Anglin to provide lawyers for Ms. Gersh with financial details and other information relevant to their suit, including phone numbers, email addresses, usernames and social media accounts he might have used in connection with the so-called “troll storm.”
“Anglin must provide a current financial statement allowing for preliminary evaluation of his net worth, as well as the name and location of any institution where he has maintained an account between January 1, 2016, and the present,” the order noted. “If Gersh ultimately obtains a judgment for punitive damages, she may seek additional discovery as necessary for the purpose of enforcing that judgment.”
Mr. Anglin intends to comply with the court’s request, his attorney told The Washington Times over the weekend, despite previously raising concerns about disclosing the details.
“While it may compel out client to do something he was reluctant to do, I can see no likelihood that the court will have a different set of rules if we are forced to file our own motion to compel,” lawyer Marc Randazza told The Times.
Ms. Gersh is being represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog group that has labeled Mr. Anglin a “neo-Nazi leader.”
“We’re pleased that Magistrate Judge Lynch has ordered Mr. Anglin to provide additional information relevant to this case, including information related to his finances, and look forward to presenting our client’s claims to a jury,” SPLC lawyer David Dinielli told The Washington Times.
Launched in 2013, The Daily Stormer gained national notoriety after Mr. Anglin published an article in August 2017 mocking Heather Heyer, a woman killed hours earlier while protesting against white nationalists congregating in Charlottesville, Virginia. Major internet companies in the U.S. and abroad, including GoDaddy and Google, among others, subsequently refused to do business with the website.
Mr. Anglin has previously described his website as “performance art.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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