In May of this year I received a draft civil complaint from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attorneys that they intend to file in the Southern District of New York. The complaint states that “Mr. Kennedy files this action to publicly establish the truth, to rehabilitate his name and reputation, and to seek appropriate remedies for the harm caused by Defendants’ intentionally false statements.”
According to the attorneys, Kennedy spent over $1 million to discover my true identity, and he intends to recover those costs plus damages. (Note: like most DKos users, I never made a concerted effort to conceal my identity. As my username indicates, I am a proud registered Democrat in the Great State of Maine — as Mr. Kennedy no doubts knows.)
The complaint dates back to August 2020 when I posted this diary concerning a speech RFK Jr. made at a massive demonstration in Berlin protesting the (largely successful) anti-Covid restrictions put in place by then-chancellor Angela Merkel. A reporter for Berlin’s largest daily newspaper — Der Tagesspiegel — was on the scene and I summarized very briefly his excellent piece, which you can still access from my diary link (note: I am bi-lingual German and follow the German press closely).
Originally, Kennedy filed a complaint against Daily Kos for the site to disclose the diarist’s (me) identity. That lawsuit is still under appeal in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York. All relevant documents can be viewed here and here. Kos deserves this community’s support (including financial) for refusing to give into Kennedy and his attorneys.
The draft complaint against me states that the Berlin protest was “initiated by the group Querdenken — a democratic movement whose name means “lateral thinking” and who vehemently oppose all forms of fascim and extremism.” This is false. The Querdenken are an anti-democratic, pro-Russia, anti-science group that has been under investigation by the German Verfassungsschutz for its ties to right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi organizations. The leader of the Querdenken — MIchael Ballweg — who appears on stage with Kennedy at the Berlin demonstration — has close ties to right-wing extremist groups and was imprisoned last year for fraud and money-laundering.
I am publishing this diary now because Mr. Kennedy is scheduled to testify next week for Jim Jordan’s panel on censorship by the Biden Administration. This is the height of hypocrisy: Kennedy wants the free rein to express his dangerous vaccine conspiracies while using his vast wealth to abuse the courts to silence me and other critics.
