MISSOULA – A judge has ordered the publisher of a major neo-Nazi website to pay a Whitefish woman more than $14 million in damages following threats made on the “Daily Stormer” page two years ago.
Tanya Gersh filed the federal lawsuit in April 2017, claiming Andrew Anglin had used his site to launch a “troll storm” against her.
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The online offensive came after the Whitefish community became embroiled in a debate over the White Supremacist movement.
She said her family had received more than 700 threats from Anglin and his followers, threats which have continued ever since.
Gersh’s attorneys pressed last week for a default judgment in the case after Anglin refused to respond to the court’s orders.
Federal Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch ruled in favor of Gersh on Monday, saying Anglin must pay $14 million for Gersh’s lost wages, damages, pain and suffering — with $2 million of the award for “future pain and suffering”.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says the ruling shows “this type of conduct is intolerable in a civil society.”