RFK Jr. Loses Lawsuit (Again) Over 'Cavorting With Neo-Nazis In Berlin'
Years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cavorted with neo-Nazis in Berlin. A Daily Kos community member, whose real name is David (which he himself revealed), summarized a local news article about the event, headlined his write-up “Anti-Vaxxer RFK JR. joins neo-Nazis in massive Berlin ‘Anti-Corona’ Protest,” and moved on with his day.
In 2021, a furious RFK Jr. sued Daily Kos to unmask David’s identity. Four-plus years later, after bouncing between New York and California courts, amicus briefs from The New York Times and 10 other organizations, and endless appeals, our case is still working its way through the courts. Somewhere along the way and after considerable expenses, RFK Jr.’s team figured out David’s identity and sued him directly. Those original suits went nowhere: He filed in New Hampshire—while David lives in Maine—then blew an appeal deadline (his lawyers blamed bad Wi-Fi, no joke).
My most recent comprehensive update on the case is here.
(For the record, I’ve flat-out called RFK Jr. a Nazi. He’s never sued me or Daily Kos for that—just fixated on the lower-profile diarist. It’s been bizarre.)
At this point, two cases remained. The first is ours, still on appeal, aimed at securing a New York precedent to shield media outlets from frivolous suits like this. The second—the case against David—should finally be dead now, after a Maine judge granted summary judgment earlier this month. And the reasoning is hilarious.
Summary judgment means that the facts can’t be in dispute and that the judge can rule as a matter of law. The fatal problem for RFK Jr.? He refused to deny that he cavorted with neo-Nazis.
From the decision, RFK Jr. alleged that David claimed he:
- Helped cause the Samoa Measles Outbreak;
- Opposed all vaccines;
- Expressed “dangerous vaccine conspiracies” that caused the death of 234,000 Americans;
- Wanted to cause the death of all black people;
- Said Covid19 was designed to save Jewish people; and
- Knowingly joined, supported, and associated with a neo-Nazi party in Berlin.
The judge dismantled those claims one by one. Here’s an example, given the outrageousness of the claim:
iv. Plaintiff “wanted to cause the death of black people”Defendant has never written or said this statement [...] On January 4, 2022, Defendant posted on X, without comment, a link to an article, authored by thegrio.com, titled "Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is harming black people—and his family legacy—with his vaccine misinformation campaign.” [...] Plaintiff does not offer sworn evidence to the contrary.
To make it crystal clear, a reposted tweet from a respected publication on how RFK Jr. is reportedly harming Black people turned into a legal claim that RFK Jr. “wanted to cause the death of all black people.” He really is a piece of shit.
Let’s do another one:
v. Plaintiff “said Covid19 was designed to save Jews”Defendant has never written or said this statement. [...] On July 16, 2023, Defendant posted on X, without comment, a link to an article, authored by the Washington Post, titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests covid was designed to spare Jews, Chinese People.” [...] Complaint supports Defendant’s assertion that he repeated the third-party content without embellishment. Plaintiff denies Defendant posted the link without embellishment, but cites no admissible record evidence to support the denial.
Again, RFK Jr.’s lawyers took a simple link to a Washington Post article and created an alternate reality in which David claimed COVID was “designed to save Jews.” RFK Jr.’s lawyers should be disbarred for wasting the court’s time with these egregious lies.
But the kicker is the Nazi-rally bit, the whole reason this fiasco started.
Defendant establishes as true, and Plaintiff admits, that Plaintiff joined the protest rally in Berlin as a speaker. [...] Plaintiff argues that Defendant’s statement [that it was organized by neo-Nazis] supports a defamatory inference that Plaintiff joined a neo-Nazi party or movement as a member. Although a defamatory inference may be actionable, the statement that Plaintiff joined the protest, which is true, does not reasonably give rise to an inference that Plaintiff joined the organizations sponsoring the protest.
In other words, RFK Jr. and his lawyers didn’t argue that the rally wasn’t organized by Nazis, just that he didn’t join the Nazi party as a member. Cool beans, bro. Except David never said RFK Jr. was a Nazi, just that he joined Nazis at their rally—and that turned out to be factually true. RFK Jr. didn’t even bother to dispute that part.
So chalk one up for the First Amendment.
And thank you—to our community and to Public Citizen—for funding this defense, and to David for standing strong throughout it all. He went up against RFK Jr. and emerged victorious. That couldn’t have been easy.
RFK Jr. is a dangerous loon who cavorts with neo-Nazis, and he can go fuck himself.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
