Anglin, one of the nation’s most notorious neofascists as the longtime publisher of the explicitly pro-Nazi Daily Stormer, has a number of multimillion-dollar legal judgments against him that he has made a second career out of skipping out on and avoiding, claiming that he lives overseas now. But now a federal judge has issued an arrest warrant for Anglin in the case involving the largest of these judgments—which means that Anglin is now officially a federal fugitive, and his options are going to become very limited.
On Wednesday in Missoula, Montana, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen issued a bench warrant for Anglin’s arrest, after three years of Anglin ignoring a $14 million judgment against him. In August 2019, he was ordered to pay that amount to a Montana woman for orchestrating an antisemitic harassment campaign against her family.
Whitefish resident Tanya Gersh, a real-estate agent, was bombarded by Anglin’s army of online neo-Nazis in 2016 with a flood of threats and hateful messages after Anglin targeted her for having helped organize a local campaign against white nationalist Richard Spencer, who lived in Whitefish part-time then. Anglin claimed that she and other Jewish residents had engaged in an “extortion racket.” He wound up publishing 30 stories at the Stormer attacking her by name. The harassment included posting photos of her and her children (including a photoshop of them entering Auschwitz).
“So Then—Let’s Hit Em Up. Are y’all ready for an old-fashioned Troll Storm?” Anglin wrote. He demurred that he was not advocating “violence or threats of violence or anything even close to that.” A week later, he published another post claiming he was preparing to bus in skinheads from the Bay Area of California: “I have already worked out most of the details with the leaders of the local groups,” he wrote. “We are continuing our barrage against the criminal Jews of Whitefish,” he wrote. “We are planning an armed protest in Whitefish … we can easily march through the center of the town carrying high-powered rifles.”
Gersh, with the assistance of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), sued Anglin. In response to the suit, Anglin allegedly fled the country to avoid being served the court papers—reportedly to places such as Cambodia and Albania. After multiple delaying tactics on Anglin’s part—mainly by not appearing in court—the case was resolved when Judge Christensen finally issued a default judgment against him in August 2019 and ordered him to pay over $4 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages to Gersh.
Anglin fell silent for a while and burrowed deeper into hiding afterward. Gersh’s attorneys say Anglin has paid nothing at all toward the judgment, and has blown off requests for information—regarding his assets, his revenues from the Stormer, and most of all, his whereabouts.
Earlier this year, on Sept. 28, a magistrate judge’s recommendation to hold Anglin in civil contempt for his failure to respond to post-judgment discovery requests about his monetary assets was adopted by a federal court, which granted Anglin 30 days to clear himself of contempt-of-court findings by complying. He again ignored the finding, so Christensen issued the warrant for Anglin's arrest.
On Wednesday in Missoula, Montana, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen issued a bench warrant for Anglin’s arrest, after three years of Anglin ignoring a $14 million judgment against him. In August 2019, he was ordered to pay that amount to a Montana woman for orchestrating an antisemitic harassment campaign against her family.
Whitefish resident Tanya Gersh, a real-estate agent, was bombarded by Anglin’s army of online neo-Nazis in 2016 with a flood of threats and hateful messages after Anglin targeted her for having helped organize a local campaign against white nationalist Richard Spencer, who lived in Whitefish part-time then. Anglin claimed that she and other Jewish residents had engaged in an “extortion racket.” He wound up publishing 30 stories at the Stormer attacking her by name. The harassment included posting photos of her and her children (including a photoshop of them entering Auschwitz).
“So Then—Let’s Hit Em Up. Are y’all ready for an old-fashioned Troll Storm?” Anglin wrote. He demurred that he was not advocating “violence or threats of violence or anything even close to that.” A week later, he published another post claiming he was preparing to bus in skinheads from the Bay Area of California: “I have already worked out most of the details with the leaders of the local groups,” he wrote. “We are continuing our barrage against the criminal Jews of Whitefish,” he wrote. “We are planning an armed protest in Whitefish … we can easily march through the center of the town carrying high-powered rifles.”
Gersh, with the assistance of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), sued Anglin. In response to the suit, Anglin allegedly fled the country to avoid being served the court papers—reportedly to places such as Cambodia and Albania. After multiple delaying tactics on Anglin’s part—mainly by not appearing in court—the case was resolved when Judge Christensen finally issued a default judgment against him in August 2019 and ordered him to pay over $4 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages to Gersh.
Anglin fell silent for a while and burrowed deeper into hiding afterward. Gersh’s attorneys say Anglin has paid nothing at all toward the judgment, and has blown off requests for information—regarding his assets, his revenues from the Stormer, and most of all, his whereabouts.
Earlier this year, on Sept. 28, a magistrate judge’s recommendation to hold Anglin in civil contempt for his failure to respond to post-judgment discovery requests about his monetary assets was adopted by a federal court, which granted Anglin 30 days to clear himself of contempt-of-court findings by complying. He again ignored the finding, so Christensen issued the warrant for Anglin's arrest.
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