Main: Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey at Harvard University's Institute of Politics' JFK Jr. Forum in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, Feb. 24, 2020 (AP Photo/Charles Krupa). Left inset: Indiana AG Todd Rokita (Indiana AG's Office).
If the numbers "86 46″ are a legal nothingburger but "86 47" in the form of seashells on a beach is a clear threat to the life of the president of the United States, what is an Indiana man to do who says he's been threatened with prosecution for posting "86" by itself in comments on multiple public officials' Facebook pages?
The ACLU filed a complaint on Thursday claiming that Monroe County's Lee Lawmaster decided to protest the latest Trump DOJ indictment against former FBI Director James Comey by posting "86" on multiple public officials' Facebook pages, including those of several prominent Indiana Republican officials. Those individuals included Attorney General Todd Rokita, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, and Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith. Lawmaster says Rokita's office threatened to retaliate against him with prosecution as a result.
According to the complaint, Indiana Attorney General's Office Director of Investigations Kurt Spivey showed up at Lawmaster's house on May 1 to question him about his "internet activity," threatened "we could easily indict you over this today," and repeatedly told him to "tone down" his rhetoric.
The lawsuit then included a transcript of the alleged back-and-forth between Spivey and Lawmaster, as recorded by the plaintiff's door camera.
"You remember what you posted?" Spivey asked.
"86 somebody," Lawmaster answered.
"You know what that means?" the investigator asked again. "Are you following the news with the Comey investigation and everything on – on the news about the previous FBI director being indicted over using that term with President Trump?"
Although Lawmaster initially said "no," he soon volunteered that he thinks 86 "just means get rid of," and he confirmed that he "heard about" the fact that Comey was indicted over the seashell formation "86 47."
From there, the complaint detailed, Spivey acknowledged that Lawmaster has the "right to freedom of speech" and to hold "whatever opinion you want" — before adding a crucial "but."
"But you crossed the line," the investigator said, "with a threat like that. You know, maybe you and I can come to an agreement that we kind of tone down the political rhetoric a little bit."
"When someone comes knocking on your door, obviously it's starting to go a little too far," Spivey added.
The investigator then allegedly said that if he and Lawmaster had "come to an agreement" about his "tone" moving forward, then "I can let this one slide."
"Will do," said the eventual plaintiff, who now seeks a declaration that Spivey violated his rights by chilling his free speech. Lawmaster also asked that the defendant be barred from "taking any adverse action against Mr. Lawmaster because of his past social media posts using '86' or any future posts using '86' or using any language that does not amount to a true threat as defined by the United States Supreme Court[.]"
The ACLU said in a statement that the First Amendment protects political speech and hyperbole, and thus any attempt to treat his postings as true threats under SCOTUS precedent must fail.
"Government officials cannot treat political criticism as a criminal threat simply because they disagree with it," ACLU Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said. "Mr. Lawmaster did nothing more than express his view that elected officials should be removed from office. Sending a state investigator to his home to warn him that he could be indicted for that speech is exactly the kind of government intimidation the First Amendment forbids."
When Law&Crime reached out to Rokita's office for a response to claims that it caused a citizen to stop speaking by making threats of prosecution, a spokesperson ridiculed Lawmaster and called the ACLU's suit an act of "communism."
"With death threats against elected officials being very prominent across the nation and in our state, the Attorney General and his family are a top target. There are—right now—two people being tried in separate Marion County cases for making violent death threats against the Attorney General. This is real, and our office takes true threats extremely seriously," Rokita's office said. "So, it's pathetic that the ACLU has once again chosen to champion and defend one of the biggest losers as their client. Their mission these days has nothing to do with civil liberty — it's just communism. We look forward to further draining the ACLU's bank account by fighting and winning this case, just like we win most cases against this anti-American, deranged organization."
Then came an attempt to rebut the claim that Rokita's office is now "tone" policing the political speech of its constituents.
"One read of the Attorney General's Facebook page shows we get thousands of goofy comments from people all over the United States. So if this office wanted to freeze political speech, why would this be the one comment out of the thousands of haters that we picked? It's simply ridiculous," the spokesperson said.
Follow Law&Crime:
Comments