I like to applaud pro bono work of all stripes—but when it results in a multi-million dollar judgment against Andrew Anglin, the publisher of the most widely read neo-Nazi website on the internet, The Daily Stormer, I say bravo.

Litigators from Latham & Watkins last week prevailed on behalf of Dean Obeidallah, a writer, political commentator, SiriusXM radio host and comedian, who sued Anglin for libel in 2017 in the Southern District of Ohio.

On June 13, Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. found that Anglin acted with actual malice and published statements “with reckless disregard for the truth.” The judge awarded Obeidallah $4.1 million in damages.

As a columnist, I'm not necessarily a big fan of libel suits, but if ever one was justified, this is it.

On June 1, 2017, Anglin published an article on the Daily Stormer headlined “Dean Obeidallah, Mastermind Behind Manchester Bombing, Calls on Trump to Declare Whites the Real Terrorists.”  

The article claimed that Obeidallah planned and executed the terrorist attack at the Ariana Grande concert that killed 23 and injured 250; that he celebrated their deaths; that he encouraged others to carry out similar attacks; and that he fled to Syria.

None of this is true.

Some context: The Daily Stormer touts itself as “REAL NEWS” and views itself as competing with CNN and The New York Times. Also (this is depressing) from May 13 to June 12, 2017, the “dailystormer.com” was visited approximately 3.18 million times, according to the complaint. During the same time period, C-SPAN got 2.64 million visits. I'm not even going to say how many hits litigationdaily.com got. Let's just say it was also less.

To lend an air of verisimilitude, the Daily Stormer article included fabricated Twitter messages mixed in with real ones from Obeidallah's account, and referenced his actual writings and guests.

“Mr. Obeidallah is an ardent believer in and defender of the First Amendment. He recognizes the importance of freedom of speech and political discourse, regardless of viewpoint. But the First Amendment does not license defamation,” states the complaint by Latham's Abid Qureshi and Christopher Fawal plus lawyers from Muslim Advocates and The Chandra Law Firm in Cleveland.

Anglin “published false factual statements and fabricated evidence on the Daily Stormer that was meant to—and did, in fact—harm Mr. Obeidallah's reputation and business, jeopardize his physical safety, and cause emotional distress and suffering,” they wrote.

The judgment was by default—Anglin and his company Moonbase Holdings never entered an appearance.