It’s hard to call the transparently corrupt conclusion of President Donald Trump’s shakedown lawsuit against the IRS a “settlement,” because that would imply opposing parties had reached a real agreement, as opposed to Trump using the power of the presidency to loot our tax coffers.
News of a more traditional settlement came Wednesday in an unrelated case with a tangential Trump connection, stemming from one of the lawsuits filed by people punished for their speech in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year.
The $835,000 settlement came in a case brought by Larry Bushart. He sued Tennessee law enforcement officials who arrested him over a social media post following Kirk’s killing. Bushart, a retired law enforcement officer himself, was jailed for 37 days before his baseless charge was dropped.
He had posted a series of political memes on Facebook under a post about a vigil for Kirk in nearby Perry County, Tennessee. One of them quoted a statement Trump made after an Iowa school shooting the year before, when Trump said, “We have to get over it.”
Bushart wrote over that statement: “This seems relevant today…”
Trump’s statement was about a shooting at Perry High School in Iowa (not Tennessee). Bushart’s suit said that Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems knew the meme was about an Iowa school but still “publicly claimed it might have caused ‘mass hysteria’ if interpreted as a prediction of what President Trump might say after a hypothetical shooting at Perry County High School.” Weems directed Bushart’s arrest, and the former lawman was jailed on a $2 million bond he couldn’t afford, based on the false claim by Weems and his investigator, Jason Morrow, that Bushart had threatened mass violence at a school.
“It is clearly established that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from arresting people for protected political speech,” Bushart’s lawyers wrote in his complaint alleging violations of the First and Fourth Amendments against Perry County, Weems and Morrow. The complaint said he filed the suit to “vindicate his constitutional rights and to deter Sheriff Weems, Investigator Morrow, and similarly situated officials from future misconduct.”
A joint statement accompanying the settlement said that “Without admitting fault or liability on the part of the defendants, Perry County’s insurer has agreed to pay Mr. Bushart $835,000 in exchange for dismissing his complaint.”
Weems said, “As Sheriff, there is no responsibility I take more seriously than protecting the children in our community, who are some of the most vulnerable among us. Ensuring their safety is not just a duty of this office, it is a commitment I carry with me every single day. I am happy to have this matter resolved, and I look forward to continuing to serve and protect the people of Perry County.”
Bushart said he’s “pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated” and that “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”
The post Man jailed 37 days for Charlie Kirk social media post wins $835,000 settlement appeared first on MS NOW.
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