Did Infamous Troll Chuck C. Johnson Really “Beat Planned Parenthood?” (Nope.)
Infamous troll Chuck C. Johnson poses with indicted Center for Medical Progress head David Daleiden, 10-25-2015On his Facebook page yesterday, real life stalker Chuck C. Johnson posted a gloating comment that he had “won!” He “beat Planned Parenthood!”
The first thing we should point out as we take apart Johnson’s boasting claims of victory: he didn’t “beat Planned Parenthood” at all. Planned Parenthood is not part of the lawsuit against the Center for Medical Progress in which Chuck was subpoenaed to give a deposition. The suit was brought by the National Abortion Federation.
But of course, it helps Johnson’s fund-raising for him to lie about this and say he “beat Planned Parenthood,” and he’s hoping right wingers won’t notice he isn’t telling the truth.
Second, is it even true that he “beat” the NAF?
A report at Courthouse News Service shows what a hollow victory this really is for Chuck Johnson; as a matter of fact, it may not even be over yet.
Johnson and his lawyer were asking the court to grant him protection from being deposed, under California’s journalist “shield law,” but that’s not what happened; Chuck doesn’t get to claim he was ruled a “journalist.” Here are the details:
The federation’s lawyers questioned Johnson about the source of the leaked videos in November 2015 after Orrick denied Johnson’s motion to quash a deposition subpoena.
After the deposition, the federation asked the judge to order Johnson to turn over emails that would reveal the source of the leak. Johnson answered with a new motion to quash the subpoena.
The judge then asked the center’s members and founder David Daleiden to respond under penalty of perjury whether they had any knowledge of the person who leaked those videos to Johnson.
Daleiden and his associates submitted their responses in four court-sealed declarations last month.
“Everyone has denied knowledge of the leak, under pain of penalty of perjury,” Orrick said in his Feb. 16 ruling. “Absent further evidence that the leak of the federation materials came from a party or counsel before me, at this time I will take no further action.”
Orrick granted Johnson’s motion to quash the subpoena without prejudice, adding he reserves the right to revisit the issue if new evidence comes to light on the source of the leak.
So the motion to quash was granted only because Daleiden and his accomplices signed sworn statements saying they had no knowledge of who leaked the videos to Johnson. Not only that, the judge also reserved the right to bring Johnson back for another deposition if new evidence comes to light. So our boy Chuck is not really out of the woods yet, despite all his gloating.
But he’s all pumped up, and now he’s ranting about taking Twitter to court.
I’d actually love to see him try to sue Twitter for suspending his account; it would give me hilarious material for months, and he’d end up getting anti-SLAPPed into next year.
But notice who’s responding to Chuck in that comment thread: his neo-Nazi pal Andrew Auernheimer, whining because Twitter banned him from buying advertisements after he purchased ads containing white supremacist slogans.
I think he should try to take that one to court too. That would be an excellent idea.
And a note about Chuck’s fund-raising falsely using Planned Parenthood’s name: he raised over $4000 for his “legal defense fund” with this scam — then promptly took a vacation in Australia and New Zealand.
