White nationalist Matthew Heimbach pleaded guilty on Wednesday to second-degree disorderly conduct for shoving a woman at a Donald Trump for President rally in March 2016, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
The plea — an Alford plea, according to the Courier-Journal, which allowed Heimbach to assert his innocence while acknowledging prosecutors could convince a jury to convict him — came a month after Heimbach pleaded not guilty to the original misdemeanor offense with which he charged, harassment with physical contact.
Heimbach paid a $145 fine and was sentenced to 90 days of jail time, which was conditionally discharged, the Courier-Journal reported. He was ordered to attend anger management classes and to not contact the victim of his conduct.
Video of Heimbach and others shoving protester Kashiya Nwanguma went viral after the rally, and was seen as further evidence of Trump cultivating a hostile, even violent atmosphere at his rallies.
Heimbach was named in a lawsuit filed by Nwanguma and two other protesters charging that he physically assaulted them at the rally. Any action, he said, was taken “in self defense […] pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President.”
“Any liability must be shifted to one or both of them,” he added.
So far
Heimbach lost money (and will likely lose more future specie) and barely avoided jail time, while this guy lost his spot in the Marines.
So far, so good
Shorter version: “I vas only following orders.”
I haven’t really heard that one since Nuremberg.
This is the guy who sued Comrade Chaos to cover his legal fees. I wonder how that’s working out?
So, you had no idea that “I vas only followink ORDERS Mein Herr!” was not a valid defense?
Gee, I wonder where that has failed before…(cough 1946 cough)
Typical Brown-Shirt-Wanna-Be. Dumb as the fucking rock that he crawled out from under.
I have a feeling this jackass won’t make it through probation without getting violated. I’m sure the Commonwealth Attorney’s office would love to throw him up under Metro Corrections.
But TPM left out the best part:
“Given that Mr. Trump has now bombed Syria and has betrayed a lot of his campaign promises, I wish I had never been there to support him in the first place,” Heimbach said following the hearing in June. “But when it comes to the conduct of that day, no regrets.”