Richard Spencer, who was once a leading figurehead of the racist alt-right movement, is begging his followers for $25,000 to help him fight off a federal lawsuit in which 11 plaintiffs are seeking damages for emotional and physical trauma received during last year’s violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
After struggling to find a lawyer willing to represent him, Spencer now claims to have found legal representation. Today he uploaded a video to his YouTube account in which he asks his fans to help him come up with the thousands of dollars to hire that lawyer.
“I am under attack and I need your help,” Spencer said. “Some of the biggest and baddest law firms in the United States are suing me, along with some other prominent figures, in civil court.”
Spencer described the lawsuit as “warfare by legal means,” saying that it was “designed to be debilitating and all-consuming.” He later called the case “a conspiracy theory in the truest sense of that term” that is meant to intimidate white nationalists and “take down the alt-right’s most prominent spokesman—that is me.”
“It is now time for me to lawyer up,” he continued, going on to ask his supporters to give him $25,000 by May 24 to help combat the lawsuit.
“I am under attack. Losing this case would be catastrophic for our movement, for everyone engaged is dissident politics, to be honest,” Spencer said.
