Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, a nonprofit civil rights organization that is backing the lawsuit, said the trial has proceeded exactly as she hoped.
“Our plaintiffs have provided overwhelming evidence that Unite the Right was never intended to be a peaceful protest – rather, it was a meticulously planned weekend of racist, antisemitic violence,” Spitalnick said. “We’re incredibly proud to support these courageous plaintiffs as they seek much-needed accountability and justice.”
The white supremacists have offered a patchwork of defenses.
Some have argued that they weren’t involved with the planning of the rally at all. Others have claimed they met one another for the first time in Charlottesville. Defendants Richard Spencer, former leader of the "alt-right," the white supremacist and nationalist movement, and Christopher Cantwell, a neo-Nazi podcaster who is serving a prison sentence for extortion, have tried to cast the trial as a referendum on free speech in America.
Send an email
