White Nationalist Matthew Heimbach Claims Trump Directed Supporters to Remove Protesters
White nationalist Matthew Heimbach, who is accused of assaulting protesters at a campaign rally for Donald Trump last year鈥攁n event caught on video鈥攈as filed a counter lawsuit claiming that Trump had directed him and others at the rally to handle the protesters.聽
In the lawsuit filed on Monday, Heimbach denied that he was responsible for 鈥減hysically assaulting鈥� protesters, but claimed that he was acting 鈥渋n reasonable defense of others鈥� if he had. The lawsuit also claims that Heimbach 鈥渞elied on Trump鈥檚 reputation and expertise in doing the things alleged.鈥�
鈥淗eimbach relied on Trump鈥檚 authority to order disruptive persons removed and that Trump was legally within his rights to ask other attendees to assist in defending their constitutional rights against 鈥榩rotestors鈥� who were disrupting,鈥� the lawsuit claimed.
The legal battle stems from a campaign rally in March 2016, when Trump supporters, including Heimbach, physically removed protesters after Trump said, from the stage, 鈥淕et 鈥榚m out of here!鈥� Video of the encounter shows Heimbach wearing a red 鈥淢ake America Great Again鈥� baseball cap, visibly enraged and pushing Shiya Nwanguama, a University of Louisville student.
Four other protesters filed criminal complaints with police in Louisville after the rally, but prosecutors initially declined to press charges.
Then, last March, Nwanguama filed a lawsuit naming Heimbach and two others鈥擜lvin Bamberger, a 75-year-old Ohio resident, and Joseph Pryor of Indiana鈥攁lleging they had shoved and struck her after Trump stopped his speech to direct supporters. Four months later, in July, Louisville police charged Heimbach, Bamberger and Pryor with harassment with physical contact.
Heimbach鈥檚 lawsuit mirrors one filed by Bamberger, a member of the Korean War Veterans Association, . Bamberger鈥檚 lawsuits claimed in their filing that Bamberger admits 鈥渙nly that he touched a woman,鈥� but that he 鈥渄enies that he assaulted that woman. His lawyers also stressed that 鈥渢o the extent that Bamberger acted, he did so in response to鈥攁nd inspired by鈥擳rump and/or the Trump Campaign鈥檚 urging to remove the protesters.鈥澛�
Heimbach is聽head of the Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN) and the Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), white nationalist organizations that advocate for racially segregated "ethno states" and push for race-conscious candidates in local and regional political races, while concealing their ideology聽in claims of "traditionalism."
Neither Heimbach nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.聽
