I’ve recently had some request for more background on Brett Kimberlin and his campaign of lawfare. The TKPOTD from seven years ago today is a good summary of the first five years of the Saga.
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Brett Kimberlin is a convicted perjurer, drug smuggler, and serial bomber. He doesn’t like people talking about that, and for the past several years, he’s been trying to use the legal system to punish people who speak and write about him.
I started writing about Brett Kimberlin when I became aware of Lee Stranahan’s proposal for Everyone Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day. That blogburst was scheduled for Friday, 25 May, 2012, but I first wrote about Kimberlin a few days earlier in the context of his harassment of Stacy McCain’s family. From there, I picked up the story of Kimberlin’s harassment of Aaron Walker, initially focusing on the unconstitutional gag order that was a part of a peace order issued against Aaron. That order forbade Aaron from writing about Kimberlin or speaking about him publicly. Because I believe that ridicule is a powerful weapon against self-important jerks, I began referring to Kimberlin as Lord Voldemort (He Who Must Not Be Named).
As the to-and-fro of the lawfare went by, a Bloggers Defense Fund was created to assist with Aaron Walker’s legal expenses. Kimberlin responded by putting up a pirate-themed website called the Bloggers Offense Team. It was a failure, but it led me to begin referring to Brett Kimberlin as The Dread Pirate Kimberlin and his fanboys by similarly themed nicknames. (I did not come up with Cabin Boy Bill Schmalfeldt. Credit goes to commenter monitor2112 for that.) TPDK has also come to stand for The Dread Performer Kimberlin, The Dread Pedo Kimberlin, and The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin—each of those has had some connection to his story as it has unfolded over the past three-plus years.
By the end of October, 2012, I had become a target of harassment by Team Kimberlin (as his supporters have become known) as well, and I received a SWATing threat. When that didn’t work, various bits of cyberharassment were tried. When those proved ineffective, a false criminal charge was filed. When the prosecutor dropped that charge for lack of evidence, the first of four frivolous lawsuits was filed. When the first lawsuit failed and the second lawsuit was on the skids, a bogus peace order and two more lawsuits were filed. When the bogus peace order petition was denied and the second lawsuit dismissed, false complaints were filed against my personal and business Twitter accounts and another false criminal charge was filed. When that second criminal charge was dropped for lack of evidence and my business Twitter account was restored, I was served with an abusive subpoena in the remnant of one of the lawsuits from which I’ve been dismissed and sanctions are being sought against me because I didn’t have what The Dread [insert title] Kimberlin wanted. And so it goes.
All this bullshit from Kimberlin boils down to an attempt at brass knuckles reputation management, and it keeps blowing up in his face—in part because I won’t be intimidated. He’s trying to use the legal system to prevent people from exercising their First Amendment rights to talk about him, his past, and his present activities. I don’t intend to let him get away with it. I will aggressively defend my First Amendment rights and support and assit others as they defend theirs.
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Kimberlin’s focus for most of the past five years has been his failed attempt to attack his Speedway Bombing convictions. A couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court put the kibosh on that by denying his appeal.