Newsweek senior writer Kurt Eichenwald claimed Friday that he was assaulted by a tweet that caused a seizure.
It all started with a tweet Thursday night from Eichenwald’s account that said, “@jew_goldstein This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault.” The Twitter user “Jew Goldstein” had sent a gif, an animated video, of changing colors with text that said, “you deserve a seizure.” The account “Jew Goldstein” has since been suspended.
Newsweek told The Daily Caller they can confirm what Eichenwald’s wife said was true. Eichenwald himself went back on Twitter Friday to say he is taking a hiatus from the social media site as he works with law enforcement to bring “Jew Goldstein” to justice. The Newsweek writer also suggested that the FBI might get involved. He wrote, “At this point, the police are attempting to determine if this is a federal crime because it appears to be cross state.”
The FBI did not respond to an inquiry about whether assault via internet gif is a federal crime.
Last night, for the second time, a deplorable aware I have epilepsy tweeted a strobe at me with the message “you deserve a seizure’ on it…
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
…it worked. This is not going to happen again. My wife is terrified. I am…disgusted. All I will be tweeting for the next few days are…
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
…copies of documents from the litigation, police reports etc. Once we have the lawsuit filed, we will be subpoenaing Twitter for the…
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
…identity of the individual who engaged in this cross-state assault. At this point, the police are attempting to determine if this is…
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
The “assault” on Eichenwald occurred after the Newsweek writer sent a flurry of tweets following his appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Eichenwald refused to back up a claim of his that Donald Trump spent time in a mental hospital in 1990 and mentioned a cryptic message from the CIA during his Fox appearance. His now-deleted tweets mentioned the “reporting process” of his Trump mental hospital claim and praise for the work ethic of CIA officers.