A Tennessee Man Jailed for 37 Days Because of an Anti-Trump Meme Will Get $835,000 for His Trouble

Snippet:

* Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems preposterously claimed that Larry Bushart had threatened “mass violence” at a school.
* Last year, Larry Bushart spent 37 days in a Tennessee jail because he had shared a widely circulated anti-Trump meme on Facebook. Today his attorneys announced that he had agreed to settle the resulting federal lawsuit in exchange for a payment of $835,000.
* “No one should be hauled off to jail in the dark of night over a harmless meme just because the authorities disagree with its message,” said Adam Steinbaugh, a senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which represented Bushart along with local attorney Katherine Phillips. “We’re pleased that Larry has been compensated for this injustice, but local law enforcement never should have forced him to endure this ordeal in the first place.”
* The meme in question, which Bushart posted on September 20 in response to a Facebook announcement of a candlelight vigil for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk at the Perry County Courthouse, featured a photo of President Donald Trump flanked by a quote from a speech he gave at a campaign rally in Iowa on January 5, 2024. The day before, a gunman had killed two people and injured six others at a high school in Perry, Iowa.

# EDITED TO ADD:

And, **THIS** was the meme he was arrested for and jailed for 37 days!!🙄

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HI0Lz7MXYAALEBM.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HI0Lz7MXYAALEBM.jpg)

RE: The lawsuit

And, while I’m happy he’s getting something for the asinine decision and for his troubles (understatement, I know), just remember that **EVERY** incompetent (and inhumane) screw-up by THIS administration that results in a federal lawsuit (with a monetary payout or no) means, WE, the taxpayers have to ultimately pay!!🙄

Edited to add: Including state lawsuits!

The people who arrested him should lose their jobs and their pensions, and be facing charges for false imprisonment.

The judge who didn’t IMMEDIATELY throw this case out, should be censured and removed, losing their pension as well.

I think these headlines should focus on the fact that the taxpayers are on the hook because some unqualified manbaby was hired as a cop and blatantly broke the law

$22,500 for every night dude stayed in jail. Not a bad payout. Shouldn’t have ever came to this though. 1st amendment has been under attack since Trump’s first term.

One of many to come over the next several years. Wait until we no longer have Trump’s DoJ in power. The lawsuits will flow like water and make $835k seem like Pennie’s on the dollar. The immigrants locked up in these concentration camps will eventually file lawsuits and they will get PAID. Kim’s Abrego Garcia, if he can stay in the country long enough, will make millions on his lawsuit.

America could literally pay out over a billion dollars in settlements.

Now peoples will make anti-Trump memes and get paid for it. Best paid job ever.

seems like $1.8B would be more appropriate

Only 835k? I tink losing your freedom for a month is worth a little more. Like around 10 billion. He’d probably settle for 1.7 though.

This money should come out of the pensions and paychecks of the people who arrested and prosecuted him. Not from the taxpayers.

He deserves more $$

The tax payers footed the bill on the settlement. What should happen next is the police and town budget should be lowered in the following year(s) to pay for that and/or the individuals can be personally liable, qualified immunity removed.

Land of the free btw

He should get $1.7B

Yay Im paying for more of Trumps tantrums

If they’re gonna jail people for anti-Trump memes, they’re gonna need a lot more jails.

So many illiterate MAGAts are claiming this is the same concept as the slush fund that Trump is trying to use to pay his allies.

Charlie Kirk had to expect people to make memes of him when he stuck his neck out like that.