A far-right blogger is asking the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn a $1.1 million civil judgment against her after falsely claiming a drag performer exposed his genitals to children at a Pride event in 2022.
In 2024, a jury found Summer Bushnell defamed Eric Posey by blurring out his crotch area in a video of his performance at Pride in the Park and posting that he had flashed his genitals to the Coeur d’Alene crowd.
Local police later reviewed unedited footage of the performance, found Posey was fully clothed and declined to file criminal charges.
During a hearing in Lewiston Thursday, Bushnell, who was representing herself, told the Idaho Supreme Court the jury was prejudiced against her.
“The allegations in this case of modifying a video and lying about its contents and publicizing it sound pretty serious. Help me understand why it’s not as serious as the jury thought it was,” said Justice Gregory Moeller.
“Because I don’t feel like they had the right instructions,” Bushnell said.
“I guess that’s how I interpret the law and I’m not a legal expert. I felt like that phrasing is saying, ‘How guilty am I?’” she said.
“Asking [the jury] if he proved the claim against you?” asked Justice Colleen Zahn.
“Yep,” Bushnell said.
“How else would you ask the question,” replied Zahn.
“I guess I would ask it in a yes or no,” Bushnell said, which is how the jury was requested to answer. She later said she misspoke.
Instead, Bushnell said she would have preferred the question be phrased “in a more general area.”
Justice Robyn Brody, who at one point said she didn’t “understand the analysis [Bushnell] provided” in her written briefing “at all,” said that’s not how civil court operates.
“You have to ask the jury, claim by claim, did he prove it or not. So, asking a general question would create more problems,” Brody said.
Brody later said it appeared Bushnell used AI to compile her written arguments, which she said included legal citations that didn’t exist or were misquoted.
Bushnell says she did her own research.
Posey’s attorney Wendy Olson spoke briefly during the hearing, entirely refuting Bushnell’s arguments.
She said the jury had plenty of facts and evidence with which to side with her client.
“That information was clear and overwhelming in front of the jury,” Olson said.
Justices will issue their opinion in the case at a later date.
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