A New Jersey man is suing NBC for $52 million claiming security guards dragged him away from a “Today” show audience pen on Rockefeller Plaza and beat him up — for wearing a t-shirt with Bill Clinton’s image in the style of the President Barack Obama “hope” poster with the word “rape.”
Mark Gallagher, 23, of Oakridge, had made it into the background of ABC’s “Good Morning America” set the day before wearing the same provocative T-shirt.
The Donald Trump-supporting social worker admits that he donned the shirt as part of a political stunt orchestrated by Infowars blogger Alex Jones — who offers people $1,000 if they appear on national TV wearing the Bill Clinton rape t-shirt for over five seconds. They get $5,000 if they shout out the phrase, “Bill Clinton is a rapist.”
On Oct. 12, ABC guards escorted Gallagher out of the “GMA” audience, but the next day, when he attempted the same stunt at the “Today” show’s on-camera setup outside their studio, five guards grabbed his arm and neck and hit his head and knee before handing him over to NYPD counterterrorism officers, according to his Manhattan civil suit.
Gallagher says he never even got a chance to show the shirt on TV.
“They had him pegged,” said Gallagher’s attorney, Richard Luthmann. Luthmann said Gallagher’s success at “GMA,” meanwhile, was “big news” at Infowars.
“The security goons probably had a list of deplorables, for lack of a better term,” Luthmann said, referring to Hillary Clinton’s much-criticized label for Trump supporters.
The suit says the NBC “Goon Squad serves as the personal security detail for liberal douche Alec Baldwin from time to time.”
Gallagher was arrested and charged with criminal trespass, according to court records. The charge will be dismissed if Gallagher stays out of trouble for six months, Luthmann said.
Luthmann said his client was going after the $5,000 prize, which would have required saying “Bill Clinton is a rapist” loud enough to be captured by the live TV broadcast.
“The kid’s got student loans,” said Luthmann, who added that Gallagher is in the process of being paid by Infowars for making it on air in the GMA stunt.
A rep for NBC did not return a message seeking comment.
Earlier this week Hillary Clinton lashed out at a protestor at her Florida rally who disrupted her stump speech by shouting, “Bill Clinton is a rapist!”
“I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior of people who support Donald Trump,” Clinton shouted back at the heckler.