An accused Dead Sea Scrolls scammer learned yesterday he’d been indicted — but insisted that he was just exercising his freedom of speech.
Raphael Golb, 48, faces charges of identity theft, impersonation and forgery after, Manhattan prosecutors said, he tried to promote his historian father’s work on the Dead Sea Scrolls by going online in the name of rival scholars, notably Dr. Lawrence Schiffman of New York University, to discredit their theories.
“He’s being accused here of using words to hurt someone,” complained his lawyer, Martin Garbus, calling the case “preposterous.”
“We consider this a First Amendment case,” he said.