Larry Bushart, jailed for Charlie Kirk social media post, wins settlement

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It’s hard to call the transparently corrupt conclusion of President Donald Trump’s shakedown lawsuit against the IRS a “settlement,” because that would imply opposing parties had reached a real agreement, as opposed to Trump using the power of the presidency to loot our tax coffers.

News of a more traditional settlement came Wednesday in an unrelated case with a tangential Trump connection, stemming from one of the lawsuits filed by people punished for their speech in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year.

The $835,000 settlement came in a case brought by Larry Bushart. He sued Tennessee law enforcement officials who arrested him over a social media post following Kirk’s killing. Bushart, a retired law enforcement officer himself, was jailed for 37 days before his baseless charge was dropped.

He had posted a series of political memes on Facebook under a post about a vigil for Kirk in nearby Perry County, Tennessee. One of them quoted a statement Trump made after an Iowa school shooting the year before, when Trump said, “We have to get over it.”

Bushart wrote over that statement: “This seems relevant today…”