German comedian Sebastian Gotz will stand trial for comments related to an assassination attempt on Donald Trump during the July 2024 US presidential campaign. About this informs Spiegel.
Hotz, known in Germany under the pseudonym El Hotzo, attracted attention in July 2024 after screenshots of his posts began to be widely distributed on the X social network.
In one of them, the comedian used a play on words in German, comparing Trump to the last bus:
“leider knapp misspass” (“unfortunately missed”).
In another post in X, Gotz wrote:
“I find it absolutely fantastic when fascists die.”
Although these posts were later removed, the outcry led to RBB ending its cooperation with him and ARD Kultur canceling a literary event with him. The Berlin prosecutor’s office accuses Gotz of conniving and encouraging the commission of criminal offenses. The trial in the case will begin on July 23 at the Tiergarten District Court in Berlin.
It will be recalled that on July 13, 2024, during the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a pre-election rally, one of the bullets hit his ear. One person in the stands behind Trump was killed and two others were injured. The attacker, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed on the spot by agents of the US Secret Service.
The incident raised concerns in the US about a possible surge in political violence and became the subject of official investigations into the performance of security forces. The head of the Secret Service at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, faced a wave of criticism and left her post in July 2024, handing it over to an acting director.
