From Bowen v. Van Bramer, decided Tuesday by the N.Y. intermediate appellate court (Justices Mark Dillon, Francesca Connolly, Valerie Brathwaite Nelson, and Lara Genovesi):
In February 2019, amid public criticism, e-commerce giant Amazon cancelled its plans to build a second corporate headquarters in the Long Island City area of Queens. The plaintiff, a local restaurateur, was involved in efforts to persuade Amazon to reconsider and proceed with its plans. The defendant, James "Jimmy" G. Van Bramer, then a member of the New York City council who represented the relevant portion of Queens, opposed the Amazon project.
After Amazon cancelled its plans, the plaintiff initiated an exchange of text messages with the defendant's chief-of-staff. In that exchange, the plaintiff demanded that the defendant contact Amazon executives and withdraw his opposition, promising that, if the defendant did so, the plaintiff could "stop the growing forces that will end councilman VanJobkillers career," but, if the defendant refused, the plaintiff would "add another sound bite on to the funeral pyre of Jimmys [sic] career" during the plaintiff's upcoming television appearance. In response, on March 1, 2019, the defendant "tweeted" (i.e., posted) a screenshot of that portion of the conversation on his Twitter (social media) feed, and, in his accompanying comments, accused the plaintiff of making "threats."
[This appears to be the tweet involved: -EV]
