Conservative Idaho blogger who defamed drag performer appeals verdict, seemingly using AI for legal backing

April 10, 2026 Updated Fri., April 10, 2026 at 6:50 p.m.


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Eric Posey performs as Mona Liza Million on June 11, 2022, at Pride in the Park in Coeur d’Alene. (Courtesy of Stoel Rives)

By Alexandra Duggan
alexandrad@spokesman.com
(509) 459-5469

A conservative Idaho blogger who defamed a drag performer by implying he exposed himself during Coeur d’Alene’s Pride in the Park four years ago wants her jury verdict thrown out. ... “The damages were inflated,” Summer Bushnell told the Idaho Supreme Court justices in a Lewiston courtroom Thursday, calling the jury’s findings “faulty.”

Bushnell, who owns the far-right blog “The Bushnell Report,” accused drag performer Eric Posey in 2022 of exposing his genitals to children by publishing a video of Posey performing with his crotch area blurred out, implying he was flashing the crowd. ... The post went viral in conservative circles. ... Her claims spurred a police investigation that found Posey never exposed himself, that he was clothed during the performance and the video was edited.

A North Idaho jury in 2024 ordered Bushnell to pay over $1.1 million in damages to Posey, who said he was going through a “dark time” after being plastered across the internet, causing him to lose his job and experience severe emotional distress, The Spokesman-Review reported.

Bushnell, representing herself on Thursday, said she disagreed with how certain questions were framed to the jury at the time and that they didn’t have enough information to make a fair decision. {snip} Bushnell also appeared to cite misrepresented or nonexistent case law in her arguments to the court, the judges pointed out, implying she likely used AI to write her appellate brief.

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Idaho Drag Performer Wins Over $1.1 Million in Defamation Suit Against Blogger
The jury unanimously sided with the performer in a case against a blogger who made false claims that the artist had exposed himself to a crowd at a pride event in 2022.

By Jacey Fortin
May 26, 2024

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