Exclusive | Online attacks and Luigi Mangione-inspired death threats in ugly brawl to build California AI megaproject

A vicious online attack — allegedly put into motion by a California nonprofit — to torpedo the construction of a massive AI data center led to calls for “public executions” and Luigi Mangione-inspired death threats, according to a new lawsuit.The defamation lawsuit, filed by Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing and its attorney, Sebastian Rucci, claims nonprofit Comite Civico del Valle (CCV) and the group’s executive director, Jose Luis Olmedo Velez, are attempting to stall the data center project in a bid to force a financial settlement.The group also hired Jake Tison to allegedly create a brutal online campaign, “publishing over 100 false and defamatory posts and videos across social media platforms” in an effort to make IVCM and Rucci look bad, according to the lawsuit.Tison’s purported online posts called Rucci a “life-long fraud” and accused him of violating the California Environmental Quality Act, a statute that has become notorious for being leveraged to gum up development projects across the state, court documents obtained by The California Post said.The suit alleges Tison spread false posts that Rucci had been thrown in jail for fraud.In reality, Rucci did spend a month in jail but for a misdemeanor liquor license violation, not fraud, according to the suit. Tison’s alleged online attacks then spiraled into something more violent and dangerous when his followers began to read his posts, according to Rucci and IVCM.The lawsuit alleges Tison’s followers commented things like “public executions” and threatened to “burn the data center to the ground.” “Why can’t somebody just get him like Luigi did with the UntiedHealthcare CEO,” another wrote.CC presents itself as an environmental justice nonprofit, but has “perfected a lucrative greenmail extortion racket: it files CEQA challenges to delay projects, then demands massive “public benefit” settlements that it alone controls,” according to the documents.“Defend...