So, I’m rebooting my “legal defense fund.”

My original “legal defense fund” was set up in August of 2023, and I was overwhelmed by the generosity and support of my readers. Thank you, everyone who contributed to it back then! Your donations financed most of the costs of my legal battle thus far. I’m more grateful for that than you can probably imagine.

I’m rebooting my “legal defense fund” now because the next stage of that battle is taking the case to the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), i.e., Germany’s supreme court.

If, for some weird reason, you’re reading this, and have no idea what the legal battle I’m referring to is … well, you’ve got some catching up to do. You can do that on my Substack, or just put my name in a search engine. At this point, it has been reported on by the mainstream and alternative press in Germany, the USA, the UK, Australia, Switzerland, and probably some other countries I have forgotten or am not aware of.

Basically, it’s a freedom-of-speech case, and an abuse-of-the-legal-system case, and a criminalization-of-political-dissent case. Seriously, if you’re not already familiar with it, please become familiar with it. What is happening to me and others in Germany is not just happening in Germany. It’s happening all throughout the West.

If we do not defend our democratic rights, we are going to lose them. And then we will be very sorry. I’m not going to go on and on about that here. I’ve been going on about it for years. At this point, you either get it or you don’t. You either recognize what is happening or you don’t.

Petitioning the German Constitutional Court is probably going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of €10,000 in legal fees. I’m going to do it no matter what, because I’ll be damned if I will give up my constitutional rights without a fight, but, if you can afford to help out, I will be extremely grateful. The precedent the German authorities are trying to establish in my case is a dangerous precedent, and, again, the result will resonate well beyond Germany.

Anyway, here are the details on how to donate to my rebooted “legal defense fund.”

1. If you’re in the USA, my brilliant cover artist and partner in thoughtcrime, Anthony Freda, has set up a Freefunder crowdfunding site.

2. Direct bank transfer. My details are:

Christopher Hopkins
IBAN: DE39 1007 0024 0111 9254 00
BIC/SWIFT: DEUTDEDBBER

Deutsche Bank
Alexanderstraße 5
10178 Berlin

3. My PayPal. (I know, it’s PayPal. But there’s no Venmo in Europe.)

4. A paid subscription to my Substack (currently $5/month, and there’s a flexible amount option which allows you to pay as much as you like).

If you’re just getting by or struggling financially, please don’t send me your money. I run my Substack on a “free-or-paid” subscription basis because I know that many of my regular readers can’t afford a paid subscription, and I have faith that readers who can afford one will voluntarily pay for one. That model has been working well so far.

The same logic applies to my “legal defense fund.” If you can’t afford to donate, there are other ways to help out, spreading the word about my case, and other cases like it, paying attention to and speaking out against the state and corporate censorship that is intensifying all over the world, recommending my Substack, books, etc., to friends, and sharing this post widely.

That’s it. I’ll be reporting on my day in Berlin Appellate Court soon, but I wanted to get this information out today, because people are already asking me how they can donate.

N.B. If you’re wondering why I put “legal defense fund” in scare quotes above, it’s to prevent the German authorities from bringing me up on fabricated fraud charges, as they have done to Michael Ballweg, who organized the big 2020 demo here in Berlin, after which the German authorities arrested him and imprisoned him for about nine months. The point being, if the balance of my “Legal Defense Fund” somehow ends up exceeding my legal costs at the end of the day (if ever that day should come), the surplus will be reallocated to my “Get the Hell out of New Normal Germany Fund,” or, in other words, will be considered to be general support of my writing projects.

I hope the above disclaimer will dissuade the New Normal German authorities from hauling me into criminal court again, or locking me up in prison for nine months, or whatever new tortures they might be considering.

Thank you for your support, and all best wishes from sunny New Normal Berlin!

CJ

So, Anthony Freda, the brilliant artist who has designed and created the covers of all my Consent Factory Publishing books, including the one the German authorities are prosecuting me for, has set up a crowdfunding thing for my Legal Defense Fund.

Some folks back home in the USA have been having trouble with international bank transfers, so Anthony offered to set up this crowdfunding thing to make donating to my Legal Defense Fund a little easier for those folks.

He is a mensch, Anthony. Here’s the link to the crowdfunding thing.

If you don’t want to do an international bank transfer, or use PayPal, or sign up for a paid subscription to my Substack, and you’re in the USA, you can donate that way. I prefer the other methods, so, if you can use one of those, please do. If you can’t … well, now there’s this one too.

I want to tell you a bit more about Anthony Freda, because, although I’ve dropped his name in a few interviews, I have mostly avoided identifying him publicly as the cover artist of The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021), in order to try to prevent the German authorities from flying across the Atlantic to New York, storming into Anthony’s home, and renditioning him back here to New Normal Germany to face some sort of Kafkaesque “trial” alongside me.

I spoke to Anthony recently. He’s not afraid of the German authorities, and has given me permission to identify him publicly and share a link to his website, where you can peruse his beautiful, powerful artworks.

But, before I shamelessly promote Anthony and his work any further, and thank him for setting up and running this US crowdfunding thing, I want to say a few words to those of you who have already donated to my Legal Defense Fund.

Basically, wow! I am incredibly moved, overwhelmed honestly, by your generosity and all your messages expressing your support. I wish I could write back to each and every one of you, personally, and thank you, but there are just too many of you. Please know that I’m reading, or will be reading, all of your messages. I am saving them in a folder so that I can keep my in-box somewhat manageable ... it’s out-of-control just now, my in-box. I’ll be able to read all the messages I missed after the dust settles a bit.

In the meantime … THANK YOU!

You know what? I am totally swamped at the moment, so I’m going to let Anthony’s artwork shamelessly promote itself, by just pasting this screenshot from his website here. I think he’ll understand. If you click on it, it will take you to his site.

And here are the book covers Anthony has designed and created for Consent Factory Publishing so far …

That’s it. I need to get back to dealing with all this “trial” stuff. Just one more piece of Anthony’s artwork, because this is one of my favorites …

Thank you, Anthony! And my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you who have donated to my Legal Defense Fund … you people are blowing me away!

A lot of readers have been asking how they can make a donation to help with the legal costs related to the absurd but very real prosecution I am currently facing in Germany. Here (below) are some ways to do that. I’ll update this post if and when any additional means of donating to my legal defense fund become available, but, for now, this is it.

To get things going, Catherine Austin Fitts has generously offered to match the first $500 in donations. Thank you, Catherine!

Bobby Kennedy, Jr. also wants to kick in (don’t tell anyone … he’s getting demonized enough), as does Matt Taibbi, and I’m extremely grateful.

I don’t know how costly this prosecution is going to end up. According to my lawyer, after my Kakfaesque trial, there will be an appeal, probably more than one. I plan to see this process through to the end. It will certainly go on for months, if not years.

Here’s my current rough estimate of legal costs:

• Legal fees: €5,000 - €10,000 (that’s just a guess)

• Court costs: €5,000 - €10,000 (another guess)

• The fine: €3,600 (the judge has already set this amount; see Matt Taibbi’s recent Racket News piece)

That estimate (or “guesstimate”) is based on a lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful battle in the German courts. Some people are telling me this could go all the way to the Bundesverfassungsgericht, i.e., Germany’s Supreme Court. We’ll see. Honestly, I’m still finding it hard to believe that all this is actually happening.

Of course, there’s a chance I could prevail, but, the way things are going, it seems pretty clear that the German authorities are determined to make an example of me, the rule of law be damned. My intention is to shine as much light as possible on their abuse of state power along the way, because my case is just one of numerous examples of the naked crackdown on dissent that is being conducted, not just here in Germany, but also in other countries throughout the West.

So, that’s why I’m setting up this legal defense fund.

I have been hesitant to do this, because … well, I have a problem asking for money. As in I don’t like to do it. But I have been deeply moved by all the readers who have been asking where they can send donations and otherwise expressing their support, more than I probably let on, as I generally try not to get too emotional in public.

Oh, and, one more thing, and then I’ll give you the information.

If you’re just getting by or struggling financially, please don’t send me your money. I run my Substack on a “free-or-paid” subscription basis because I know that many of my regular readers can’t afford a paid subscription, and I have faith that readers who can afford one will voluntarily pay for one. That model has been working well so far.

The same logic applies to this legal defense fund. If you can’t afford to donate, there are other ways to help out, spreading the word about my case and other cases like it, paying attention to and speaking out against the state and corporate censorship that is intensifying all over the world, recommending my Substack, books, etc.

If you can afford to donate, thank you! Here’s the information on how to do that …

1. Direct bank transfer:

Christopher Hopkins
IBAN: DE39 1007 0024 0111 9254 00
BIC/SWIFT: DEUTDEDBBER

Deutsche Bank
Alexanderstraße 5
10178 Berlin

2. My PayPal. (I know, it’s PayPal. But there’s no Venmo in Europe.)

3. A paid subscription to my Substack (currently $5/month, and there’s a flexible amount option which allows you to pay as much as you like).

That’s it for now. If any other means of donating become available, I’ll update this post. Thank you so much for your support!

N.B. If the balance of my Legal Defense Fund somehow ends up exceeding my legal costs at the end of the day, the surplus will be reallocated to my “Get the Hell out of Germany” Fund.