DOJ files suit to collect $9.9 million from racist robocaller Scott Rhodes

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The former Sandpoint man who allegedly plagued individuals and businesses around the country — including the Reader and Publisher Ben Olson — with thousands of malicious robocalls is one step closer to paying a $9.9 million penalty imposed earlier this year by the Federal Communications Commission.

According to a news release Oct. 21, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Scott Rhodes, now of Libby, Mont., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, alleging he made 4,959 illegal robocalls with falsified caller ID information that “included highly inflammatory messages indicative of Rhodes’ intent to cause harm.”

The robocalls spanned several years, intensifying against the Reader following its reporting in September 2018 that revealed Rhodes as the individual behind the campaigns of harassment. According to an FCC investigation, Rhodes targeted the Reader and Olson in 750 robocalls during that month alone — including statements referring to the paper and its publisher as a “cancer” that listeners should “burn out.”

A screenshot of Scott Rhodes from his racist video blog. Courtesy photo.

Despite eviction from his Sandpoint home in October 2018 and apparent relocation to Montana, Rhodes continued to target the Reader even through January 2020, when the FCC announced a proposed $13 million fine against him for “illegal spoofed robocalls.”

In January 2021, the FCC finalized its initial claim against Rhodes, proposing a $9.9 million fine and placing a 30-day deadline for its payment. Failing to do so, the matter moved to the Department of Justice, whose suit is intended to recover the penalty and obtain an injunction preventing Rhodes from further violating the Truth in Caller ID Act.

The Act prohibits the use of technology or calling platforms to alter caller ID information in order to misrepresent calls as coming from local numbers, when in fact they are originating from elsewhere, in order to “defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value.” 

Authorities pointed out that the complaint is “merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.” 

That said, an FCC spokesperson told the Reader in January that the commission had definite proof tying Rhodes to the robocalls, and in its investigation and forfeiture order stated that he apparently used one such “online calling platform” to deceive individuals into thinking the robocalls were coming from within their communities, thus increasing the chances they would pick up their phones and hear their recorded messages.

“It is unlawful to spoof caller ID numbers to trick consumers into answering unwanted phone calls with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value,” stated Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department will work with its agency partners to vigorously enforce the telemarketing laws that prohibit these practices.

Among the examples of other illegal robocalls cited by the DOJ are “hundreds” of calls directed to residents in Brooklyn, Iowa, related to the murder of local woman Mollie Tibbets. According to the department, those robocalls allegedly stated that Tibbets’ killer was a “biological hybrid of white and savage Aztec ancestors,” and to “kill them all.”

More than 2,000 robocalls are also alleged to have targeted residents of Charlottesville, Va., connected to the prosecution of James Alex Fields, Jr., who drove a vehicle into a crowd of anti-racism protesters amid the so-called “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017, killing one woman and injuring dozens of others. The DOJ complaint alleges that the robocalls referred to the city’s “Jew mayor” and “his pet negro police chief” as being responsible for the death of the protester, and warned that, “We’re no longer going to tolerate a Jewish lying press, and Jew corruption of an American legal system.”

Fields pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 hate crimes charges in 2019 and, following a plea deal intended to avoid the death penalty, is now serving a life sentence. 

In its January 2021 forfeiture order, the FCC suggested that Rhodes’ alleged robocalls were intended to exploit various controversies around the country in order to burnish his “brand” and raise the profile of his “white supremacist and anti-Semitic” website and videos — as described by the Anti-Defamation League — which rose in viewership “10-fold” during the height of his robocalling campaign from May to December 2018. 

In addition to campaigns in Iowa and Virginia, Rhodes also allegedly directed robocalls containing racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and/or anti-immigrant messages in California, Florida, Georgia and, as recently as late-2019, took advantage of the murder of Barnard College student Tessa Majors in late-2019 to initiate racist robocalls targeted at New York residents.

The robocalls targeted at the Reader, its publisher and advertisers, however, were more personally motivated.

​​“In Idaho, he robocalled residents of the city of Sandpoint, attacking the local newspaper and its publisher after they reported the identity of the caller,” the FCC wrote, adding in its Forfeiture Order, “Rhodes does not refute that the robocalls advocated harm to Mr. Olson or the paper. In fact, his response expressed continued animosity toward the paper and Mr. Olson.”

It was immediately unclear when the DOJ’s suit against Rhodes would see a courtroom, or how the case might proceed. According to the DOJ news release, Senior Litigation Counsel Patrick Runkle and Trial Attorney Michael Wadden of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon Clarke for the District of Montana.

“Combating illegal robocalls is a top consumer protection priority of the FCC,” stated Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel of the FCC. “In this case, the FCC’s investigation found an ugly pattern of spoofing used to bombard and target communities with malicious robocalls. Working with the Department of Justice, the FCC will stand by this fine and demand payment. I also welcome the department’s decision to seek an injunction to put a stop to this unlawful behavior.”