Martin Shkreli is like the ultimate Rorschach test. Look at his face, and you will find what you think about ruthless capitalist 'Pharma bros' and their victims. He's most famous for raising the price of an HIV drug, Daraprim, by over 5,000 percent. He's also bought a priceless Wu-Tang album and is withholding it from the public. He's become a symbol of anger at what corporate America has become to so many people.
Now, he's been arrested...again. But this time for the weirdest thing imaginable.
In a bizarre and frothing Facebook rant, Shkreli declares that
Hillary Clinton is a murderer, echoing conspiracy theories about Pizzagate and Seth Rich. Even weirder, he claims to have 'sequences' of Hillary Clinton's DNA. That part may be a joke. But he then proceeded to put out a $5,000 bounty for a strand of Clinton's hair. He thanks 'patrollers' and has seemingly put out a request for vigilantes to rip out some of Hillary Clinton's hair.
Shkreli has later hid behind satire, 'it's a prank, bro!' but surely he knows there are plenty of people out there who would take some of Hillary's hair for $5,000. Hell, a starving college student might do it just for the payout.
Federal District Court judge Kiyo Matsumoto was pretty clear about what she thought of this post: “That is a solicitation to assault in exchange for money that is not protected by the First Amendment.”
Thus, Shkreli was arrested, and this time he may actually be put away for good.
Here's Shkreli's apology letter to the judge who will have the final say:
"Dear Judge Matsumoto:
"I wanted to personally apologize to this Court and my lawyers for the aggravation that my recent postings have caused. I understand now, that come may have read my comments about Mrs. Clinton as threatening, when that was never my intention when making those comments. I used poor judgment but never intended to cause alarm or promote any act of violence whatsoever. To the contrary, within minutes of posting my remarks about Mrs. Clinton's hair, I posted quite clearly that I was absolutely "not" encouraging anyone to assault anyone. It never occurred to me that my awkward attempt at humor or satire would cause Mrs. Clinton or the Secret Service any distress.
"I want to assure Your Honor that I am not a violent person, have never personally engaged in any violent behavior, nor have I ever intentionally encouraged anyone to do so. I apologize for my behavior and ask you respectfully not to change my bail status so that I may continue to assist my attorneys in preparing for my sentencing.
"Respectfully,
"Martin Shkreli"
Really, Shkreli? Satire? It sounded pretty clear that you were saying you wanted the genetic material of a 'murderer'. Oh well. Let's just hope justice is served in some capacity for this guy, so he can stop showing up in headlines for creepier and creepier stunts.
In other Shkreli news, the hated Pharma bro recently
auctioned off his priceless unreleased Wu-Tang album on eBay.
