“He was acquitted, not, the judge was at pains to point out, because he didn’t find Guthrie and Reilly credible when they testified they felt harassed and were genuinely fearful, but because that fear was unreasonable.”

Except that after their first heated debate, they *did* ask him to stop tweeting them directly and stop referring to them directly, and he complied with their requests.

I think there’s a reasonable argument to be made that he knew he was harassing them. But to explain the reasoning on that part of the decision - the reason that the defendant must be aware that they are harassing is that if you leave it entirely in the mind of the plaintiff it can result in guilty verdicts in really…