So I was sentenced for my tweet-crimes this morning. My sentencing hearing took place in Berlin District Court, where I was originally acquitted of the same charge almost three years ago.
For my heinous tweet-crimes, I was sentenced to pay a fine of €4,800.
I won’t bore my regular readers by going through all the details of my prosecution again here. Anyone unfamiliar with my case can read this timeline of events that I published in September. (I would urge anyone not familiar with my case to do that prior to reading the statement to the court that I delivered this morning.)
Okay, without further ado, here’s the statement …
Statement to the Court
Sentencing Hearing
Berlin District Court
October 26, 2026
So, here I am, back in the Berlin district court where I was originally acquitted, being sentenced for a crime I didn’t commit. I delivered a rather long statement to the court at my first trial. I want to keep it relatively short this time.
Mostly, I want to apologize. I want to apologize to the court, and the prosecutor, and the other authorities who have been trying to teach me how things work in Germany these past three years. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to learn that lesson. I think I get it now. Let me explain.
Back in 2022, when I used the artwork on the cover of one of my books in two tweets to try to warn people about the authoritarian and anti-constitutional behavior of the German authorities at the time, I didn’t think I would be investigated and prosecuted for that. I didn’t think that I would be reported to the German domestic intelligence agency. I didn’t think the German authorities would censor my tweets. I didn’t think the German authorities would ban my book. I didn’t think any of those things would happen, because I assumed that Germany was a democratic country that operated under the rule of law.
When all those things happened, I began to doubt my assumptions about Germany. However, when I was acquitted in this court in January 2024, and the judge stated that it was obvious that I was not disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda with my tweets, but, rather, trying to warn the public about the anti-constitutional behavior of the German authorities, I told myself, “See, Germany is a democratic country that operates under the rule of law.”
Unfortunately, back then, I didn’t realize how things work in Germany. I didn’t realize that if the prosecution didn’t like my acquittal, they could keep putting me on trial until they found a court that would convict me. Which is what they did. At my second trial in Berlin superior court, which was conducted under harsh anti-terror protocols, although I’m just an author, not a terrorist, I was summarily convicted, which I found surprising, because I still assumed Germany was a democratic country that operated under the rule of law.
So I appealed to Germany’s constitutional court, because that court exists to deal with cases like mine, which involve freedom of speech and freedom of expression, which is guaranteed in Article 5 of the German constitution. Naively, I believed that the constitutional court would overturn the overturning of my acquittal, and uphold the German constitution, and affirm our right to criticize the government, and our right to compare people or groups to the Nazis if their authoritarian (or even totalitarian) behavior poses a threat to democratic principles, the constitution, and the rule of law.
After all, mainstream publications like Der Spiegel and Stern have done this on the cover of their magazines, with artwork featuring swastikas, just like my artwork. And government officials and prominent persons like Karl Lauterbach, Jessica Berlin, and many others have used swastikas in their tweets when comparing the Russians or the contemporary extreme-right to the Nazis. And they haven’t been prosecuted.
I assumed the constitutional court would take that into account, and rule accordingly, because, of course, in a democratic country that operates under the rule of law and respects its constitution, the law applies to everyone equally, and is not just a weapon to be used selectively against people the authorities do not like and whom they want to stigmatize and punish.
So I was surprised when the constitutional court refused to issue a decision on my appeal, and refused to explain why, because, despite everything that had happened up to then, I still wanted to believe that Germany was a democratic country that operated under the rule of law.
But I get it now. I finally understand the lesson the German authorities and its courts have been trying to teach me these last three years.
When I knew, beyond all doubt, that I had finally understood the lesson you have been trying to teach me was when you sent a squad of armed police to my apartment to intimidate me and my wife, and issued a new criminal indictment based, not on my tweets, but on the book itself. That really made an impression on me. As I mentioned, I’m just an author, not a terrorist or a criminal, and I never thought you would go so far as to indict me for writing, publishing, and promoting a book—which is essentially a history book—and send armed police to raid my home and terrorize my family … you know, like the authorities in totalitarian systems do.
But I get it now. I have learned my lesson. I apologize for my naiveté, for foolishly believing that Germany was a democratic country that operates under the rule of law, where there is freedom of speech, where the constitution applies to everyone equally, and where people don’t have to live in fear of armed police raiding their homes if they criticize the government.
I assure you, I won’t make that mistake again.
So go ahead and punish me, but please don’t send any more armed police to my home to terrorize my family. I won’t dare to criticize the German authorities again, no matter how totalitarian they behave or how blatantly they violate the constitution, or what kind of lies and official propaganda they disseminate to the public. I promise.
I understand how things work in Germany now.
And so do the millions of people all around the world who have read or heard about my case.
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I’ll probably write more about my sentencing hearing at some point, and describe the atmosphere in the courtroom, which was particularly hostile, but I wanted to publish the statement today, as some people were asking for it after the hearing, and I’m a bit worn out at the moment.
Finally, my heartfelt thanks—i.e., my real heartfelt thanks—to everyone who attended the sentencing hearing in Berlin this morning, and to everyone who has supported me during this tweet-crime prosecution. Unfortunately, it appears I’m going to have to do it all over again, as I have been indicted a second time, not for tweets, but for the book itself.
So it goes in New Normal Germany.
Oh, and here’s the book that started all this, i.e., the new second edition of the book, published by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. under its Tucker Carlson Books imprint. It will be released on November 3, and is available to pre-order now from all the usual fine booksellers. Or, if you are in the USA, and in a hurry, you can get it right away from Tucker Carlson Books.
N.B. The above is an English translation of my statement to the court, which was delivered to the court in German.
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CJ Hopkins
October 26, 2026
DISCLAIMER: The preceding essay is entirely the work of our in-house satirist and self-appointed political pundit, CJ Hopkins, and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Consent Factory, Inc., or its staff, or any of its agents, subsidiaries, or assigns. If, for whatever inexplicable reason, you appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to support it, please go to his Substack page, or his Patreon page, or send a contribution to his PayPal account, so that maybe he’ll stop coming around our offices trying to hit our employees up for money. Alternatively, you could purchase his satirical dystopian sci-fi novel, Zone 23, or Volumes I, II, III, and IV of his Consent Factory Essays, or any of his subversive stage plays, which won some awards in Great Britain and Australia. If you do not appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to write him an abusive or threatening email, feel free to contact him directly.
