Info Wars (Season 19, Episode 12)
Premise: When a far-right pundit is sexually assaulted during a campus riot, SVU must decide whether an antifa protester or one of her own fans attacked her.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 19, Episode 12
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza)
- Guest stars
- Rhea Seehorn as Martha Cobb, Kurt Fuller as Jed Karey, Adam Zastrow as Justin Vichinsky, Jonathan Judge-Russo as Randy Platt, Lee Roy Rogers as Selma Platt
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; the title refers to the website InfoWars.
- Director
- Michael Slovis
- Writers
- Story: Brianna Yellen & Robert Brooks Cohen & Céline C. Robinson & Elizabeth Rinehart; Written by: Richard Sweren & Robert Brooks Cohen
Summary
“Info Wars” opens at Hudson University, where conservative pundit Martha Cobb, invited by the campus Young Conservatives, is drowned out by counter-protesters, including masked antifa members. A brawl erupts, and after police clear the quad Cobb is found with a head wound, sexually assaulted with the cardboard tube from a protest sign. Benson rides with her to the hospital. A torn sign with an antifa symbol carries Cobb’s blood, and DNA from under her fingernails matches Justin Vichinsky, a protester arrested at an anti-Trump rally the month before. He laughs on hearing of the attack and is arrested for menacing. Cobb picks him out of a lineup after a pause, and his lawyer, Jed Karey, says she is using him to attack the left.
Benson doubts the halting identification; Barba says she simply dislikes the victim but tells her to rule out other suspects. Cobb recognizes Randy Platt, a white nationalist from Suffolk County who lives with his mother, follows her tour and has a viral video attacking women. While two detectives are at his house, someone firebombs it after his address is posted online. Platt, arrested in three states for assaulting demonstrators, denies touching Cobb. Then Cobb hands over a video, sent by a reader, of Vichinsky carrying the sign used in the attack.
On the stand Cobb spars with Karey, who quotes her book’s claim that 99 percent of rape accusations are invented. Vichinsky admits grappling with her but says a man he identifies as Platt snatched his sign. Karey calls Platt, who points out jurors his group would purge, and reveals that Cobb humiliated Platt at her hotel bar the night before the speech when he made a pass at her. Pressed by Benson, Cobb admits that everything after the blow is a blur and that she is only “pretty sure” it was Vichinsky.
Spoiler, the ending: Barba questions Platt, who denies the assault, and then tells the judge the People cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. He moves to dismiss his own indictment, the defense joins, and the case is dismissed. Outside court Platt rails against an “immigrant prosecutor,” and Benson tells Barba that Cobb deserved her day in court. She apologizes to Cobb that the attacker may never be known, and Cobb promises that her next book will take aim at the justice system.
Why it stands out
- Before the season, showrunner Michael Chernuchin said SVU would take on current events such as the Charlottesville riots; this episode is drawn from them.
- Rhea Seehorn guest stars as conservative pundit Martha Cobb.
- Kurt Fuller plays defense attorney Jed Karey, a role he returns to at the start of season 20.