Marielle (Molly) Kronberg, widow of northern Virginia businessman Kenneth Kronberg, filed a lawsuit last Friday in U.S. Federal Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against cult leader Lyndon LaRouche and his political action committee, claiming they have defamed and libeled her and have "conspired to injure her" because she once provided testimony against LaRouche in a federal criminal trial. Her complaint has been posted on the web at
Mrs. Kronberg's suit (Case No. 09cv947) comes after three years of public statements by Mr. LaRouche trying to blame her for the death of her husband, who had been the cult's printer and, along with his wife, a member of the LaRouche organization for decades. Mr. Kronberg committed suicide on April 11, 2007, only hours after Mr. LaRouche--who had subjected Mr. Kronberg to incessant verbal abuse for several years--suggested in a daily briefing to the cult's membership that Mr. Kronberg should consider killing himself.
Mr. Kronberg's suicide caused consternation among Mr. LaRouche's followers as well as attention from the media, thus apparently prompting Mr. LaRouche's efforts to shift the blame. Here's a sample (April 26, 2009) of the rhetoric his daily briefings have used against Mrs. Kronberg, as cited in her court papers:
"Now, you've got a situation, where he kills himself, because he was living with that witch: Who's been evil all along! Her behavior had never been good. She's never been honest. And then, he commits suicide, and these bums try to blame me for it! He was driven--there was no reason for the suicide, there was no excuse for it. But there's an understanding of the oppression that he felt by being married to that bitch. Because he was a moral person. He made a lot of mistakes. But it was on the question of divided loyalty, divided pressures. And she was evil. And she still is."
Mr. LaRouche laid himself open to a federal court suit when he also alleged that Mrs. Kronberg had perjured herself during Mr. LaRouche's widely publicized 1988 federal criminal trial in which prosecutors said he'd swindled millions of dollars from senior citizens across the country. Mrs. Kronberg testified under subpoena by the prosecution, and says that although she was a LaRouche follower at the time, she had attempted to answer all questions truthfully. Mr. LaRouche is now suddenly claiming--19 years later--that she testified falsely in order to destroy him. Mr. LaRouche was convicted in the 1988 trial of mail fraud and conspiracy charges, after the jury heard testimony from many of the victims of his scams. He received a sentence of five to 15 years in federal prison, and ended up serving five years (1989-1994).
Mrs. Kronberg is represented by co-counsel John Bond of Fairfax, VA and John Markham of Boston, MA. Mr. Markham is the former Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Mr. LaRouche in the 1988 trial, which took place in the same Eastern District of Virginia court in which Mrs. Kronberg has now filed suit. Mr. LaRouche lives near Purcellville, Virginia, and his cult's national offices are in Leesburg.
The E.D. Virginia was also the venue for a 1984 civil suit Mr. LaRouche filed against NBC that likewise resulted in a high-profile trial. Mr. LaRouche accused NBC of libelling him in a TV news magazine segment which reported that Mr. LaRouche had once discussed killing President Jimmy Carter with a remote-controlled bomb, and which included an interview with an Anti-Defamation League official who called Mr. LaRouche a "small-time Hitler."
After hearing rambling and abuse-laden testimony from plaintiff LaRouche, the jury found that NBC had not libelled him--and awarded the broadcasting giant $3 million in punitive damages on a counterclaim (later reduced by the judge to $200,000).
Dennis King, an expert on cults and the author of Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism (1989), stated regarding Mrs. Kronberg's suit: "No outsider has a better grasp of the inner workings of the LaRouche cult than John Markham. And no former insider understands it better than Molly Kronberg. If this case ever goes to trial, I predict that LaRouche will lose big--especially after yet another Virginia jury has listened to his bombast on the witness stand day after day."
Readers with information they believe might be helpful to Mrs. Kronberg's case should contact:
John J.E. Markham, II
MARKHAM & READ
One Commercial Wharf West
Boston, Massachusetts 02110
Tel: (617) 523-6329
Fax: (617) 742-8604
E-mail:
Those who wish to donate towards the expenses of Mrs. Kronberg's lawsuit should send their checks to Mr. Markham at the above address. All checks should be payable to: Markham & Read Client Trust Account (with notation: "For Molly Kronberg v. LaRouche Legal Fees and Expenses"). All donations will be recorded and an accounting of all expenditures will be kept on a monthly basis.
Further information on the death of Ken Kronberg and the harassment of Mrs. Kronberg can be found at:
