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A neo-Nazi website operator must be present in the U.S. for questioning under oath in a lawsuit accusing him of orchestrating an anti-Semitic "troll storm" against a Montana real estate agent's family, a federal judge has ruled.

The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin says he lives abroad and says it's too dangerous for him to travel to the U.S., but Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch ruled Friday that Anglin's personal safety concerns are "factually unsupported" and no basis for a protective order sparing him from an in-person deposition in the U.S.

One of Anglin's attorneys, Marc Randazza, said in a text message Monday that his client has made it clear to him and to the court that he won't return to the U.S. Randazza said he expects that Anglin would "willingly" accept a default judgment against him before returning to the U.S. for a deposition by Tanya Gersh's attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"The end result of that will be that the SPLC will get a piece of paper, my client will pay nothing and there won't even be a decision on the legal merits, at least clarifying the law. Everyone loses," Randazza wrote.