Anna Wilding & James Sved Go To The LAPD Over Webworm

Hi,

If you’ve been following along, you will be aware that New Zealand born woman Anna Wilding is running for US Congress in California’s 32nd congressional district. 

How is a New Zealander able to run for US Congress, I hear you ask? Well, in 2014 she married American man James Sved, following this gushing press release from Wilding announcing “Celebrity Wedding Planned for Christchurch.”

Webworm has been following Wilding’s political run with curiosity, especially when she started accusing running mate Marena Lin of being a “Chinese spy”, seemingly based on Lin's ethnicity and her background in data science. That kind of behaviour saw Wilding lose her one and only major endorsement from California's Progressive Democratic Club.

She also began referencing her husband Sved in her various ramblings: “As my husband was in navy [SIC] and a top secret nuclear program we were both witness to the discovery and ousting of chinese [SIC] spies”.

All this struck me as incredibly fascinating, so I started digging into Sved as well. Like Anna, the American also seemed to enjoy courting the press, in pieces like “Rising Stars: Meet James Sved of Malibu”. Sved also tried his hand at politics back in 2018, running for local council.

All of this was both newsworthy and fascinating, especially when you consider Wilding’s colourful past.

Throughout all of this reporting, I reached out to both Wilding and Sved for comment. It's important in journalism to give people the right of reply. In the past, Anna has mostly responded with rambling “cease and desist” letters (written by her). Sved chose to never reply.

Then things got weird, and very American.

Sved didn’t seem to like me writing about him or his wife, so he filed for a restraining order against me. This was unusual, as I have never been near Sved and Wilding in person. I’ve only ever emailed them questions – about Wilding’s political aspirations, and the accuracy of the couple's unbelievable stories.

Being on the safe side, I got a lawyer and sent money to their firm to deal with it. I’m here on a visa, and don’t want to risk some angry American derailing my work.

Sved failed to serve me any court papers, but I was aware of the case and just accepted service to get it over with. I went to court with my lawyer on May 6, hoping to get it wrapped up. 

It was my first time seeing Sved in person. He was a small man with tiny eyes, and it felt like he could disintegrate into a puddle at any moment. He wore a suit and was softly spoken. When he looked at you, it felt like he was staring out into the far distance. 

The hearing was booked for 8.30am. By 11.30am, the court clerk informed us that the judge had run out of time and couldn’t hear our case. We rescheduled for July. 

To state the obvious, all of this is very stupid. 

I am doing journalism, and it’s constitutionally protected speech. People can’t take out a retraining order because they don’t like a journalist writing about them.

But this is the US legal system, and I have to deal with it.

In the background, Sved has been sending a series of emails to my lawyer, wanting to argue his case out of court.

Meanwhile, Anna has been doing something really interesting: She’s been emailing other politicians in the congressional race (and their press people), seemingly referring to me and my immigration status. Here are some excerpts from an email she sent last month:

“No doubt Lin and Levins camp are busy knowingly spreading a fake newsfeed right now by a known foreign malicious bully and blogger with multiple victims, myself included.

You were all warned.

The facts, the timing, and the full communications speak for themselves.”

[...]

“My husband has a court date for civil harrassement [SIC] and he is evading service. Again this you all knew but you still chose to engage him. Dirty and Low of you all. Shameful.”

[...]

“Even more troubling, they knowingly caused this to be amplified by a malicious blogger with a known pattern of targeting and harassing women and others. That individual was formally warned in writing through a cease and desist weeks ago, and also that it is illegal as a foreigner to interfere in an American election, which he is now doing.

It is also deeply concerning that individuals in this race would engage with or enable that conduct, despite being aware of it. It is disgusting they are allowing the bullying of a woman to continue and inflaming it. Shame on both and all camps involved.”

Look, it might be because I’ve been writing a lot about ICE and Everlee Wihongi’s detention – but I wonder if something else is going on here. I know Sved reads Webworm, as he printed all my articles out and brought them to court. 

And with the context of what Anna was emailing others, something on Sved’s court filings stood out to me:

There was no reason for Sved to write "Foreign National on Green Card” on this document – the form certainly didn’t ask for it – but he did. And if we’re getting down into the weeds, the courts frown on this:

“Evidence of a person’s immigration status shall not be disclosed in open court by a party or their attorney unless the judge presiding over the matter first determines that the evidence is admissible in an in camera hearing requested by the party seeking disclosure of the person’s immigration status.”

In the back of my mind, I wonder if Wilding and Sved want me to get…. deported?

Things went quiet for about a week, then this on May 13: