Controversial Vice-President Thomas Jacobs was formally removed from the office on 9 October at 10:57 following a public vote. The vote, which ended with seven in favour of removing him to four against, was initiated by President Purcell following a court case ruling concerning allegations of racist remarks from Jacobs. All citizens of the PFR were eligible to vote.
Representative Thomas Jacobs, who recently adopted this pseudonym after numerous instances of doxxing against the Irish micronationalist, held the position of Vice President since the first Pennian General Election in July. He still retains his position as Representative of the District of Medici, Central Region, under his political party People’s Power. Minister of Defense, His Excellency Kaiden “Stx” Wooten will replace Jacobs as Vice President, retaining his previous offices.
Jacobs had been presented in the Federal Court on 6 October where he was found guilty of violating the Anti Discrimination Law of 2022 for “the insult[ing] of someone based on their race and [or] sexuality by written words.” The case, presided by Judge Preetam Kapei, came after several citizens complained about Jacobs’ behaviour. Numerous users shared screenshots from other Discord servers allegedly showing Jacobs making several racist remarks, including the repeated use of the n word. Jacobs responded to these allegations on the PFR server in often callous ways, including displaying laughter via text or emoji. The trial ended on 9 October and found Jacobs guilty as the “defendant [Jacobs] did not contest the trial.”
Screenshots of alleged messages sent by Jacobs in other Discord servers going as far as August 2022 were provided by various citizens of the PFR to be used as evidence—in total, the messages showed sixteen instances where Jacobs had supposedly used the n word, including both the ‘-ga’ and hard ‘r’ forms. One of the messages also allegedly showed a response by Jacobs to a seemingly Black individual who claimed that Jacobs had previously called him the n word: “Wasn’t you the Cracker who called me [the n word] ?,” to which Jacobs replied with the emoji of a cat laughing, followed later by referring to him degradingly as a “BLACK MAN.”
The ruling in court was made by Kapei as Jacobs disrupted the trial and refused to recognise the court’s authority. At the start of the trial, Jacobs repeatedly repeated “I love Poland,” which Kapei stated was irrelevant to the case. Jacobs continued to make similarly disrupting statements before ultimately stating that he refused to recognise the court’s authority. Kapei stated that Jacobs was the Vice-President and that he had to answer to the allegations, however Jacobs replied “Yes, I am, and yet I don’t wish to answer. This court has no authority and I do not care for this “trial”. I do not care, I wish to move on with my day, thank you.” After Kapei warned Jacobs that he would have to take action for these comments, Jacobs responded with: “Good to know sir, but I do not care.”
