Eric Hunt is the New Jersey man who attacked Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in a San Francisco hotel elevator on February 1, 2007. Hunt, then 22 and a self-described Holocaust denier, was convicted in 2008 of felony false imprisonment as a hate crime, along with misdemeanor battery and elder abuse. He was sentenced to two years in state prison but walked out the same day on credit for time already served. The Eric Hunt–Elie Wiesel attack case became one of the more prominent hate crime prosecutions of its era, and Hunt himself went on to make Holocaust denial films before publicly renouncing the movement in 2017.
What Happened at the Argent Hotel
Wiesel, then 78, was returning to his room at the Argent Hotel after speaking at a peace conference. Hunt got into the elevator with him, grabbed him by the wrist, and dragged him out onto the sixth floor and into a hallway. Prosecutors said Hunt’s aim was to force Wiesel to “admit” the Holocaust never happened.1J. The Jewish News of Northern California. When Elie Wiesel Was Assaulted in San Francisco, It Was DA Kamala Harris Who Charged His Attacker With a Hate Crime Wiesel broke free and screamed for help. Hunt ran back to the elevator and fled the building.2ADL. Holocaust Denier Arrested for Attack on Elie Wiesel Wiesel was not physically injured.
The confrontation was planned. Prosecutors established that Hunt had followed Wiesel on a cross-country speaking tour, financing the pursuit with a $10,000 inheritance from his grandmother.3SFGate. Jury Convicts Man in Attack on Elie Wiesel Five days later, on February 6, Hunt posted an account of the attack on an antisemitic website, calling Wiesel’s memoir Night “almost entirely fictitious” and labeling Wiesel “a genocidal liar.”4Courthouse News Service. N.J. Man Convicted of Accosting Nobel Laureate
Arrest and Charges
Hunt fled California and went home to New Jersey. Montgomery Township police arrested him on February 17, 2007.5CBS News. Man Arrested in Elie Wiesel Assault He was extradited to San Francisco from a New Jersey mental institution to face charges.6World Jewish Congress. Elie Wiesel Attacker Found Guilty on Lesser Charges
The San Francisco District Attorney’s office, then led by Kamala Harris, filed six felony counts: attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, two counts of elder abuse, stalking, and battery. A hate crime enhancement was attached.7History News Network. Police Identify Holocaust Denier in Elie Wiesel Attack Harris said at the time the charges “are serious enough to warrant state prison” and that her office was focused on “protecting the victim as well as the community at large.”8SFGate. Man Pleads Not Guilty in Elie Wiesel Encounter
The Insanity Defense and the Verdict
Hunt pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorney John Runfola argued that Hunt was “delusional, not anti-Semitic,” suffering from an undiagnosed bipolar disorder that produced a “psychotic break.” Runfola told jurors Hunt had no history with organized hate groups and described him as a “lost soul” and a “meek soul.”3SFGate. Jury Convicts Man in Attack on Elie Wiesel
Prosecutor Alan Kennedy pointed to Hunt’s online writings as “boastful, hateful, [and] intolerant,” and argued Hunt was deliberately trying to prove the Holocaust a lie rather than acting out of delusion.9ABC7 News. Man Who Attacked Wiesel Sentenced
The trial took place in July 2008 before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn. On July 21, the jury rejected the insanity defense and convicted Hunt of a single felony count of false imprisonment with the hate crime enhancement, plus misdemeanor battery and elder abuse. He was acquitted on the more serious counts of attempted kidnapping, stalking, and false imprisonment of an elder.4Courthouse News Service. N.J. Man Convicted of Accosting Nobel Laureate
The Sentence and Same-Day Release
At sentencing in August 2008, Judge Robert Dondero found that Hunt had a “substantial acute mental problem” and that while he “knew the legal right from wrong, he did not know the moral right from wrong.” Dondero called the case “arguably overcharged” and noted no evidence Hunt had held antisemitic views before the incident.9ABC7 News. Man Who Attacked Wiesel Sentenced10NJ Herald. Man Who Attacked Wiesel Released
The court imposed a two-year state prison sentence. Because Hunt had already spent 823 days in custody, including good-behavior credit, he was released immediately. The rest of the sentence included four years of probation in New Jersey, a $1,000 fine, forfeiture of $3,100 found in his hotel room, a stay-away order protecting Wiesel, and mandatory psychiatric treatment at a residential facility and with a private psychiatrist.10NJ Herald. Man Who Attacked Wiesel Released
Speaking in court, Hunt said, “I do not deny the Holocaust,” and, “I am not a Nazi, racist, white supremacist or anti-Semite.” He acknowledged he “had been sucked into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on the Internet denying the occurrence of the Holocaust.” His attorney at sentencing, Lindsey Dazel, described him as “remorseful” and “really, really embarrassed and upset for the harm he caused Mr. Wiesel.” Harris said the outcome “sends a loud and clear message that hate crime will not be tolerated.”9ABC7 News. Man Who Attacked Wiesel Sentenced10NJ Herald. Man Who Attacked Wiesel Released
Wiesel’s Response
Wiesel testified at the trial and spoke publicly about the attack more than once. On a return visit to San Francisco in May 2007, he said, “Since 1945, I have been in many places of danger. I was never really afraid. This time, in San Francisco, I felt fear.” He told the court, “This attack is against the Jewish people,” and described it as possibly the first case of a Holocaust denier resorting to physical violence. He called deniers “not mentally ill, but morally ill.”1J. The Jewish News of Northern California. When Elie Wiesel Was Assaulted in San Francisco, It Was DA Kamala Harris Who Charged His Attacker With a Hate Crime11ABC7 News. Elie Wiesel Testifies at Trial of Attacker
When Hunt’s mother, Naomi McCloskey, approached Wiesel at the trial to ask for forgiveness, he responded, “I understood her pain. But what can I do? It is sad, because she is also his victim.”1J. The Jewish News of Northern California. When Elie Wiesel Was Assaulted in San Francisco, It Was DA Kamala Harris Who Charged His Attacker With a Hate Crime
Denial Films, a Lawsuit, and a Reversal
Whatever Hunt said at sentencing, his conduct after release ran the other way. On October 6, 2009, he filed a pro se libel suit in Broward Circuit Court in Florida against Steven Spielberg, Holocaust survivor Irene Weisberg Zisblatt, co-author Gail Ann Webb, and their publisher, alleging Zisblatt’s memoir The Fifth Diamond contained “vicious lies” and that she had stolen other survivors’ experiences. He sought at least $60 million in punitive damages and a jury trial. The case went to Circuit Judge Peter Weinstein. Available reporting does not document how it ended.12Sun-Sentinel. Holocaust Denier Sues Survivor
Between 2011 and 2016, Hunt produced at least five denial videos, among them The Jewish Gas Chamber Hoax, which asserted that Zyklon B was used to “save Jewish lives,” and The Treblinka Archaeology Hoax, which recast Nazi death camps as “work camps.” The Anti-Defamation League described the material as “old lies repackaged in a new format.” The films circulated through denial and conspiracy networks on YouTube and later on BitChute after mainstream platforms began removing such content.13NBC Bay Area. Wiesel’s San Francisco Attacker Back on Attack
On January 27, 2017, Hunt posted a nearly 14,000-word article on his own website rejecting the central claims of Holocaust revisionism. He asked that his prior videos, recordings, and writings be deleted, calling the material “misleading, especially to young people.” A webmaster who had been hosting his site responded by cutting his bandwidth and taking the site offline.14Holocaust Controversies. Eric Hunt Is No Longer a Holocaust Denier