Huntington Beach Councilmember Butch Twining is seeking a jury trial and $25 million in damages in a lawsuit he’s filed against Ocean View School District President Gina Clayton-Tarvin for comments she made about his conduct at a vigil for Charlie Kirk.
The defamation lawsuit, filed Nov. 24 in Orange County Superior Court, alleges Clayton-Tarvin made “knowingly false statements” that Twining “gleefully chanted with” and “marched alongside” white nationalist groups at a Sept. 10 vigil for Kirk at the Huntington Beach Pier Plaza.
Kirk, a prominent Christian activist and founder of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, had been assassinated earlier that day at Utah Valley University.
Social media footage showed some demonstrators waving flags affiliated with the Patriot Front, which the FBI has described as a White supremacist group, while chanting “White men fight back.” A short clip showing Twining among the crowd, holding a candle and a small American flag, went viral on Facebook.
Clayton-Tarvin said in two social media posts on Sept. 13 that Twining was “participating in a White supremacy rally” and “gleefully chanting amongst alt-right white supremacists.” She called Twining an “extremist MAGA city council member…who can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble.”
Twining has said he and his wife attended what they expected to be a peaceful gathering to honor Kirk and left quickly after demonstrators began chanting racist slogans. He denied partaking in any White supremacist activities.
“Everything you read online is fabricated and wrong,” he said in a Sept. 15 interview.
Clayton-Tarvin said she looks forward to seeing Twining in court.
“The community sees this lawsuit for what it is, trumpery, a petty attack by a sensitive man,” she said in a statement Friday. “It is nothing more than an abridgment of the right to public participation. Butch Twining’s actions that day were wholly inconsistent with that of a serious public official, and Huntington Beach deserves better.”
Twining’s complaint alleges Clayton-Tarvin’s “reckless public character assassination” caused significant reputational harm and led to him receiving at least three death threats.
Twining did not “chant, march, endorse, support, or align himself with White supremacists or any extremist group” and has “publicly denounced such ideologies,” his attorneys said in the suit.
Twining said in an interview Friday that he wasn’t “in this for the money” and would donate any potential court settlement to local charities.
“This is to stop somebody who has made a career out of tearing people down,” he said. “She does it over and over again. She crossed the line when she put the target on my back.”
Clayton-Tarvin has had a combative relationship with the City Council in the past, most recently suing the city in 2023 after City Attorney Michael Gates refused to release the complete air show settlement agreement in a public records request. The city was ordered in January to pay Clayton-Tarvin’s attorneys $182,000.
A hearing for the defamation case is scheduled for May 1.
This story has been updated with a response from Gina Clayton-Tarvin and Butch Twining.
