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By Guy Page
Videographer Hank “Planet Hank” Poitras confirmed today that he is being investigated by Attorney General Charity Clark under Vermont’s 2026 Synthetic Media law for a satire video he produced earlier this year.
As first reported by Seven Days, Clark has sent him a warning letter about her investigating him for the video. He said that she says he violated the synthetic media act as a “deep fake media act.” Clark alleged that the video deceptively portrayed Balint.
Poitras said the video was clearly satire. He plans to sue the State over the investigation. “They have no case and that’s why I’m suing them,” Poitras told VDC today. “We will not allow them to infringe on my or anyone else’s free speech rights. This is a law to protect incumbent politicians. It makes it so that I cannot criticize a politician.”
Republican candidate for Congress Mark Coester called out the AG’s action. “Communist Becca Balint cried and sicced her dog the UnCharitable Clark on a Marine [Poitras] to attack his First Amendment rights,” he said in an email to VDC this morning.
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Oh dear, someone’s feeling got hurt from some obvious satire. Crocodile tears from me. Go ahead Miss Hurt, and have the AG waste tax payer dollars on this. Balient should pay for all the legal fees. For Hank, I recommend another satire video on this. Bring it on.
Sure thing Charity. What are you going to do about all the anti-Trump and anti- Vance videos?
I know huh? I love that it’s out up again for all to see. It’s still funny as hell, the 9th time!
Go Hank!
Come on ! It was so obviously an AI generated image parody that even AG Clark realizes it. So what’s the point Madame AG ? Do you just want to waste taxpayer money ? You at the very least have no respect for the people that actually pay your salary, or you would have told Ms. Balint that politics is a dirty business and she’d better grow a thicker skin !
Come on ! It was so obviously an AI generated image parady that even AG Clark realizes it. So what’s the point Madame AG ? Do you just want to waste taxpayer money ? You at the very have no respect for the people that actually pay your salary, or you would have told Ms. Balint that politics is a dirty business and she’d better grow a thicker skin !
100% consistently on the wrong side of democracy. Charity Clark is a bigger laughing stock every day she opens her idiotic facehole. (OOPSY, will I be investigated now?) A disgrace to Vermont, to attorneys, and to common sense.
Tell her to get a life.
Mr. Klar, I would guess that your name had crossed her transom before, and that is something to be proud of.
The law has a time limit, if I’m not mistaken it only applies if material is released within 90 days of an election. I wonder if the AG can even correctly read laws her own party put on the books?
Planet Hank first released the video June 7th. Vermont’s statewide primary is August 11th. Is that within 90 days Mr. Manley?
A “Primary” is a party only event, like the one that we will have in August. The general election is in November, which is clearly what the law intended: Vermont’s S.23 (Act 75) mandates that any synthetic media (AI-generated or altered images, audio, or video) distributed within 90 days of an ***election*** must include a clear disclosure stating: “This media has been manipulated or generated by digital technology and depicts speech or conduct that did not occur.”
Mr. Manley,
A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party’s candidate for elected office to run in the general election.
Aug 11th in Vermont in absolutely 100% an “election”.
The primaries are run as elections but ARE party events. The democrats continually rag on our President as being a threat to democracy yet they cancelled out the votes of almost 15 million primary voters in the 2024 election when that early debate made it abundantly obvious that Biden was non compos mentus. The democrats are doing the same thing up in Maine with the oyster nazi now that they know he can’t win in the general election. The democrat party are the oligarchs, the kings, the threats to democracy and especially world-class hypocrites.
So apparently from reading here, the law is too vague, it doesn’t define what an election is, what election day, election week, election month or election season is. Can a vague law be reasonably enforced?
So there seems to be disagreement about what is an Election. I would argue a Primary is not an Election because we are just selecting candidates for the Election: no person will be elected into an office of power.
Furthermore, from the Act 75 Summary [https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2026/Docs/ACTS/ACT075/ACT075%20Act%20Summary.pdf]:
“There are exceptions to the disclosure requirement, including radio or television broadcasting stations that broadcast the deceptive media as part of a bona fide newscast or if the deceptive media constitutes satire or parody.”
I believe any reasonable person can look at the video (above) and know that it is satire and parody. If the AG continues her investigation, she will have to change the definitions of so many things.
Both the Vermont secretary of state and the chairperson of the state committee of each major party certifies primary elections under Vermont Statutes, Title 17, Chapter 51, article 2592.
No need to argue, primaries are considered elections in Vermont and are lawfully regulated as such.
Primaries are considered elections in Vt and the video is most definitely recognizable by a reasonably intelligent person as a parody of a public figure. There, glad we settled that.
Big sister is watching…but two can play that game.
Our other government hard at work against law abiding citizens. While the real criminals are dancing in the streets.
So the First Amendment is another Civil Right from the Bill of Suggestions that doesn’t apply in Vermont. So it only goes one way, Democrats can make anything about our President, but no one can make any parody of Democrats. The SCOTUS has already ruled that parody in legal
The Girls are ganging up? Vermont is saved! But the 1st Amendment lives!
Yes, do sue the fascists, who are clueless after having consumed the purple Bolshevik kool-aid, and with crossed eyes, crashed through the left lane and across our Constitution’s guard-rails. Extremist haters of America, the First Amendment and all things built upon common sense, these people calling conservatives fascists is laughable. Like all entitled sociopaths, they can’t see themselves clearly.
Democrats have enjoyed their 90% control of the major media for decades now
and will fight to keep it. They resent any outsiders/amateurs/freelancers coming in to do their own independent investigative journalism, while they continually accuse President Trump of being a threat to democracy and free speech. We have ample civil laws to define and discourage libel and slander, with broad exceptions for satire about government officials, public figures and celebrities. We have criminal penalties for corporate actors who deliberately mislead the public about their products and services and for disseminating information leading to fraud. We have publicly funded libraries in Vermont with entire sections containing books categorized as “fiction”. Every week the SevenDaysVT publishes cartoons depicting Trump and members of the conservative media, putting words in their mouths that they never uttered.
Now we have a progressive Attorney General who wants to criminalize freedom of expression by independent journalists for whom she has ideological disagreement with. The hypocrisy just keeps churning out from the left like sausage.
Wow!!! Clark sues Trump every other day, but heaven forbid a video about dear Becca is in bad taste. As Patrick Finney said, “you better grow thicker skin”!!!! I think that I would like to sue both Clark & Becca because they both hurt my feelings!!!
Time for a “no queens” rally?
THAT! Is the BEST idea yet! Let me know when and where.
Oh yes and it’s a double entendre! lol it gets even better!
Love it!
Absolute genius.
One last comment from me. As my father said, “if you can’t stand the heat, GET OUT.”
With all the crime in Vermont, seems she can’t handle it. But a peaceful innocent guy that produced a clever video gets investigated. We need a similar video of the AG “doing her job”.
Nothing unusual here folks. Throughout history people have been prosecuted, exiled, sent to the gulag and even executed for speaking against the communist leadership. A very telling tale of things to come if we don’t vote out these communists. Notice how they are coming out of the shadows, showing their true colors, now that they have gained some power. Read your history folks, it is all in there.
These Democrats would shut down all conservative speech if they could. They would look you in the eye and tell you that shutting down conservative speech is defended ng the first amendment. And then they would expect you to totally agree!
There’s nothing to investigate. I have seen the video and there is nothing in it. That can’t be said with freedom of speech. She’s just upset because she’s being made fun of. When you suck at your job, it’s easy to make you look like a fool. This woman is a domestic terrorist and shouldn’t Be in this office anyway.
No Queens shipould be adopted by the VT GOP, take it a run, sadly we have no balls, so it’s unlikely. It could be so much fun, but we are clearly stuck in the mud.
The VT AG can go pound sand. On the other hand, if she is dumb enough to press charges, Harmeet Dhillon will be all over her, not to mention a personal civil rights violation lawsuit that could be quite rewarding financially…
Hank, This is nothing but a Selective tool for political enforcement by political operatives, and they exposing themselves as such.
Just go onto and “Marxist” feed, democracy now, now this, donate some money to leftist campaigns and you will find yourself on the most sophisticated propaganda, aka meme machine with a “serious” tone presented as truth. The propaganda is VERY sophisticated, the best never “lies” but gets the job done of hiding the truth and promoting lies. Bernie ours out a ton of this crap. The most sophisticated of them all is VPR, which people believe as unbiased and truthful, they are that sophisticated.
Here one they use for “defund the police”, a charity favorite of course, they find one screw up of a police officer, then they broad cast it every day for months and state this is what is going on in the police department. They ignore the MILLIONS of good police interactions everyday while this is going on.
A more local case? There are several. Remember the state trooper being accused for MONTHS about being antisemite? Then when the body camera came out we find the cop couldn’t have been nicer and more professional.
There own law will absolutely abolish themselves and prove she is a bought and paid for operative of George Soros, when she ONLY enforced on republicans.they can’thelp themselves, they are trapped in the some pigs are more equal than others mind set.
Enjoy the fishing, it will be epic.
Have fun!
Ok we have to get these bozo’s out of office and the way we can do it is cross party lines. You can do that in the primary’s. I am going to do that to get rid of Sarah George, Uncharitable Clark ( I like that by the way) and poor little Becca. This is the only way that we are going to be able to take the trash out.
Is there a link out there that I can share
I want my money back
It seems most commentators here haven’t actually read Act 75, and are ignorant in how it relates specifically to the Planet Hank video.
It’s unfortunate and disappointing to read such misinformed, yet confident and boisterous messaging from y’all.
Please enlighten. These videos could have been produced at ant time in history, but there was no need for the law . Now that people can do it for free, giving power to the people, it’s not allowed. Did I miss anything?
These videos could not have been produced at ant time in history.
Hey Balint man up and get a life…….same
Goes for the rest of your leftist Cronies…..
Act 75 or no Act 75, doesn’t change the US Constitutions 1st Amendment and US Supreme Court decision of parody being legal
That’s true. The problem here is how Hank has portrayed and sold his behavior and videos up to this point. His website literally states: “Dive into the gritty truth with Planet Hank, a hard-hitting reality show exposing Vermont’s dark underbelly.”
So when someone has advertised themselves using terms like “truth” “reality” “exposing “ and then shares deceptive AI generated product…it’s misleading, dangerous, and disingenuous towards the general public.
“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you are only telling the world that you fear what he might say”. – George R.R. Martin
Which is worse, implying Balint is white trash, or Christopher Helali – High Bailiff for Orange County in Vershire, Vermont – standing in front of a “Kill Trump“ banner whilst in Iran to “honor, salute, and pray for” the slain Iranian leader?
Bernie, Welch and Balint all took the steppingstone route to fame in Vermont.
One replacing another, over and over again.
Two from Massachusetts and one from New York.
All alien to Vermont.
All “becoming“ millionaires since being in public office.
So the question is, will Balint take Bernie’s place a run for governor?
…and they all took an oath to uphold the Constitution, but apparently that is not taken seriously any more.
I think the number of responses to this article could be a record breaking from what I have seen. More people waking up? Works for me.