Kurt Eichenwald, epileptic Newsweek reporter, says Twitter user gave him a seizure

Newsweek senior writer Kurt Eichenwald threatened legal action Friday against a Twitter user he accused of causing him to have an epileptic seizure.

Mr. Eichenwald, 55, said he’s taking time off from social media in order to concentrate on suing over a supposed seizure-spurring tweet he received Thursday evening.

“Last night, for the second time, a deplorable aware I have epilepsy tweeted a strobe at me with the message “you deserve a seizure’ on it,” Mr. Eichenwald wrote to his Twitter followers on Friday. “It worked.”

“All I will be tweeting for the next few days are copies of documents from the litigation, police reports etc. Once we have the lawsuit filed, we will be subpoenaing Twitter for the identity of the individual who engaged in this cross-state assault,” he added.

The Twitter user behind Thursday’s tweet, “@jew_goldstein,” has since been suspended from the website.

While aggressively covering Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for Newsweek, Mr. Eichenwald announced in October that he nearly had a mild epileptic episode after a Twitter user purposely sent him a video containing flashing images. Now in the wake of the second such incident in as many months, the reporter insisted this week that he’ll be pursuing legal action over the most recent stunt.

“This kind of assault will never happen again without huge consequences. This individual will be going to court, and he will be paying a price. And if any of you others ever try this again, I will make sure it happens to you,” he tweeted Friday.

“Online anonymity does not protect criminals. Thats why subpoenas exist. You are facing a criminal investigation and a lawsuit. So if any of you others think about trying this ’cute’ prank, consider the consequences. They will be severe.”

Thursday’s incident occurred in the aftermath of Mr. Eichenwald being interviewed earlier that evening on Fox News during a heated segment in which he defended his coverage of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign against host Tucker Carlson. Mr. Eichenwald posted dozens of tweets shortly after the frenzied segment aired Thursday evening, spurring replies including the supposed seizure-inducing strobe tweet.