Juli Briskman, Cyclist Fired After Flipping Off Trump's Motorcade, Sues Employer

The woman, who was fired from her job for giving the finger to President Donald Trump’s motorcade last year, filed a lawsuit against her former employer, government contractor Akima LLC on Wednesday.

“I filed this lawsuit against my former employer today because I believe that Americans should not be forced to choose between their principles and their paychecks,” Juli Briskman said, the Hill reported.

“The actions of my company were swift and unexpected," she added in the statement. "It is un-American to let the government use your own tax dollars to buy your off-duty obedience.”

Briskman’s life was going just like anyone else’s till she happened to pass Trump’s motorcade escorting the president departing his golf club in Sterling, Virginia. As she rode her bicycle next to POTUS’ vehicle, she raised her middle finger and flipped off the commander-in-chief.

Voice of America reporter Steve Herman, who was riding in the motorcade, captured her one-finger salute and posted it on social media, which immediately went viral.

"He was passing by and my blood just started to boil," she told the Huffington Post after the incident. "I'm thinking DACA recipients are getting kicked out. He pulled ads for open enrollment in Obamacare. Only one-third of Puerto Rico has power. I'm thinking, 'He's at the damn golf course again.' I flipped off the motorcade a number of times."

While liberals sided with Briskman, sending her fan mail and cash donations, the cyclist received considerable backlash from pro-Trump supporters, earning her hate mail.

As soon as she posted the picture on her Facebook page, Akima forced her to resign, citing her actions violated their company policies.

"They said, 'We're separating from you,'" Briskman said. "Basically, you cannot have 'lewd' or 'obscene' things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off 'obscene.'"

Briskman was fired despite the fact that none of her social media profiles linked her to the company she worked for. However, her employers told her using the viral photo as her profile picture, was in violation of the company’s policy for social media.

According to Briskman, although the company did business with the federal government, it had no right to “limit your ability to criticize that government in your private time.”

The lawsuit, filed by the Geller Law Group and Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan pressure group, argued: “Akima's actions-forcing Juli to resign out of fear of unlawful retaliation by the government-violated the basic tenets of Virginia employment law.”

"Defendent forced plaintiff to resign for the stated reasons that the photograph of her would have an adverse effect on its ability to obtain government contracts," the lawsuit added, the Guardian reported.

Briskman's legal team comprising Maria Simon and Rebecca Gellar also cited the fact that a senior director of operations at the company wrote “you’re a f-----g Libtard a-----e” in 2017, on a Facebook page for Black Lives Matter and was not penalized for it. The person in question was allowed to keep his job even though his social media profie clearly mentioned he worked for Akima.