BUCKHANNON — On May 27th, 2020, Asad Derya Khan was captured flipping off supporters of President Donald J. Trump, Jack Reger, and Shelia Sines during a street rally at the corner of Kanawha and Main Street. Khan drove past the group once, shaking his head. Then, at 2:17 p.m., Khan drove a second time, putting up his middle finger at the group with Buckhannon City Council candidate Shelia Sines in attendance. In the passengers’ seat was Khan’s girlfriend, filming the group.
Footage from the incident shows Asad Derya Khan “flipping-off” Sines and political supporters, along with his girlfriend capturing the gathers. On the back of Khan’s vehicle was a bumper sticker for Pros and Khans.
At 2:22 p.m., Khan and his girlfriend drove past the group a third time, again putting up his middle finger.
In a prior incident, Khan called a gathering organized by the CWVRW a “Klans people gathering,” “Nazi gathering,” consisting of “idiots, racists” and “bigots.” One of the victims of this first verbal attack was Amanda Posey, who was also subjected to Khan’s obscene gesture during Wednesday’s event.
“The first time, he was in front of me, on the Rite-aid side. He was shaking his head, and I couldn’t figure out why he would be doing that. He was like in disgust. He was shaking his head back and forth. I was like, ‘Okay,'” Posey told Mountaineer Journal. “And when he came back and flipped us off, I was just like, ‘Wow.’ Especially, after everything that had come out, he would go that far. To me, the harassment is continuing, because that’s uncalled for. Why would anybody do that, you know? There’s no need to ever do that. We weren’t doing anything wrong. We were just in support of the election, in support of Trump. We had the American flag. I’m not sure what the reason the flipping off was. What were they trying to do? To me, that was just harassment. There is no need to ever, ever do something like that.”
Posey also provided her opinion if Khan is sincerely remorseful for the content he contributed to The Buckhannon Rag, after yesterday’s encounter.
“Usually if someone is sorry and they mean it, they don’t do it again. They don’t do anything. Your actions speak louder than words. So, if you’re really sorry, he wouldn’t have done that. You would stop. You would wave, if you’re sorry. It seems to me, there is still some hostility there for you to flip ’em off. A flip-off to me means angry; it’s a vulgar statement.”
She also addressed if she felt Khan’s initial response, calling his contributions to The Buckhannon Rag a “poor judge of” [his] “moral character,” was genuinely expressed.
“I just think it’s sad. What they’ve done in the past, it all came out, and he said he was ‘sorry’ or ‘remorseful’ (whatever word he used), and he’s still continuing to do that. When is enough going to be enough? Why can’t it be over? Why can’t it be done? What he did was wrong. Why can’t it stop now? If you’re sorry, what you did was wrong, everything is out in the open now… it’s been exposed and it’s over with, why can’t it be stopped? If you’re really done and you really are remorseful, why do you continue? Like, that would be my question to ask him. Why won’t you stop then?”
Asad Khan and his father Dr. Ali Khan were recently discovered to be contributors to The Buckhannon Rag, which was a website that posted anonymous defamatory content against approximately 19 people, 13 of which were private citizens. One of the individuals who was attacked by The Buckhannon Rag was Shelia Sines, who was also subjected to Wednesday’s continued harassment by Asad Khan.
The contributor(s) to the website were maliciously posting photos of Buckhannon residents’ houses, publishing their residential addresses, and phone numbers. The Buckhannon Rag contributor(s) were also stalking the residences of candidates, journalists, and private citizens, writing about their behavior on their website.
Furthermore, the writer(s) of The Buckhannon Rag published articles targeting people’s deceased loved ones. The contributor(s) edited photos from people’s Facebook profiles, placing one on a pornographic image. Shelia Sines’ family portrait was also photoshopped, defacing Sines’ 1-year-old grandson, taken at his first birthday party. Asad Khan later admitted to providing edited images for the site.
They took multiple photos of their targets’ houses, drawing circles to indicate where one residence’s home security cameras were located. Then, they used innuendo, insinuating that they hacked one of their target’s home security cameras. The Buckhannon Rag also published multiple posts maliciously tracking the movements and locations of their targets, posting about following one individual through two nearby counties, obsessively providing details about their excursion.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the West Virginia Secretary of State, and the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department were involved in a joint investigation to find the operators of the website.
Khan is a former pre-candidate for Buckhannon City Council. He is also the host of a liberal webshow on Facebook, Pros and Khans. City council candidates Shauna Jones, Matthew Kerner, and Mayor David McCauley have appeared on Khan’s show as guests.