A Clemson University student who was awarded $5.3 million after being falsely accused of sexual assault must continue to fight for his award money.
Andrew Pampu was awarded the money in April 2022 after he sued his accuser, Erin Wingo, her father, David, and her ex-boyfriend, Colin Gahagan, for defamation. But last month, South Carolina’s Court of Appeals <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/south-carolina/court-of-appeals/2025/6112.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">overturned</a> the ruling and set a dangerous precedent —that quasi-judicial campus tribunals carry the same weight as jury trials.
A jury unanimously agreed that Pampu had been defamed and ordered Erin to pay $700,000 in actual damages and $450,000 in punitive damages, her father to pay $230,000 in damages, and Gahagan to pay $700,000 in actual damages and $220,000 in punitive damages for defamation. Erin and Gahagan were also ordered to pay damages for civil conspiracy, with Erin ordered to pay $2 million in actual damages and Gahagan ordered to pay $1 million, Greenville News <a href="https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2022/04/12/former-clemson-student-awarded-millions-defamation-lawsuit-appeal-filed-defendants/7225351001/">reported</a> in 2022.
The three appealed the ruling, even though the lawsuit kicked off after Gahagan admitted to Pampu that he had helped Wingo falsely accuse him.
“You’re innocent,” Gahagan wrote in a January 2017 text message, months after Pampu had been suspended from Clemson based on Wingo’s claims. “I lied in that hearing. Erin wanted to have sex that night. Get your brothers away from me and never touch your [sic] life again and I’ll come through with the truth that she lied. I deleted the texts from that night prove [sic] she was f****** crazy. You’re innocent. Just pull your f****** boys off me and never touch me again. It’s sad that you were like a brother to me and this happened[.] You’re innocent. Send this to your lawyer. Just don’t call me into the hearing and leave me alone. You’re welcome. That’s all I ask. You’re innocent bud.”
But the Court of Appeals overturned the unanimous jury ruling, in part by claiming the trial that led to the ruling was unnecessary because the case had already been litigated by Clemson University administrators.
This, despite the fact that campus tribunals provide little to no due process for accused students, including discovery or even the right to properly question their accuser and call witnesses. The Court claimed that “fundamental fairness requires the court to give preclusive effect to the administrative hearing board’s February 29, 2016, findings.”
One of Pampu’s attorneys, Kimberly Lau, blasted the court for its ruling.
“This ruling dangerously distorts the law and undermines the role of juries,” said Lau, who has been representing falsely accused students for more than a decade. “Andrew Pampu was defamed, denied due process, and suspended from Clemson based on false testimony. A jury heard all the facts and unanimously ruled in his favor. That justice has now been upended by a misapplied legal doctrine that values a flawed university proceeding over a full and fair trial.”
Pampu and his attorneys say they will continue to fight for justice following the disappointing ruling.
“After ten exhausting years, including seven spent defending myself and three more in the appellate process, I remain committed to standing up for the truth,” Pampu said. “When I received the favorable unanimous jury verdict in March 2022, I was overwhelmed with relief.”
“Since then, the case has continued through the courts, and while the recent appellate ruling is discouraging, I believe it raises serious questions about access to justice and the weight given to jury findings,” he added. “I will continue to stand up for what is right, not only for myself, but for anyone who finds themselves fighting to clear their name and move forward with their life.”
Pampu’s struggles began nearly a decade ago, in early September 2015, when Wingo pursued him for sexual activity leading up to a fraternity party where Gahagan, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, was ignoring her, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/he-was-accused-of-sexual-assault-by-a-woman-whose-boyfriend-later-admitted-lying-he-just-won-a-5-3m-settlement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Wingo propositioned Pampu and the two ended up having sex outside near a shed. Following the encounter, Wingo complained about Gahagan and ended up crying over him for the rest of the night, sending him numerous text messages.
The next morning, she texted Pampu to ask him not to tell Gahagan about their night together. When she admitted to Gahagan what she had done, she claimed not to remember most of the night, so Gahagan told her that if she couldn’t remember, it was rape. Even though Wingo clearly remembered the night in text messages to multiple people, she told investigators she didn’t, even deleting her text to Pampu. When Pampu showed the text to campus investigators, they ignored it.
Wingo didn’t report the alleged sexual assault to Clemson until two weeks after she and Pampu had engaged in sexual activity. Even though all sides were precluded from retaliation, Clemson allowed Gahagan to call Pampu a “rapist” around campus. Pampu also reported other incidents of harassment and retaliation by Gahagan and Wingo, all of which were ignored.
Given Clemson’s apparent bias even before the hearing, it was no surprise that Pampu was suspended. Months later, Gahagan admitted that it was all a lie. Gahagan also shared text messages between himself and a woman who knew Wingo’s father. Gahagan told the woman that Wingo had lied about being raped.
In addition to suing his accusers, Pampu also sued Clemson University, with whom he reached an undisclosed settlement in 2019.

Clemson University Operates In Limited Capacity Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

‘Dangerous Precedent’: Court Sides With University Over Jury in False Rape Defamation Case

Clemson University

College

false accusations

Sexual Harassment

The Daily Wire recently featured <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-a-california-psychology-student-exposed-the-dark-side-of-therapy-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the shocking and sad story</a> of Naomi Epps Best’s struggle for toleration in a graduate marriage and family therapy program at Santa Clara University.
Best describes outrageous violations of privacy, decency, and traditional religious values — which are made all the more outrageous by the fact that they occurred at a Catholic university.
Santa Clara is an extreme case. But it’s part of an unfortunate trend among Catholic colleges and universities. These schools believe they must become like secular universities in order to achieve academic excellence and adequately prepare their students for the workforce.
One example of a Catholic university that has self-consciously stood against this self-immolation of Catholic schools for over 50 years is Franciscan University of Steubenville.
We are driven by a different conviction: that the Gospel can be integrated with the intellectual life and with rigorous formation in the various professional disciplines, and without a loss to these disciplines.
Christian values are not an obstacle to excellent formation in the mental health professions. Teachers do not need to demonstrate their willingness to contradict Christian teaching by promoting perverse sexual practices in the classroom, and students do not need to set aside their deepest convictions about what gives life meaning and purpose in order to serve others in the noble professions of marriage and family therapy, counseling, psychology, or social work.
So, what should Naomi Epps Best have experienced in a graduate mental health program at a Catholic university?
Fundamentally, education in the mental health professions at a Catholic university should be committed to providing students with formation shaped both by faith and reason in a therapeutic context. Reason embraces all that psychological sciences have to offer in understanding the human person individually and in context, including the human bodily and emotional experience, the relational dimension, the intellect, the will, and the spiritual nature of being human.
No professional program in the mental health field with a goal of training skilled, knowledgeable professionals who embody the dispositions necessary to the mental health practice can do without the knowledge that comes from psychological research or the wisdom hard-won from clinicians working daily in the field.
At the same time, as St. John Paul II stated, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.” Faith and revelation offer a window into the mystery of the human person that one cannot glean from science alone, and provide a means to discerning truth in a field where relativistic views tend to be preferred.
A Catholic mental health training program should invite its students to consider clinical practice in light of the revealed truth of the Christian faith. In this way, students in a Catholic university have a way to analyze ideas, research, and treatment techniques from the perspective of a Christian understanding of the human person.
Very often, the psychological sciences and faith align wonderfully, allowing students to have confidence in the treatment techniques they study. Sometimes, though, widely endorsed clinical approaches that are part of the mental health fields — and the philosophies upon which theories are based — do not align with a Christian view of the person. At a Catholic university, students in a mental health training program must be given the tools to make these discernments.
How does this work in practice? It begins with crafting an environment where faith is a welcomed part of the clinical training program, and where students can grapple with questions about how the Christian faith can inform practice for the good, while being balanced by appropriate professional dispositions of respect for client differences.
It happens through faculty who are committed to asking students to analyze clinical and research-informed literature through the lens of the Christian faith and revelation. It happens when a program creates an ethos where students’ dignity, worth, and deeply-held values are respected.
For example, invitations to personal exploration that are common and necessary to training in mental health are balanced by basic reverence for personal privacy and modesty. Faculty can provide space for students at a Catholic university to actually live and express their Christian faith in the classroom, in clinical supervision, and even in the clinical setting with clients. Those same faculty can mentor their students in how not to see that faith as a detriment and how to manage its expression in a professionally appropriate and careful way.
When Catholic universities set aside their identity to strive for the esteem of the world, they’ll eventually end up with neither. Loosened from the Gospel and the Christian tradition, they’ll fall prey to the worst and most harmful trends in higher education and rightly earn the disdain of even the world.
Students like Naomi have options. We have welcomed her to complete her studies here, and other students should know that they need not suffer an assault on their Christian values as a rite of passage to become a mental health professional. There are places for them.
Dr. Stephen Hildebrand is the provost and a theology professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where Dr. Christin Jungers is the dean of the School of Professional Programs and a professor of mental health counseling.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Franciscan University of Steubenville campus and chapel

Here’s What Mental Health Studies Should Look Like At A Christian College

catholic university

Mental Health

Psychiatry

Therapy

Filmmaker Tyler Perry has been accused of sexual assault and is being sued for $260 million.
Actor Derek Dixon, who is best known for his work in “The Oval” and “Ruthless,” filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles accusing Perry of creating a “coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic” while he was working on those projects. 
Dixon claims to have turned down Perry’s “unwanted advances,” which he claims resulted in “escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation,” per <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tyler-perry-lawsuit-derek-dixon-oval-45c6b19ed17e728e67aceb0ab130aa0d">The Associated Press</a>. 
The actor said he met Perry while working at an event for Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta in 2019. Dixon alleges that the media mogul made sexually explicit comments and advances at that time, which he rebuffed. 
The lawsuit lists several specific instances of alleged abuse, including what Dixon concluded to be threats over the future of his career.
“Mr. Perry made it clear to Dixon that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to engage with the sexual innuendos, Dixon’s character would ‘die’ in the next season [of ‘The Oval],” the document states, adding that it was “always held this over Mr Dixon’s head, implying that [his character] ‘Dale’ would survive if Dixon kept Perry ‘happy.’”
“Dixon did his best to tiptoe around Mr. Perry’s sexual aggression while keeping on Mr. Perry’s good side,” the document says.
During another alleged incident described in the lawsuit, the plaintiff claims Perry “forcibly pulled off Mr. Dixon’s clothing, groped his buttocks, and attempted to force himself on Dixon.”
Perry’s attorney denied the allegations on behalf of his client, saying they were nothing more than a shakedown.
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Boyd said in a statement to AP. “But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Perry is a filmmaker, playwright, and actor who gained national recognition with his stage plays in the early 2000s, particularly those featuring the character Madea. He has written, produced, acted in, and directed numerous films and television shows.
In 2019, he opened Tyler Perry Studios, a 330-acre production facility in Atlanta. Forbes listed him as the highest-paid man in entertainment in 2011, and in 2020, he became a billionaire, the outlet <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/09/01/from-poor-as-hell-to-billionaire-how-tyler-perry-changed-show-business-forever/">reported</a>.

Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry Sued For $260M By Actor Claiming Sexual Harassment, Assault

Tyler Perry Sued $260M By Actor Claiming Sexual Harassment, Assault

Courts

Entertainment

Lawsuit

U.S.

A “Horizon” stunt performer is suing Kevin Costner and film producers for what she’s describing as “a violent, unscripted, unscheduled rape scene&#8221; directed by Costner in the film.
Stunt performer Devyn LaBella filed the sexual harassment lawsuit in the Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County on Tuesday, citing an alleged incident from 2023 during the filming of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2.”
LaBella claims she was hired by the production company as a stand-in for lead actress Ella Hunt &#8220;during physical scenes&#8221; and that during that time, her SAG agreement terms were violated. Those include a ban on “any last minute requests for nudity or simulated sex.&#8221; The terms also require producers to give a 48-hour notice and get the performer&#8217;s permission for any changes to intimate scenes, along with providing an intimacy coordinator for sex scenes, People <a href="https://people.com/horizon-stuntperformer-files-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-against-kevin-costner-and-film-producers-11742855">reported</a>.
Per the complaint, LaBella was slated to cover Hunt’s non-intimate scenes on the day in question. But when Hunt arrived on set, the actress learned that Costner had requested new scenes which would require actor Roger Ivens to climb on top of her, &#8220;violently raking up her skirt.” 
Hunt was allegedly upset by the &#8220;ad hoc and violent nature of the sudden script change request&#8221; and refused to film the new scenes. After she left the set, Costner is said to have asked LaBella to stand in, which she agreed to without knowing why Hunt had departed without filming, per <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2025/05/28/kevin-costner-horizon-stunt-performer-lawsuit/83895723007/">USA Today</a>.
The lawsuit says LaBella did not know that &#8220;involvement in the impromptu shot would go beyond standing in as a standard body-double.&#8221;
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&#8220;She was not warned or prepared for Mr. Ivens to perform or engage in any action on top of her and first learned that Ivens would mount her and violently pull her skirt up when he was already on top of her doing so,&#8221; the complaint says. 
It added that Costner directed Ivens to &#8220;repeatedly perform a violent simulated rape&#8221; on LaBella &#8220;without proper notice, consent, preparation, or appropriate safeguard measures in place, such as the project&#8217;s intimacy coordinator being called in.&#8221;
LaBella further asserted that Costner provided &#8220;no clear direction of when the scene began or ended,&#8221; and said she was &#8220;never given the opportunity to prepare for or consent to participate in this scene, much less to object to it.&#8221;
The stunt double said the incident was &#8220;especially humiliating&#8221;  because &#8220;she was menstruating at the time, compounded by the fact that between takes, Mr. Ivens&#8217; hands rested on top of the bundled-up skirt above her vagina.&#8221;
The complaint also says the scene was &#8220;broadcast publicly on monitors for the entire crew to witness,&#8221; but asserts the &#8220;set should have been closed&#8221; due to the content being filmed.
LaBella is suing for an unspecified amount of money over the alleged incident and has asked for a trial by jury.
&#8220;Horizon: An American Saga &#8211; Chapter 2&#8221; is the second part in Costner’s passion project, a four-part Western film series he wrote, directed, and financed with his own money. The first installment premiered in June 2024. &#8220;Chapter 2&#8221; was initially slated to debut in August 2024, but the sequel was pulled from release after the first chapter struggled at the box office, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-costners-second-part-of-western-saga-pulled-from-theaters-ahead-of-august-release">reported</a>.
&#8220;Chapter 2&#8221; was shown at the Venice International Film Festival in September, but so far, it is not scheduled for a theatrical release as initially planned.

Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner Sued For ‘Violent, Unscripted’ Rape Scene In ‘Horizon 2’

Kevin Costner Sued For 'Violent, Unscripted' Rape Scene In 'Horizon 2'

western

In the past nine years, there have been three presidential elections, 6 congressional elections, and 35 different iPhone models.
Yet, in that same amount of time, one former Purdue University student has been stuck in limbo, unable to end a nightmare that began all those years ago.
<h3>The Allegations</h3>
During the fall semester of 2015, a male student whom The Daily Wire will refer to as John Doe began dating a female student referred to in court documents as Jane Doe. The relationship was okay for a while, but on December 13, 2015, Jane threatened to commit suicide in front of John by standing on the ledge of a parking garage after throwing objects around her dorm room and crying while saying she hated life. After this incident, according to John’s eventual lawsuit against Purdue reviewed by The Daily Wire, all sexual activity between the two ceased.
In early January 2016, John reported Jane’s suicide attempt to Purdue, and shortly after, she began to pull away from the relationship and the two went their separate ways. Four months later, and only after Purdue’s highly marketed Sexual Assault Awareness Month events, Jane accused John of sexually assaulting her during their relationship.
John received notice of the accusations on April 11, 2016. Jane claimed she awoke one night to John groping her. She told him it was not okay. John told her at some point before that incident that he digitally penetrated her while she was sleeping. He said he felt bad about the first incident but proceeded to the second incident anyway. Jane became upset at John over these incidents and left his room. John had also gone through her underwear in her laundry, and had once chased her down the hall, joking about tasing her. After they had broken up, he also continued to go to her room unannounced. She claimed John had a temper he couldn’t control as well.
John vehemently denies Jane’s allegations, stating in his lawsuit that he responded to the allegations by informing Purdue that he never groped her in her sleep in November 2015, but that in mid-December of that year, after her suicide attempt, she slept on a futon in his dorm room while he slept on the floor. At some point in the night, John accidentally touched her knee and she began freaking out before leaving the room. John also said he never had any sexual contact with her while she was asleep, and therefore never told her that he did. He added that he never went through her laundry but sometimes did her laundry for her and never threatened to tase Jane. He also noted that the two never formally broke up, they simply began seeing each other less, and that he merely went to her room to return an item. At that time, she told him not to go to her room, so he didn’t.
John provided evidence that Jane continued to shower him with affection even after these alleged incidents, demonstrating behavior not in line with someone who had been sexually assaulted. She continued to text with John over the holidays, wished him a Happy Christmas Eve, and sent him a package of homemade cookies for his family. She also invited him to her room at the beginning of the spring 2016 semester.
<div id="attachment_880991" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-880991" class="size-large wp-image-880991" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382544-866x576.jpg" alt="A student rides a bicycle past the bell tower on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 22, 2012. Administrative costs on college campuses are soaring, crowding out instruction at a time of skyrocketing tuition and $1 trillion in outstanding student loans. At Purdue and other U.S. college campuses, bureaucratic growth is pitting professors against administrators and sparking complaints that tight budgets could be spent more efficiently. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382544-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382544-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382544-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382544.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
In addition, John provided Purdue with evidence that it was Jane who had the temper and tried to project that onto John. She often contemplated running away and not returning to the school as well. John also provided a list of more than 30 names to substantiate his reputation, since Jane attacked his character and credibility in her allegations.
Purdue’s policy did not allow John to review the investigator’s prepared report, nor was he provided a hearing to determine the credibility of Jane’s claims. John maintains in his lawsuit that his “ability to defend himself was severely and unfairly prejudiced.”
Instead of a hearing, a three-person panel reviewed John’s case. Jane never appeared before the panel and instead provided a statement written by Purdue’s Title IX coordinator. In that statement, Jane only requested that John be removed from Purdue’s Navy ROTC program, of which they were both members. Jane’s new boyfriend at the time was also a member. Jane stated that she didn’t fear John on campus and merely wanted him out of the ROTC.
Without any evidence corroborating Jane’s claims, John was suspended from Purdue and had to leave the Navy ROTC program. He appealed the decision, but was denied without adequate explanation, so he filed a lawsuit against the university as many students have done in the past decade.
<h3>The Lawsuit</h3>
John dreamed of becoming a Navy SEAL officer, but says he can’t get a federal job with this on his record. His Title IX case is the longest ongoing case of its kind, with the closest similar case lasting seven years and ending in a disappointing motion to dismiss for the wrongly accused student.
“Purdue&#8217;s wrongful suspension of me closed all federal &amp; military employment opportunities because I was employed with the Navy through their ROTC program at the time of the suspension, which forced me to ‘resign’ with the Navy after my school suspension was finalized,” John told The Daily Wire in an email.
“Expungement of my school disciplinary file would give me an opportunity to fix my [Department of Defense] record, which currently makes me look bad due to the circumstances and thus limits my employment opportunities. For reference, I was a 4.0 GPA varsity athlete when I graduated high school, and double majoring with a minor while employed with the Navy ROTC at Purdue. My longtime dream was to become a Navy SEAL officer. The derailment of my life by Purdue was severe, to say the least.”
The case has persisted due the slow nature of the justice system, numerous filings and responses from both parties, and appeals to higher courts. The case even landed on the desk of Judge Amy Coney Barrett before she was nominated for the Supreme Court. Barrett, who was with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019, upheld John’s claims that Purdue violated his due process and Title IX rights. Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex, and accused students have said they are discriminated against as males when they are falsely accused and a school takes no steps to protect them.
When the case was sent back to a lower court, a judge dismissed John’s due process claim. John is trying to get the court to reinstate that claim and has had the judge who dismissed it replaced. The next stage of this case is a trial on the Title IX claim alone, which could result in what John ultimately wants: This whole thing to be expunged from his record.
After nine years of litigation, John’s family has spent more than $350,000 on legal bills, draining their savings and 401ks. He is currently working to set up a fundraiser to continue fighting Purdue’s persecution.
<div id="attachment_880995" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-880995" class="size-large wp-image-880995" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382547-864x576.jpg" alt="A large sculpture stands on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 22, 2012. Administrative costs on college campuses are soaring, crowding out instruction at a time of skyrocketing tuition and $1 trillion in outstanding student loans. At Purdue and other U.S. college campuses, bureaucratic growth is pitting professors against administrators and sparking complaints that tightbudgets could be spent more efficiently. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382547-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382547-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382547-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-156382547.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
<h3>Purdue’s Response</h3>
In a statement to The Daily Wire, Purdue University chief spokesperson Erin Murphy said the school rejected John’s assertions of unfairness toward him.
“Most of [John’s] claims were dismissed long ago,” Murphy said, referring to the multiple claims students include in lawsuits hoping at least one will be accepted.
“His single remaining claim has been ready for trial for years. [John] insists on going to trial, but his lawyers have caused delays. Some of his lawyers quit his case in June 2023 after the last settlement conference,” Murphy continued. “[John] has publicly criticized those former lawyers. His remaining lawyer has filed repeated demands for a different judge, which were rejected by multiple courts, including the United States Supreme Court. His remaining lawyer has also required trial postponements for personal reasons that are shown in the court record.”
Those “delays” refer to John and his attorney attempting to get a new judge assigned to the case due to allegations of unfairness and a pro-Purdue bias. There is a new judge overseeing the case, as the previous judge was promoted by the Biden administration.
John’s attorneys did not quit on him, and the “public criticism” Murphy refers to is a testimonial on his attorney’s website saying that the attorney left his previous law firm “after partners at the firm tried to strong-arm” John’s case from him.
Finally, the “personal reasons” Murphy alludes to at the end of her statement refers to the attorney’s cancer diagnosis. John’s attorney has been battling cancer while fighting for his client.

Purdue University

Nine Years Later, One Student’s Title IX Nightmare Still Isn’t Over

American Universities

Court

Indiana

Navy SEAL

Relationships

Students

The following is an edited transcript of an interview with Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan on the growing, public PR battle between actress Blake Lively and film director Justin Baldoni. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/blake-lively-and-justin-baldoni-s-epic-hollywood-battle-2-8-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catch the full interview on Morning Wire</a>.
* * *
Actress Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni are continuing their public feud over their hit film, &#8220;It Ends With Us,&#8221; with both sides filing lawsuits. But even more than a legal battle, this has become an all-out PR war with leaked texts, calls, and film footage, as well as allegations of sexual harassment and spousal jealousy. The first trial date is set for March. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham speaks with award-winning journalist, author and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan to get insight into a drama only Hollywood could produce.
MEGAN: Thanks for being here, Maureen. So, especially for those of us who are kind of catching up with this story, I&#8217;m wondering if you can give us the 10,000 foot summary of this scandal?
MAUREEN: Sure. So about a month ago, the New York Times ran a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/business/media/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-it-ends-with-us.html?searchResultPosition=9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blockbuster</a>, I think 4,000 word piece, in which Blake Lively was alleging her director and co-star Justin Baldoni, on their film “It Ends With Us,” had subjected her to almost ritualistic sexual harassment — and that she suffered so greatly, it was a concerted effort in which he involved multiple people to not only harass her while filming, but then once the movie was about to be released, orchestrated an online smear campaign against her. A couple of weeks later, Baldoni&#8217;s lawyer, Bryan Freedman filed a countersuit in which he alleged that the text messages obtained by the New York Times had been selectively edited. They sort of threw open their document dump, which seemed to absolve Justin of many of the things that Lively has been claiming. Nonetheless, these two are now locked in a bitter, bitter, expensive lawsuit. Baldoni is countersuing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million, which is, I believe, what he thinks their estimated net worth is. And the trial is tentatively set for March 2026.
MEGAN: So, before we get to some of the legal ramifications, there have obviously been a lot of leaks, a lot of shifting in public loyalties back and forth. At least that&#8217;s been my experience. At the outset, I was kind of on Team Justin. And then I thought, “Well, wait a minute. That New York Times piece was really persuasive.” But then Justin Baldoni&#8217;s team released some new audio leaks and they sort of shifted the game a little bit. What&#8217;s your sense right now of who&#8217;s on top in the PR war?
MAUREEN: I think Blake Lively is suffering mightily right now and the collateral fallout is affecting not just her husband, Ryan Reynolds, but her so called “Dragon,” her BFF Taylor Swift, who it&#8217;s reported has been taking a step back from her friendship with Blake because she doesn&#8217;t want any of this runoff affecting her career. Justin&#8217;s team has been very smart in what they&#8217;re leaking and when. They leaked footage of the two of them while filming a scene, rehearsing a scene, in which they were dancing very closely and Justin had his mic on. And so they&#8217;re working out how they&#8217;re going to do this scene. Justin is saying, “I think we should be kissing.” And Blake says, “No, I think we should be talking. I think that&#8217;s even more intimate.” And Justin says, “Okay.” So that sort of takes some wind out of her sails. They also released another lengthy voice memo that Justin had sent to Blake in which he&#8217;s praising her to the high heavens and saying he has let her down by not taking all of her notes, and she&#8217;s so brilliant and so smart, and he&#8217;s going to do everything he can to make her happy. Again, a counter narrative to Lively&#8217;s claims that he was doing everything possible to sabotage her and make her feel unsafe on that set. So I think right now Baldoni&#8217;s team is in the power position, but that of course could shift in another few days.
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MEGAN: Well, you know, it seems like there was a moment where Lively could have disengaged and, and just moved on. And this would have been something of a blip on Hollywood&#8217;s gossip radar. Why do you think she escalated to a lawsuit that opened up so much more of these internal communications?
MAUREEN: This is such a great question, Megan, because if you think about it the damage has already been done to her. Think about it, there are like five female directors working in Hollywood today. What male director is going to put himself and his career and reputation at risk by working with Blake Lively, who launched this all out assault on a guy who is not as well capitalized as she and Ryan are, who doesn&#8217;t have the reputation, the lengthy career — who on earth would risk it? And I have to wonder why she did it, because like you said, it could have just been, you know, a thing where they butted heads, they didn&#8217;t see eye-to-eye, but they each walked away clean to do their next project. I have a theory — and it is just my own theory and supposition — that something went on between these two. Perhaps it was an unrequited crush on Blake&#8217;s part and Justin didn&#8217;t respond in kind; perhaps they did in some way have a physical relationship outside of the filming and that went south. There&#8217;s something about this that just feels way too intense, way too personal. I think the real undergirding, the real story is why she did this.
<div id="attachment_873967" style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-873967" class="size-large wp-image-873967" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-850x576.jpg" alt="JERSEY CITY, NJ - JANUARY 12: Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are seen on the set of 'It Ends with Us' on January 12, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)" width="850" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-850x576.jpg 850w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-300x203.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-768x521.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" />Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</div>
MEGAN: Well, I&#8217;m glad that you bring that up, because I do want to talk a little bit about those messages between Baldoni and Lively. And I know some media outlets characterize them as “flirty,” I don&#8217;t know that I necessarily saw them that way, but I at least saw them as very familiar, let&#8217;s put it that way.
MAUREEN: I kind of read them as flirty — even the text messages between Justin and Ryan Reynolds. Look, if anybody listening wants to get a taste of what it&#8217;s like to deal with Hollywood people, this is it. And it&#8217;s really quite vile because they&#8217;re just mooning over each other. I mean, they&#8217;ve just met and Ryan hasn&#8217;t responded to Justin&#8217;s text for two weeks and then he replies and says, “I happen to adore you, Justin.” It&#8217;s like, buy me dinner first before you start talking to me like this. It&#8217;s disgusting. And, you know, Justin and Blake are having a very familiar texting relationship that, whether they were that familiar, whether it was this sort of hastened intimacy because they were working so closely together so quickly, who knows? But now we&#8217;re going to see. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any slight that&#8217;s not going to be weaponized. I just read an item yesterday that Blake Lively blew a good chunk of the movie&#8217;s budget on her wardrobe. I mean, this is how petty we&#8217;re going to get. I love it, but it is the strangest Hollywood war. I&#8217;m going to say it&#8217;s maybe the biggest one since Brad versus Angie.
MEGAN: Do you think Lively and Reynolds, at least as a couple, their image — like maybe Reynolds individually, Lively individually — do kind of come back from this? Because, you know, Brad and Angelina eventually did. But does their image as this blissful “It” couple bounce back?
MAUREEN: Well, Megan, first of all, when I said Brad versus Angie, I meant like when they divorced, when they separated, and it was like the bombshells were going off: “He was abusive. She was out of her mind.” This will be the thing that shows the strength of their marriage. I&#8217;m very cynical, so I really do believe that if this blowback against Blake gets to be too much, Ryan&#8217;s going to cut her loose. I think Ryan Reynolds has his eyes firmly set on becoming a billionaire, and I believe he&#8217;ll get there. And I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s going to stand for his reputation getting muddied in all of this, even though he&#8217;s already in it with these lawsuits and all of these text messages and these documents. And he was famously brought in by Blake to write a whole scene in the movie and be some sort of unpaid advisor. So I think that&#8217;s really where you&#8217;re going to see the strength of this countersuit against Justin, if it really does sort of crater their marriage.
MEGAN: Well, maybe just a couple more questions, Maureen. One of them is that The New York Times has come under a lot of scrutiny for the role it played in sort of rehabilitating Lively&#8217;s claims when she was on the outs in terms of public affection. I have seen some claims that they handled the coverage in a biased way, clearly working hand in glove with Blake Lively&#8217;s team. What do you think? Is there any validity to that claim?
MAUREEN: Yes, I think there is. It seems as though, perhaps, they didn&#8217;t do their full due diligence. I think it was probably seen, initially, as a strength, but is now a liability. I forget how many bylines were on that piece, but one, Megan Twohey, was one half of the team at the Times that broke the Harvey Weinstein story and became synonymous with MeToo. They wrote a book. They made a lot of money off of it. And I think the Times is already struggling in many ways reputationaly and this does not help. If I recall correctly, I could be mistaken so forgive me, but if I recall correctly I think they went to Baldoni&#8217;s team and gave them two hours to respond to that laundry list of accusations. So if that&#8217;s true, it&#8217;s not a great look. [NOTE: <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/justin-baldoni-lawsuit-blake-lively-ryan-reynolds-nicepool-new-york-times-metadata-1236293856/">Some outlets</a> report The New York Times gave Baldoni approximately 12 hours to respond.]
<div id="attachment_873969" style="width: 804px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-873969" class="size-large wp-image-873969" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-794x576.jpg" alt="JERSEY CITY, NJ - JANUARY 12: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are seen on the set of &quot;It Ends with Us&quot; on January 12, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)" width="794" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-794x576.jpg 794w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-300x218.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-768x557.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px" />Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</div>
MEGAN: Well, you kind of intuited where I was going to go next. And that was the role that MeToo has played in this, with these claims, that it was a sexual harassment issue. So, do you think on a broader level, the tide has turned? And maybe this is because of Johnny Depp. Because before, I think there was a period of time when even the public was willing to say, “Hey, I don&#8217;t know that that&#8217;s a MeToo allegation.” I&#8217;m thinking of something like Aziz Ansari where there was a lot of back and forth debate about that. In this case, it seems like some of these men in Hollywood who don&#8217;t even possess the power of some of these women are now willing to challenge these MeToo allegations. So, do you think this sort of shifts the balance on where we are with MeToo?
MAUREEN: Yes, I think this case is very important in terms of where we are and where we&#8217;re going. I agree with you. The Aziz Ansari thing was ridiculous. If that allegation had come out maybe a year later, his career would not have been destroyed. I think we are now seeing a pendulum swing back towards sanity where just because a woman says a man did something to her, it&#8217;s not automatically received as gospel, that the man does get a chance to tell his side of the story and back it up with documents, receipts, screenshots, texts, voicemail, and it certainly helps when you have movie footage. So I think this is going to be an interesting case in terms of the cultural corrective that is underway.
MEGAN: Okay. Well, last question: Any predictions for the March trial?
MAUREEN: You know, I&#8217;ll be amazed if it gets there. Because I would think saner heads would prevail, and both sides should really just drop it and walk away. Justin Baldoni&#8217;s lawyer has already said he&#8217;s pretty much bankrupted by this, financially and emotionally. I don&#8217;t know what good it does for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds to have this be the headline of their careers for the next calendar year, and that&#8217;s just to start. So, I think it&#8217;ll be interesting to see if it ever really comes to fruition, and if there is some sort of settlement reached, who pays who? This is really just Hollywood writ large, right? The egotism, the narcissism, the ridiculous sums of money, the victimization, the weaponization perhaps, we don&#8217;t know yet, but perhaps of MeToo, it&#8217;s such a great, weird stew of stuff.
MEGAN: Well, thank you Maureen. That was enlightening. I kind of can&#8217;t wait to see where this goes next.
MAUREEN: I know, it&#8217;s like every day we get another tidbit. Yes, thanks for having me.
* * *
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/blake-lively-and-justin-baldoni-s-epic-hollywood-battle-2-8-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catch the full interview on Morning Wire</a>.

Celebrity Sightings In Jersey City – January 12, 2024

‘Way Too Personal’: The Escalating PR War Between Blake Lively And Justin Baldoni

actress

Blake Lively

Film

Hollywood

interview

MeToo

Morning Wire

Movies

Ryan Reynolds

The New York Times

One of the women who accused former New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment has dropped her lawsuit against him.
Charlotte Bennett was the second woman who came forward with accusations against Cuomo. Cuomo’s attorneys, Rita Glavin and Theresa Trzaskoma, sent out a statement claiming Bennett’s decision to drop her lawsuit amounted to an admission that her claims were false.
&#8220;Ms. Bennett&#8217;s decision to drop her baseless lawsuit should be viewed as a complete capitulation and a desperate attempt to avoid being confronted with the mountains of exculpatory discovery – including contemporaneous texts and videos that the AG’s office never obtained – that completely refute her claims against Governor Cuomo,” the attorneys <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/former-new-york-state-governor-andrew-cuomos-sexual-harassment-accuser-drops-federal-lawsuit">said</a>, per Fox News.
&#8220;After falsely smearing Governor Cuomo for years, Ms. Bennett suddenly withdrew her federal lawsuit on the eve of her deposition to avoid having to admit under oath that her allegations were false and her claims had no merit,” they continued. “If New York State does give in to her public pressure campaign and settles, it will not be on the merits and should require the public release of all the evidence so that New Yorkers finally know the truth: Governor Cuomo never sexually harassed anyone.&#8221;
Bennett was represented by Debra Katz, the woman who represented Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford. Katz released her <a href="https://katzbanks.com/news/katz-bennett-ny-case-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">own statement</a> on her law firm’s website.
&#8220;Mr. Cuomo has used these legal proceedings to punish Ms. Bennett and others who reported his sexual harassment, and to cause more harm to her, all at the expense of New York taxpayers,&#8221; Katz wrote. &#8220;In dismissing the federal case we thus hope that our client will be able to resolve this dispute and finally be made whole for all the damage Mr. Cuomo and his agents caused her.&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
Bennett worked as an executive assistant and health policy adviser in Cuomo’s administration before he resigned in November 2020, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/now-its-two-second-woman-claims-cuomo-sexually-harassed-her" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. She <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/nyregion/cuomo-charlotte-bennett-sexual-harassment.html?action=click&amp;module=Spotlight&amp;pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times in February 2021 that Cuomo began harassing her in the spring of 2020. Bennett told the outlet that Cuomo would ask her questions about her sex life and whether she was monogamous in her relationships. She claimed he also asked her if she ever had sex with older men.
Prior to the spring of 2020, Bennett said Cuomo had asked her about her dating life, but she “saw him more as a father figure” and didn’t think anything of it.
But on May 15, 2020, Bennett began to see things differently when, she said, Cuomo kept asking her about her love life and seemed to fixate on her, saying she was the victim of sexual assault. A few weeks later, Bennett said, Cuomo began asking inappropriate questions about her love life.
“He asked me if I believed if age made a difference in relationships and he also asked me in the same conversation if I had ever been with an older man,” Bennett told the Times.
The first woman to accuse Cuomo, Lindsey Boylan, made her allegations on X and finally detailed them in a post on Medium a couple months later, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/woman-who-accused-andrew-cuomo-of-sexual-harassment-finally-details-allegations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time.
The Westchester County District Attorney’s office also investigated two other allegations of sexual misconduct against Cuomo but decided <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/district-attorney-no-charges-against-cuomo-over-sexual-allegations-despite-credible-evidence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not to charge</a> him despite “credible evidence.”

Andrew Cuomo

One Of Andrew Cuomo’s Accusers Drops Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

New York

A New York City grand jury has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harvey-weinstein-indicted-new-charges-new-york-grand-jury-rcna169931">indicted</a> former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by at least 80 women, on new charges that reportedly revolve around other cases of sexual harassment.
In 2017, women started coming forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual abuse. Weinstein’s 2020 conviction of third-degree rape of one woman and first-degree criminal sex act of another was overturned in April by an appellate court. But in 2022, Weinstein was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, and sentenced to 16 years in prison, a decision that is being appealed by his attorneys.
Earlier this week, Weinstein was transported from Rikers Island jail to Bellevue Hospital for emergency heart surgery.
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Weinstein’s Miramax company, which he founded with his brother Bob, produced three films that won the Best Picture Oscar: “The English Patient,” “Shakespeare in Love,” and “Chicago,” as well as the films “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting.”
The appellate court that overturned Weinstein’s 2020 conviction wrote, “We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes. The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial. &#8230; It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant’s character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them.”
After 2017 reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker detailed Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment of women, Weinstein was dismissed from Miramax, expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and suspended from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He resigned from the Directors Guild of America.
In what was called the “Weinstein Effect,” after the reports of Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment became public, many women and some men came forward to speak of being sexually harassed by prominent individuals.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-appeals-court-tosses-harvey-weinstein-rape-conviction">New York Appeals Court Tosses Harvey Weinstein Rape Conviction</a>

US-JUSTICE-ENTERTAINMENT-WEINSTEIN

Harvey Weinstein Indicted On New Charges

Harvey Weinstein

A male child molester who claims to be a woman and is being housed in a women’s correctional facility has been accused of sexually harassing female inmates.
Christopher Williams, 34, who identifies as a transgender woman but has no known female name, was able to get transferred to a women’s prison and has been sexually harassing the women there, one woman who filed a report against him <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/male-child-molester-house-in-womens-prison-under-investigation-for-sexually-harassing-female-inmate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> National Review.
Mozzy Clark-Sanchez, who shared a cell with Williams, filed a Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) report against Williams in 2022 but was recently told the report had been referred to state police. Both Clark-Sanchez and Williams are being housed in the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). Clark-Sanchez told NR that she was a victim of child rape, so Williams reminded her of her abuser.
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Williams requested he be roomed with Clark-Sanchez during the pandemic and quickly began sexually harassing her, the woman said.
“I’d be sitting on my bunk and he’d lean over me and he’d be like, ‘I hate it when it fills up with blood,’” apparently referring to an erection, Clark-Sanchez told the outlet.
She also said she woke up on at least three occasions to Williams sitting next to her bed. Once, she woke up to find his hand under her blankets and touching her. She said a prison guard caught him and told him to return to his bunk.
“When I startled awake, I felt… Christopher jerk his hand out from in my pants, and underneath my blankets,” Clark-Sanchez told NR. “I was in shock. It took me back to my childhood.”
Williams also once brought a strap-on dildo into the cell and asked Clark-Sanchez to use it on him. She said he also made creepy comments toward her, such as “All these girls want this, I don’t know why you don’t.”
She said another time she awoke to find her shirt pulled up over her breasts and believes Williams had touched her in her sleep. She said she wouldn’t have woken up during such an ordeal because she takes heavy medication to help her sleep because she has night terrors from her childhood trauma of being raped by her uncle and sold by her mom to pay for drugs.
Williams is not the only man who has been allowed into the WCCW, NR previously <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/meet-the-trans-identifying-male-felons-of-the-washingtons-womens-prison/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, and they all are accused of leering at the women in the shower and bathroom areas.
“Our shower stalls don’t go up to our heads,” a female inmate told NR. “And the bathroom stalls, same thing. A bunch of women, when they’re in the showers, these people are just standing there. They don’t have to stand on their tippy toes and they look over and see everything. People were so uncomfortable. You feel kind of like you’ve been violated.”
Clark-Sanchez said Williams did this to her, and on one occasion threatened: “I can get you when I want.”
There are at least 11 men claiming to be women at the WCCW. Though prison policy says men have to go through an intensive process to be approved for the women’s prison, in practice, all they have to do is claim to be a woman, NR reported. They don’t have to have undergone reassignment surgery, be on a hormone regimen, or be transitioning in any way.
When Clark-Sanchez filed her PREA report against Williams, she said prison officials said her claims were substantiated and moved Williams to a single room away from other inmates.
“They moved him out of the room, and they found literally a bag of d***s,” she told NR. “A bunch of homemade dildos that this dude made.”
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Williams was arrested when he was 16 for sexually assaulting his younger sister, who was nine at the time. Their father said he had first molested the girl when she was six. Williams was required to register as a sex offender but never told the sheriff’s office where he was living, so he was convicted in 2009 and 2010 of failing to register as a sex offender, which is a class C felony.
He is currently serving a 28-year sentence for a domestic violence conviction from 2012 when he assaulted his girlfriend. At the time of his conviction, he was housed in a men’s corrections center, where he allegedly assaulted a male prison officer so badly that the officer needed reconstructive surgery. The officer needed to have his ear cut open to relieve swelling, suffered broken bones beneath his right eye, extensive stitching for a gash on his cheek, a lost tooth, and a broken nose that required emergency surgery to rebuild. Williams was convicted of second-degree assault for that crime, later claimed to be a woman, and was sent to the WCCW.

Christopher Williams Mugshot

Male Sex Offender Claims to Be Trans, Accused of Harassment in Women’s Prison

Male Sex Offender Claims To Be Trans, Faces Allegations Of Harassment In Women’s Prison

Child Sex Abuse

Crime

Transgender

Washington

The Department of Veterans Affairs office dedicated to rooting out racism and harassment is itself a “hostile, toxic work environment with a permissive culture of rampant gossiping and innuendo,” where multiple layers of top officials participated in and covered up sexual harassment, an internal agency review concluded.
At one point, a senior manager fired a mid-level manager because both men wanted to sexually harass the same employee. When a complaint was filed, a political appointee sat on it, apparently partly for racial reasons.
The 125-page report paints a shocking portrait of the 400-person diversity office, in which employees spent much of their time filing complaints against each other instead of serving veterans. Employees engaged in “self-aggrandizing,” petty turf wars, and planned wasteful events, including one junket in which nine people travelled to dispense “diversity” training that was supposed to have been done by one person.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Harvey Johnson, the leader of the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity &amp; Inclusion (ORMDI), retired when confronted with evidence of his department&#8217;s behavior, as well as allegations that he had swept misconduct &#8220;under the rug.&#8221;
Archie Davis, the ORMDI Chief of Staff, has been moved to a different office pending discipline after the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection (OAWP) concluded that he &#8220;engaged in misconduct of a sexual nature with a subordinate employee, including while he was in her direct chain of command,&#8221; &#8220;sexted&#8217; with a different subordinate employee,&#8221; covered up allegations against colleague, and a slew of other infractions.
The findings come as the VA has made some of the most bizarre and inflammatory “diversity” moves in the Biden administration — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/veterans-affairs-rescinds-memo-banning-v-j-day-kiss-photo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">including an attempted ban on the iconic photo</a> that celebrated victory over Japan in World War II, and a new policy that could tamper with medical assessments to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-wants-more-black-veterans-declared-mentally-disabled-in-the-name-of-equity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deny benefits to white suicidal veterans</a> in the name of racial equity.
ORMDI is tasked with harassment prevention, equal employment opportunity, and diversity and inclusion for the VA, yet “the very office tasked with enforcing” such things itself engaged in wanton harassment and bizarre racism, according to the OAWP report, which was dated January 26 and obtained by The Daily Wire.
A female employee provided OAWP with messages showing that after meeting chief of staff Davis for the first time in early 2023, he began sending her flirtatious texts and copying her on emails in which he bullied subordinates, seemingly to boast of his power and to show what could be in store for her if she did not cooperate.
Western Region Supervisor Gary Richardson was also sexually harassing the same employee. She said that he would hound her on Microsoft Teams with personal chatter as they worked, and that he told her when she was not available, he would stare at her photo &#8220;to get my fix.&#8221; When she travelled to D.C. for work, he told her he had a &#8220;pass&#8221; from his wife and pressured her to go out with him.
And on March 2, Davis recommended that Richardson be fired for it, writing that &#8220;the predatory electronic messages should be sufficient to present Gary with the option of resignation of retirement in lieu of removal.&#8221;
<blockquote>
<h1>&#8220;Good morning Sexy!&#8230; Ain&#8217;t just attracted to your curves and those physical attributes that cause men to holler at ya. Your bold, audacious disposition and your alpha female demeanor are equally a turn-on for me.&#8221;</h1>
</blockquote>
This was seemingly not because he, as Davis wrote, &#8220;breach[ed] that sacred line,&#8221; but because he was competition. Nine days later, Davis himself texted the employee: &#8220;Good morning Sexy! &#8230; Ain&#8217;t just attracted to your curves and those physical attributes that cause men to holler at ya. Your bold, audacious disposition and your alpha female demeanor are equally a turn-on for me.&#8221;
Davis subjected her to messages such as one that said, &#8220;I wanna make you lose your mind. When I&#8217;m thumping your clit with my tongue and you grab my head, I&#8217;ll keep it right there til you shiver and quiver and beg me to pound you,&#8221; according to screenshots obtained by The Daily Wire.
On another occasion, he sent her porn and texted her at 4:43am, &#8220;I hope you like it early in the morning. Often I imagine how good it will be to roll over on top of you and start the day by filling you up.&#8221;
The victim said that Davis &#8220;would always try to persuade me with money,&#8221; such as free trips to D.C., and told her &#8220;once you get on his bad side, you will feel his wrath.&#8221;
By July, when the woman was still not receptive, Davis got snippy, saying, &#8220;We&#8217;ve been talking for a year and I have been clear on my interest&#8230; My intent was to have it all with you.&#8221; Soon after, she became the subject of his chest-thumping bureaucratic missives, with him writing to her, &#8220;any further attempts to extend your official travel at this conference beyond August 10, 2023 will be viewed as further insubordination and will be dealt with as such.&#8221;
Six complaints resulted in little reform, with the victim eventually reaching out directly to VA Secretary Denis McDonough, who did not respond. &#8220;With Harvey and Archie being in a position of power&#8230; I felt like it wasn&#8217;t going to go nowhere,&#8221; she said.
Davis’ misconduct “was so wide-ranging, pervasive, and widely known” that ORMDI Deputy Assistant Secretary Johnson “either knew or should have” known about it, yet he continued to give Davis “outstanding” performance reviews, OAWP said.
When Johnson received a complaint about &#8220;erratic behavior&#8221; by Davis impacting &#8220;the safety of staff,&#8221; he did not take any documented action. It recommended that Johnson have his previous bonuses clawed back so he could not simply evade accountability by retiring with a pension.
The diversity office’s day-to-day actions seemed to have virtually no bearing on the wellness of veterans. The report said that ODMI is responsible for the &#8220;Diversity and Inclusion Program&#8221; which travels across the country to conduct &#8220;technical assistance reviews (TARs),&#8221; which VA policy says &#8220;may be composed of one or two members.&#8221; ORMDI would add employees to these junkets for trivial purposes such as taking notes or the be &#8220;extras.&#8221;
One employee said it was &#8220;fraud, waste, and abuse. You know, we had &#8212; I kid you not &#8212; maybe eight, nine people on this TAR that was [sic] sittin&#8217; around.&#8221;
Another employee alleged that even though ORMDI had 400 employees, it hired outside contractors to do actual work.
The VA diversity office was so chaotic that investigators from another agency, the US Postal Service, were called in to address their many complaints against each other. While some complaints showed severe misconduct, others evidenced bizarre, adolescent dysfunction or were petty, high-school style gossip.
Employees often gossiped about whether the purpose of their many junkets was for particular employees to have sex with each other, and filed complaints based on sniping and rumors.
Some sexual activity in the DEI office was consensual. One employee was happy that chief of staff Davis called her his &#8220;big brown sugar,&#8221; told him she wanted to &#8220;suck him dry,&#8221; and asked him about anal sex.
Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) said that VA officials explained a delay in convening an investigation in part because they thought someone could only be investigated by a person of the same race.
Secretary McDonough acknowledged receiving an email from a whistleblower about the scandal, but said he could not recall his response clearly. The employees remained on the job even after House VA Committee Chair Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) wrote to him about it because he did not read the chairman&#8217;s letter, despite congressional correspondence being part of his daily briefing.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t read the letters tab every day. And I&#8217;ve just ignored it,&#8221; McDonough said. &#8220;That is one of the things that really bothers me about it, and I saw no other way to address it than to just come clean.&#8221;
Gina Grosso, the Assistant Secretary for HRA/OSP, failed to take prompt action, explaining to OAWP that “there were so many complaints at once, and it took time to figure out who was the grieved, and it&#8217;s several things on my plate — on the plate. I don&#8217;t think I have any other great explanation, honestly.”
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Grosso, a political appointee of Joe Biden, announced her resignation the day after Congress raised the issue.
“The sheer volume of complaints arising in ORMDI should have put [Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness] leaders on notice of the dysfunctional situation in ORMDI, but HRA/OSP leadership failed to take sufficient actions,” it said, referring to the human resources department that houses the DEI office.
In a February 14 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pEafd-tYAU&amp;t=3s">congressional hearing</a>, Secretary McDonough said although a whistleblower contacted him about the issue, he didn’t remember it, and it didn’t get his attention when Bost wrote to him about it, because “I’ve just ignored” letters from Congress.
“The person who failed here is me,” McDonough told the committee. “This behavior suggests a real culture issue in ORMDI.”
The report concluded that &#8220;given the systemic deficiencies and failures documented in this report, VA must take immediate action to restore VA employees&#8217; trust in ORMDI.&#8221;
The VA did not return a request for information from The Daily Wire.

Left: Deputy Assistant Secretary Harvey Johnson, the VA’s top DEI official. Right: His chief of staff, Archie Davis (Department of Veterans Affairs). Center: A statue of the iconic V-J kiss photo that was banned by the VA for being non-inclusive (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)

DEI Office In Biden’s VA Is ‘Hostile, Toxic’ With Rampant Sexual Misconduct, Internal Probe Finds

Biden Administration

Department of Veterans Affairs

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Sexual Misconduct

Oberlin College has suspended a long-controversial professor who called for the elimination of Israel after sexual harassment allegations against him came to light.
The private Ohio liberal arts college just outside of Cleveland has put tenured professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati on indefinite administrative leave and scrubbed him from the school&#8217;s website.
&#8220;Professor Mahallati was placed on indefinite administrative leave on November 28,&#8221; an Oberlin spokeswoman <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/woke-colleges-professor-peace-ousted-alleged-war-crimes-antisemitism-sexual-misconduct" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> to Fox News.
Mahallati <a href="https://www.oberlin.edu/mohammad-jafar-mahallati" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taught</a> religion as well as Middle East and North Africa studies and has previously called himself a “professor of peace.”
However, Mahallati is accused of supporting the Palestinian terror group Hamas, giving students credit for writing anti-Israel blogs, and telling his classes in 2016 that “Israel is a colonialist state” and “Israel is an apartheid state.”
Oberlin made the call to suspend Mahallati after decades-old allegations that he once demanded sex in exchange for good grades surfaced.
Court papers from the 1990s obtained by the Middle East Forum and given to the New York Post allege that when Mahallati was an adjunct professor at Columbia University, a graduate student 11 years younger than he accused the 43-year-old married father of giving her good grades in exchange for sex.
Mahallati allegedly invited the woman to his home, supposedly to interview her for a research assistant position, but then “made repeated sexual advances” and promised good grades for sexual favors, she claimed. The two then had sexual encounters at his office as well as at his Manhattan apartment for 15 months, she alleged.
Mahallati allegedly threatened to withhold her grade if she did not stay silent, and when she did go to Columbia’s administration, he accused her of fraudulently submitting the same paper twice, the woman claimed.
The woman, a 32-year-old Palestinian Christian, sued both Mahallati and Columbia at the time, accusing the professor of trying to damage her reputation and academic career.
Mahallati denied the claims at the time in 1997 and tried to claim diplomatic immunity even though he had not been Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations since 1989.
“We take all allegations of sexual harassment and abuse extremely seriously,” a spokeswoman for Oberlin <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/12/06/news/campus-anti-semite-suspended-after-sex-for-grades-claim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New York Post. “We would not hire a faculty member who we knew to have a history of sexual harassment of a student, colleague or staff member.”
Mahallati, 71, has also taught at Georgetown and Princeton.
In September, the Department of Education <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-anti-semitism-probe-launched-into-oberlin-college-over-professor-of-peace-who-called-for-israels-elimination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> a federal anti-Semitism probe into Oberlin College over Mahallati. The investigation is examining whether Oberlin violated Title VI, which protects students from discrimination based on race or national origin.
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The probe could result in Oberlin losing some of the millions in federal funding it receives every year — last year the school received $5 million in federal grants.
While Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mahallati is also accused of defending the Supreme Leader of Iran’s fatwa calling for the assassination of the novelist Salman Rushdie over Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses.”
Rushdie was <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/12/nj-man-matar-hadi-with-sympathies-toward-iran-arrested-in-stabbing-of-salman-rushdie/?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=conservnewsd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stabbed</a> in 2022 by a supporter of the Iranian regime while speaking at an event in upstate New York.
Also while Iran’s ambassador, Mahallati <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/oberlin-professor-of-peace-iranian-ambassador-destruction-of-israel-1989-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at the United Nations in 1989 that Palestinian-controlled land’s “occupation by Zionist usurpers is a transgression against all Muslims of the world and its liberation is therefore a great religious obligation and commitment.”
Mahallati’s classes at Oberlin were canceled in the spring. Previously, students boycotted and protested the professor’s classes, <a href="https://oberlinreview.org/26171/news/continued-college-inaction-provokes-second-protest-against-mahallati/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alleging</a> that he covered up crimes against humanity in Iran in the 1980s.

Universities Anticipate High Numbers Of Students

Oberlin College Suspends ‘Professor Of Peace’ Who Called For Israel’s Elimination After Sexual Harassment Allegations

Oberlin College Suspends ‘Professor Of Peace’ Who Called For Israel’s Elimination After Sex Harassment Allegations

Education

Hamas

Israel

Oberlin College

Woke Culture

In a move that could pit women’s advocates and transgender activists against each other, the Education Department has opened an investigation into an alleged incident involving a trans-identifying student exposing his male genitalia to freshman girls.
The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which investigates schools for potential violations of the anti-sex discrimination statute Title IX, said Wednesday that it would look into the incident, which occurred in March. The investigation comes as a response to a complaint filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty (WILL).
In <a href="https://will-law.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/OCR-Opening-Investigation-SPASD66.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its response</a> to WILL’s complaint OCR says that it will investigate “Whether the [Sun Prairie Area School] District responded to a report of sexual harassment consistent with the requirements of Title IX.”
An investigation does not mean that OCR will determine the school district acted inappropriately when a student reported that a biologically male student identifying as a female entered the girls’ locker room and showered naked next to four freshman girls and exposed his male genitalia to them.
While Title IX in recent years has been used to adjudicate allegations of sexual assault and harassment, the Biden administration has signaled it would use the statute to punish schools for not adhering to the administration&#8217;s transgender ideology.
The incident occurred on March 3, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/18-year-old-male-identifying-as-female-enters-high-school-girls-locker-showers-naked-next-to-14-year-old-students-conservative-org-alleges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, at Sun Prairie East High School in Wisconsin. When the four freshman girls entered the lockers, they found a senior male student, believed to be 18 years old at the time, in the room that contained the lockers and benches. The girls said the student wasn’t in the class with them, but proceeded to the shower area even though they were uncomfortable. They were aware that the student identified as transgender and had used girls’ bathrooms previously.
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The girls showered with their bathing suits on, which was common practice. Just when they started to shower, the transgender student fully undressed and entered the shower next to one of the girls. The student was initially facing the wall but then turned toward the four girls, exposing his male genitalia to all four freshmen.
The girls didn’t know what to do and didn’t immediately report the incident, but after one girl told another student what happened, that student said they should report it. Three days after the incident in the shower, the uninvolved student reported it to student services. The incident should have been reported under Title IX, but Associate Principal Heidi Walter didn’t report the incident to the Title IX coordinator, and instead asked for the names of the students involved, according to WILL.
On March 10, the student who reported the incident had gained permission to provide the students’ names and was ready to do so, but Walter said that the girls could approach her if they wanted. She later admitted, according to WILL, that she should have “dug deeper” into the issue.
The four girls should have been provided supportive measures under Title IX, but instead, the school focused on the transgender student, WILL said. EHS’ principal did, however, apologize to a parent in an email by saying the incident “should not have happened” and vowing to “continue to work to ensure no one has a similar experience,” though she didn’t outline any steps the school would take.
WILL said that the Sun Prairie Area School District dismissed the rights and concerns of the freshmen girls while assuring parents that the issue had been resolved. The district also pointed to its “Restroom and Locker Room Accessibility Guidance,” which may not have even been in effect. The guidance, according to WILL, suggests that if a transgender student “makes any request regarding the use of locker rooms,” the school will evaluate the request. The policy says nothing about students who don’t make requests, if permission is required, or who makes the determination on the student’s request.
The school district’s policy says that a “student who is transgender, nonbinary, or gender expansive will be permitted to access the men’s/women’s segregated restrooms in accordance with the student’s gender identity that the student regularly asserts at school and in other social environments.”
It further states that any “Student who has a need or desire for increased privacy, regardless of the underlying reason, may be provided with access to a single-access restroom where such a facility is reasonably available, but no student shall be required to use such a restroom because of the student’s transgender, nonbinary, or gender expansive status.”
The school district has also released a statement saying it stands by “LGBTQIA+ students and staff,” taking “seriously our responsibility to provide safe, nondiscriminatory, and inclusive environments for people of all orientations and identities as they reflect our diverse community around us.”
The statement also says that “all children will be safe and loved in our schools,” which WILL argued has not been upheld in this case.

Transgender Bathroom Sign

Education Dept. Investigating Alleged Incident Of 18-Year-Old Trans-Identifying Student Exposing Male Genitalia To Freshmen Girls

Department of Education

Teenagers

Title IX

Wisconsin

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