The Lincoln Project is facing an intense reaction and potentially serious legal problems after being accused of posting screenshots of private direct messages on Twitter belonging to one of its co-founders, Jennifer Horn.
Horn, who left the Lincoln Project last week amid the John Weaver scandal, has had a public feud with the anti-Trump group since his departure. But the Lincoln Project raised tensions on Thursday night with tweets that appeared to be an exchange she had with 19th News correspondent Amanda Becker.
“Earlier this evening, we heard that @AmandaBecker from @ 19thnews was preparing to publish a defamation paper on the Lincoln Project with the help of @NHJennifer,” the Lincoln Project began a long discussion. “You hear a lot about successful journalism jobs, but you rarely get to see the story of its origin. Enjoy it.”
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The tweets drew immediate condemnation, including from one of its co-founders, conservative lawyer George Conway.
“This appears to be a violation of federal law and must be removed immediately,” warned Conway.
Conway left the group in August 2020.
Horn herself later reacted to the controversy, alerting Twitter that Project Lincoln was not allowed to publish its private messages.
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“Hey, @Twitter @jack @TwitterSupport, I didn’t give consent,” wrote Horn.
It is not clear how the Lincoln Project obtained screenshots of Horn’s private messages or how, if it did, the group gained access to Horn’s Twitter account.
The Lincoln Project’s actions generated violent reactions on social networks.
“This is legitimately outrageous,” tweeted Tablet Magazine associate editor Noah Blum.
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“This is hardly the most important thing happening today, in the midst of impeachment, tens of millions of doses of covid vaccine becoming available, changes coming to Medicaid’s job requirements. But I can’t say that I’ve seen anything like what ended up to happen involving Horn’s account, “wrote New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
Author Ryan James Girdusky, who was one of the first journalists to bring up Weaver’s claims, declared: “The Lincoln Project is in complete collapse.”
Emily Ramshaw, founder and CEO of 19th News, defended her reporter who was involved in the controversy, tweeting, “Several minutes ago, @ProjectLincoln posted a series of screenshots of Twitter’s private DMs showing reports from one of our journalists – not long after she sent @ProjectLincoln a series of questions to answer for a story …” No we are going to be bullied or bullied for following critical journalism. “
The Lincoln Project did not respond to several Fox News questions, including why it decided to delete the Twitter topic and its responses to Horn and Conway’s reactions.
Twitter did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request to comment on whether or not the Lincoln Project violated its policies.
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Both Conway and Horn asked an independent lawyer to investigate Weaver’s conduct during his tenure at the Lincoln Project after a couple of bombshell reports from the Associated Press and New York magazine claimed that the group’s leaders were informed of at least ten allegations of harassment. sexual assault against Weaver in June 2020, including by two Lincoln Project employees.