The Lincoln Project plunged into even more turmoil on Thursday, with the anti-Trump group hitting a stranger to investigate its handling of allegations of sexual misconduct against a co-founder and former employees demanding the release of confidentiality agreements .
The organization fanned the flames by tweeting what appeared to be private messages between a co-founder who left in a spiteful separation and a journalist who hoped to interview her. The Lincoln Project subsequently deleted the tweet – which was cited by former employees as an example of retaliation.
The controversy grew hours after reports that The Lincoln Project leaders knew about the sexual harassment charges against co-founder John Weaver last summer, before they went public in January. (Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson is a columnist for the Daily Beast and a co-host of the podcast, The New Freak.)
More than 20 men accused Weaver of sending unsolicited sexual messages, with some saying he tried to exchange his connections for sex; one was a minor when Weaver started communicating. Weaver, who is married and has two children, admitted that his behavior was “inappropriate” but said that all interactions were consensual.
Weaver resigned, but the charges did not end there. Last week, co-founder Jennifer Horn resigned, citing what she said was Weaver’s “grotesque and inappropriate behavior” and “long-standing disappointments”. The group responded by claiming that she left after making financial demands, including a $ 250,000 signing bonus.
On Thursday, The Associated Press reported that Project Lincoln leaders learned of the charges against Weaver in the summer after a payroll employee sent an email to co-founder Ron Steslow – who then allegedly shared it with the company attorney Matthew Sanderson and other leading figures and defended Weaver to be removed from the organization.
Hours later, the group announced that it had hired a “best outside professional in the class” to review Weaver’s allegations of abuse and what the Lincoln Project leaders knew and when they learned.
The group said in a statement that the stories about him were “full of inaccuracies and incorrect information”, but admitted in the same breath: “There is a central truth in all of them that must be taken into account and that is John Weaver’s terrible conduct. and the abuse he inflicted on people ”.
He ended the statement by saying that any employee bound by a non-disclosure agreement to withhold information about Weaver could request the release of such a contract.
Later, according to The New York Times, several former employees went public to demand that the group’s leadership release them from nondisclosure agreements so they could talk about “harassment perpetrated by John Weaver that we experienced or witnessed” or provide any other information “specific to John Weaver harassment situation that would help the press, the public and our donors…. ”
The anonymous former employees called the group “absurd, irrational and insensitive” to suggest that those seeking the release of their NDAs simply contact “the organization accused of protecting the very predator in question” to request it.
“In addition, given the Associated Press and New york magazine reports on February 11, we have no confidence in the organization’s remaining leadership to properly handle our allegations of (or knowledge of) sexual harassment and sexual assault by John Weaver, ”the letter said.
Perhaps most bluntly, the former employees said it was co-founder Steve Schmidt’s “recent public behavior” that forced them to go public because they “don’t feel safe” in getting involved with the group’s leadership in particular.
They were referring to The Lincoln Project’s tweet that contained screenshots of an alleged direct Twitter conversation between Horn, one of the organization’s founding members, and Amanda Becker, a reporter for the political news site The 19th.
After accusing Becker of “preparing to publish a defamatory work” with Horn’s help, the group excluded tweets (although they remain available through Internet Archive.)
The 19th co-founder and CEO Emily Radshaw said the vehicle sent the Lincoln Project a list of questions for Becker’s story shortly before the group tweeted the images. Radshaw wrote: “We will not be intimidated or intimidated for seeking critical journalism.”