Jo Ellis, a helicopter pilot within the Virginia Military Nationwide Guard, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in opposition to right-wing influencer Matt Wallace, saying he “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign” when he falsely recognized her because the pilot in a lethal crash in January.
The lawsuit from Ellis, who’s transgender, seeks financial damages from Wallace for spreading a mislead his thousands and thousands of followers that Ellis was flying the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet above the Potomac River in January, killing all 67 individuals aboard each aircrafts.
“In the wake of this horrible tragedy, [Wallace] decided to exploit this devastation for clicks and money,” the lawsuit stated, accusing him of capitalizing on the right-wing outrage fueled by President Donald Trump’s blaming of variety, fairness and inclusion hiring practices for the crash.
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“[A] transgender Black Hawk pilot seemed like the perfect target,” the lawsuit asserts, saying he went on to make a number of transphobic assaults on her.
Wallace “used his prominent X platform to monetize a false narrative that [Ellis] was not only one of the Army pilots involved in the mid-air collision, but also that she engaged in ‘another trans terror attack’ and intentionally caused the mid-air collision due to her ’depression’ and ‘Gender Dysphoria,’” the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Courtroom in Colorado, states.
Ellis’ lawsuit was filed on her behalf by the Equality Authorized Motion Fund, which is made up largely of volunteer legal professionals representing LGBTQ+ individuals in defamation and harassment lawsuits.
By thrusting her into the general public sphere, the lawsuit claims, Wallace disrupted Ellis’ privateness and put her life in danger.
“Given her immediate notoriety and the fact that she is a transgender woman, she fears for the immediate safety of herself and her family on account of the hate inspired against her by [Wallace’s] lies,” the criticism says. Ellis “has been harassed, received credible death threats, been forced to hire a personal security detail, and began carrying a firearm for her own personal protection,” it continued.
When Ellis posted a “proof of life” video in response to the false rumors about her, Wallace defended himself by saying he wasn’t the primary account to unfold the lie, which to him “[s]eemed credible because Jo Ellis wrote an article calling out Trump’s trans military ban only a few days ago” and since “[t]here have been a lot of recent school shootings & attacks carried out by trans individuals,” which isn’t backed by any proof.
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Wallace has not but issued a public assertion in response to the lawsuit.
