Media Matters Hits Ex-Staffer With Lawsuit Threat Over Vague Claims

Liberal watchdog Media Matters for America has issued a lawsuit threat to a former longtime staffer after he tweeted out an array of vague claims about the nonprofit organization allegedly covering up another employee’s sexual misconduct.

In a lengthy Twitter thread on Monday morning, Timothy Johnson—a senior writer focusing on gun safety and right-wing extremism—revealed that he was no longer with the media watchdog after roughly 10 years. While seemingly insinuating that his departure was related to COVID-19, Johnson blasted Media Matters and accused his former supervisor of malfeasance.

“Ben: Do you want to talk about how you covered up for a man who preyed on our colleagues?” Johnson wrote, referencing Media Matters editorial director Ben Dimiero.

Johnson then proceeded to claim that even though an employee was “dismissed because of sexual misconduct,” it was originally portrayed as a sudden resignation. According to Johnson, the “people in authority positions” knew for years what the employee was doing, and even after his dismissal, allowed the fired staffer to come into the office for get-togethers.

Additionally, Johnson suggested it was only due to a later confrontation he personally had with the ex-staffer that “put the fear of god in him” that the former employee stopped coming back to the office.

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“I am ashamed that I did not share this publicly until now. It most likely makes me a clown myself. But brass tacks, I didn’t, and I’m sorry,” Johnson further noted in his thread.

Hours after Johnson posted his thread and attracted attention from right-wing media, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone sent an internal note to staffers on the company’s Slack channel, which The Daily Beast obtained and reviewed.

While noting the vagueness and speculative nature of Johnson’s claims, Carusone addressed the central allegation about an employee’s dismissal over sexual misconduct. According to the Media Matters chief, the incident Johnson was referencing occurred more than seven years ago when a staffer was accused of sexual harassment. Hours after the harassment report was filed, Carusone noted, the employee was fired. Furthermore, he told staffers in the note, the process was confidential and all parties involved were informed of the result.

While the Media Matters boss told staff that it would be inappropriate to dive into private personnel matters involving Johnson’s employment, Carusone pushed back against Johnson’s suggestion that Dimiero was involved in a cover-up. Carusone further asserted in his memo that Johnson’s claims were completely false and inflammatory as Dimiero was a junior staffer at the time and had no managerial or administrative duties.

On Monday evening, however, Johnson shared a legal letter from Media Matters’ counsel at Elias Law Group threatening a lawsuit as his tweets were in violation of the transition and release agreement he signed upon his departure.

According to the letter posted by Johnson, “MMFA separated your employment in April because your conduct did not meet MMFA’s expectations,” which included abandoning work shifts and “bullying communications” towards coworkers.

“While MMFA was dissatisfied with your work, it wished to make your transition as smooth as possible,” the letter continued. “To that end, MMFA offered you a transition agreement, which you accepted and signed. Among other things, you agreed, as a condition of receiving a severance payment, that you would not ‘directly or indirectly, disparage MMFA, its officers, directors, or employees, or MMFA’s business, and will not encourage any third parties to do so.’”

Noting that Johnson “violated the obligation” with his Twitter thread, the law firm wrote that Johnson’s allegation against Dimiero was “false and defamatory” and his tweets “indisputably disparage MMFA and a current MMFA employee,” which is in breach of the agreement.

The letter also said Media Matters reserved the right to take further legal action, including a lawsuit, if Johnson did not take down his tweets. Finally, the group’s lawyer noted that due to Johnson’s social-media activity, the company was under no further contractual obligation of the agreement and would cease paying for the ex-staffer’s insurance premiums.

While publicly sharing the letter, Johnson declared that would not remove the tweets because “every statement within the thread is true.” He further claimed that the abandonment of his work shifts was due to “being sick and trying to work as long as possible until you are so dizzy.”

He then succinctly reacted to the threat of a lawsuit: “Eat shit.”

Media Matters and Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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