Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt has stepped down from the anti-Trump media group just a day after being singled out in an open letter from former employees accusing the group of mishandling allegations of sexual harassment against co-founder John Weaver and attacking those who tried to speak out.
Schmidt made the news known late Friday in an explosive statement revealing that he was sexually assaulted as a 13-year-old while attending the Boy Scout Camp.
“John Weaver put me back in that remote cabin,” with an abuser, Schmidt wrote, insisting that he didn’t learn of the allegations against Weaver until January, when they went public.
“I wish John Weaver wasn’t a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, but as much as I wish that to be true, I can’t change that he was,” he wrote.
“I’m very angry about it,” he went on. “I am angry because I know the damage he has done to me, and I know the journey that lies ahead for every young man who trusted, feared and was abused by John Weaver.”
Currently, the Lincoln Project board consists of four middle-aged white men. That composition does not reflect our nation, nor our movement. I am resigning from the Lincoln Project board to allow for the appointment of a female board member as the first step in reshaping and professionalizing the Lincoln Project, ”he said.
Unrest has swept the group in response to reports that top management had been aware of sexual harassment allegations against co-founder John Weaver last summer long before the allegations went public in January. Political news site The 19th reported the same day as Schmidt’s statement that the allegations in the November election were an open secret in the group’s Park City office even among junior staff and were known even earlier to the senior leaders. The staff told the outlet that the founders created a toxic workplace full of sexist and homophobic language.
In response to Associated Press reports, New York Magazines The New York Times, Lincoln Project senior advisor Kurt Bardella and conservative commentator Tom Nichols, who served as unpaid advisor, announced their departure from the group earlier Friday. CNBC also reports that several of the group’s donors are considering stopping all financial contributions pending the outcome of an outside investigation.
Weaver has been accused of sending unsolicited sexual messages to more than 20 men and trying to trade his connections for sex. He has since resigned from the group, acknowledging that he was guilty of “inappropriate” behavior, but said he believed the interactions were consensual. (Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson is a Daily Beast columnist and podcast host.
However, the latest controversy centered on the supreme leadership’s handling of the allegations against Weaver. When questions on Thursday hit about how much the group’s leadership was aware of the allegations and when, the group announced it had hired a “best-in-class outside professional” to deal with allegations about Weaver’s abuse and the way the leaders acted. of the Lincoln project. The group also said any employee bound by a nondisclosure agreement to withhold information about Weaver could request an exemption from such a contract.
But just hours later, former employees claimed in an open letter published by The New York Times, that they “ don’t feel safe ” interacting directly with the group’s leadership, particularly as Schmidt “ attacks ” and uses a “ public Twitter slander ” against Jennifer Horn, another co-founder who stepped down last week for what she described Weaver’s ‘grotesque and inappropriate behavior’ and ‘long-term deception’. Following her comments, Horn was publicly accused by the group of fishing for a signing bonus of $ 250,000.
On Thursday evening, the group seemed to dive deeper into conflict with Horn. The Lincoln Project’s Twitter account posted a tweet containing screenshots of an alleged Twitter direct message conversation between Horn and Amanda Becker, a reporter from The 19th. The tweets were removed after the group accused Becker of “preparing to publish a defamation” with Horn as the source.
Schmidt took responsibility for the tweet on Friday: “That direct message should never have been made public. My job as a senior leader is to accept responsibility for the massive misjudgment of letting go. “
He also apologized directly to Horn and Becker.
“I have turned a business dispute into a public war through my anger that has diverted the fight against American fascism,” he said, adding that Horn “deserved better from me.”