(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Journalist Matt Taibbi has filed a libel lawsuit against Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., for allegedly falsely accusing him of being a “serial sexual harasser.” He is demanding $10 million for the “demonstrably false claims.”
Kamlager-Dove made the puzzling accusations during a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on April 1 about censorship collusion between the Biden administration and social media companies.
She alleged Republicans were “elevating a serial sexual harasser” by inviting Taibbi to testify about his censorship research. She doubled down on these accusations on X, stating: “After this, Republicans gave Matt Taibbi time to defend himself. It’s telling that he didn’t.”
At the hearing, the congresswoman produced two articles by the Chicago Reader and The Washington Post that report about Taibbi’s satirical and comedic reporting from when he ran an English parody site called eXile.
After this, Republicans gave Matt Taibbi time to defend himself.
It’s telling that he didn’t. https://t.co/YNJe7ZRD3S
— Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (@RepKamlagerDove) April 1, 2025
Neither article cited any instances of women accusing Taibbi of sexual harassment, prompting him to file a federal lawsuit in New Jersey.
“Rep. Kamlager-Dove, no woman has ever accused me of engaging in sexual harrassment [sic] once, let alone serially. See you in court. Please do not evade service,” Taibbi wrote in his Racket newsletter.
In the lawsuit, Taibbi’s attorneys accuse the congresswoman of making “demonstrably false” remarks with actual malice.
They added, “The allegations echo prior false claims that have been the subject of legal action and multiple public corrections, of which Defendant was undoubtedly aware, evidencing her actual malice.”
There is not much a person can say to a member of Congress hiding behind the speech and debate clause of the Constitution.
I can however respond to a member arrogant enough to repeat defamatory claims on social media.
See below for the $10 million libel lawsuit filed today.… https://t.co/1B58zjPSyb— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) April 3, 2025
The congresswoman has not addressed the lawsuit publicly.
Taibbi was one of the journalists who pulled back the curtains on the Twitter Files—a trove of documents and internal communications between X (then known as Twitter) and the federal government.
The files revealed a well-oiled censorship machine in which the Biden administration pressured Twitter to censor posts that did not align with its approved narrative on COVID-19 and other issues.
Taibbi was invited to testify about his findings before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee when Kamlager-Dove made her claims.
Biden’s censorship operation, however, was far more sweeping than Taibbi’s revelations alone. In a separate hearing, fellow journalist Benjamin Weingarten detailed how the Biden administration launched 57 censorship initiatives across multiple federal agencies, citing a bombshell report by the Media Research Center.
