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WASHINGTON, April 10 — A transgender US pilot filed a defamation lawsuit yesterday against a conservative influencer who falsely claimed on social media that she was flying a military helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington in late January.
Jo Ellis sued Matt Wallace, an influencer with 2.2 million followers on the platform X, saying he “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign” against her following the crash that killed 67 people aboard both aircrafts, according to the lawsuit filed in the US district court in Colorado.
One of his posts, which garnered millions of views, said the Black Hawk pilot might have participated in a “trans terror attack,” falsely accusing her of intentionally causing the mid-air collision due to her “depression” and “gender dysphoria,” according to the lawsuit.
There was no immediate comment from Wallace, who later deleted his posts about Ellis.
The suit further accused Wallace of using his prominent stature on X, where he maintains multiple accounts, of seeking to “monetise a false narrative.”
As tens of thousands of social media posts falsely accused Ellis of piloting the ill-fated helicopter, she worried that someone might track down her home using public records.
She told AFP in an interview in February that she was forced to temporarily move her family to a new location and...
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