A transgender servicewoman who was incorrectly named as the military helicopter pilot involved in the Washington, D.C. air disaster that killed 67 people in January has filed a lawsuit against a MAGA influencer who she says spread the rumors.
Jo Ellis is suing Matt Wallace, a conspiracy theorist with more than two million followers on X, for defamation over claims he “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign” about her.
The Equality Legal Action Fund, a nonprofit that provides legal support to discrimination victims, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Colorado, where the plaintiff’s lawyers say Wallace resides.
Ellis, a 35-year-old helicopter pilot who has served with the Virginia Army National Guard for 15 years, was falsely named on social media as the person flying the Army Black Hawk helicopter, which collided with an American Airlines passenger plane over the Potomac River on January 29.
All 64 people aboard the jet and the three aboard the helicopter died in the crash.
“I’ve been a door gunner in a helicopter in Iraq during a combat zone, and I’ve been shot at in that same combat zone,” Ellis told The New York Times. “But even for me, having a magnifying glass placed on my personal life in the wake of that rumor had a real impact.”
Such lawsuits face some constitutional and legal hurdles as free speech laws are broad. Ellis said any financial compensation she may receive would be donated to the victims’ families.
Online rumors about the Richmond resident were fueled by President Donald Trump’s jabs at the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies, suggesting, without evidence, they could be partly to blame for the mid-air collision.
One of them which had been reposted many times said that Ellis “has been making radicalized anti-Trump statements on socials.”
Wallace was one of the more prominent influencers who spread misinformation about Ellis through a series of posts that included photographs and details of her life.
While some of Wallace’s posts received millions of views, an analysis by The Times suggests that he did not start the rumor.
According to the social media monitoring tool Trends24, the conspiracy theory surrounding Ellis began on January 30 and trended on X with more than 90,000 posts by January 31.
That was the same day, two days after the deadly collision, that Ellis posted a “proof of life” video on Facebook to prove she was in fact, alive.
“My life was turned upside-down at that point,” she said in the video. “Forever on, I’m known as ‘that trans terrorist.’”
As a result of the post, Ellis received “credible death threats” and hateful, transphobic messages, the suit alleges. Meg Phelan, Ellis’ attorney, explained why they had “zeroed in” on Wallace.
“He was one of the largest platforms with the most followers to really publicize this and put it out there, and so that it went viral,” she told The Guardian. “It seemed very strategic, so that was really why we zeroed in on Matt Wallace.”
After the video spread online, Wallace deleted his posts about Ellis and stated he had an “important update.” He said that she “was not piloting the helicopter that crashed into the plane and is still alive.”
The lawsuit argues Wallace was “making excuses for creating viral lies” after issuing tweets that he says were to correct the false information.
“Too many times do people who have big platforms get to do this to innocent people and drag them through the mud and get away with it,” Ellis told the newspaper.
“So I feel strongly about free speech, but I also feel strongly about consequences to free speech when you use it to stir up a mob and impact someone’s life.”
The Independent has attempted to contact Wallace through the email listed on his website.
