"Strangers on the Internet" Podcast Ep. 62: Dilan Esper Follow-up on Joshua Wright's Lawsuits

Over the last few days, the Wall Street Journal has printed a three-part expose about alleged wrongdoing in both the personal and professional arenas by ex-George Mason University (GMU) law professor and former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright (part 1, part 2, and part 3). These allegations include sexual misconduct as well as various forms of corrupt behavior meant to benefit big tech companies to the tune of millions of dollars a year in profit to himself.

At the same time that the WSJ series was coming out, I invited back on the “Strangers on the Internet” podcast Dilan Esper, an experienced litigator in areas that include defamation law and the First Amendment, for us to analyze in today’s episode the most recent legal developments in two lawsuits that Josh has launched (our first conversation is available here, and previous episodes on this story are available here for my interview with Prof. Christa Laser, here with Prof. Brandy Wagstaff, and here with Aliza Shatzman).

The first lawsuit is Josh’s defamation legal action against two of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct–Elyse Dorsey and Angela Landry–where the judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed past a successful motion to dismiss after Josh amended his complaint. The second is a sex discrimination lawsuit where Josh is suing his former employer GMU for the way it handled his complaint, arguing that the university prematurely sided with his alleged victims because he is a man.

Dilan explains to listeners why he thinks that Josh’s legal actions will neither succeed in court nor help to restore his reputation, and why some of Josh’s painting himself as a victim of the #metoo movement in legal filings may be motivated by his hoping to get future benefits from fellow Title IX critics. Dilan also discusses the use of defamation lawsuits generally in responding to sexual allegations, including based on his experience representing one of Bill Cosby’s victims.

Note: According to a statement printed in the media by Lindsay McKasson, counsel to Joshua Wright at Binall Law Group “all allegations of sexual misconduct are false,” “These false allegations are being made public after unsuccessfully demanding millions of dollars behind closed doors,” and “We look forward to total vindication in court.” According to a tweet by Prof. Christa Laser, “I don’t appreciate that his attorney falsely suggests we are all lying (1/2 was in writing!) & want $ (this is a lie–I only want him gone).”

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