Trans Pilot Sues Right-Wing Influencer Who Claimed She Caused Potomac Crash

The lies Matt Wallace spread about Jo Ellis left her facing death threats and forced her to hire private security guards.

Jo Ellis, a helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against right-wing influencer Matt Wallace, saying he “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign” when he falsely identified her as the pilot in a deadly crash in January.

The lawsuit from Ellis, who is transgender, seeks monetary damages from Wallace for spreading a lie to his millions of followers that Ellis was flying the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet above the Potomac River in January, killing all 67 people aboard both aircrafts.

“In the wake of this horrible tragedy, [Wallace] decided to exploit this devastation for clicks and money,” the lawsuit said, accusing him of capitalizing on the right-wing outrage fueled by President Donald Trump’s blaming of diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices for the crash.

“[A] transgender Black Hawk pilot seemed like the perfect target,” the lawsuit asserts, saying he went on to make several transphobic attacks on her.

Wallace “used his prominent X platform to monetize a false narrative that [Ellis] was not only one of the Army pilots involved in the mid-air collision, but also that she engaged in ‘another trans terror attack’ and intentionally caused the mid-air collision due to her ’depression’ and ‘Gender Dysphoria,’” the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado, states.