in 2024, we keep fighting

reflections on a bad (but not-as-bad-as-2022) year

I sent the following to my GoFundMe supporters earlier this week. It has been edited for context, for those of you who may only follow me here.

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There are only a few days left in 2023. It wasn’t nearly as bad as 2022 in the challenges I faced, but it was difficult nonetheless. When I look back at the events that will characterize the past 12 months, the year will be marked as much by my child taking his first steps and starting to talk as it will be by the time and resources the many legal battles I have been ensnared in have stolen from me.

2023 brought one welcome change from 2022: I’m fighting back, and this is just the beginning.

On March 2 of this year, I launched a fundraising appeal to support a defamation suit against Fox News. I first want to take the time to thank the over 1300 individuals who have donated over $78,000 to help support my case and other legal fees since then. My legal team has filed several exceptional briefs laying out the facts of our case. Predictably, Fox has asked for the case to be dismissed. As my lawyers argued in response, their primary line of attack is to repeat the same lies that defamed me in the first place. We now await a date for oral argument on that motion, after which the judge in our case will decide whether my suit will proceed to discovery. In short, there is a long road ahead, but I take comfort in knowing you’re all on that road with me. 

[Read also: coverage of our case from The New York Times | The Guardian | NPR]

Your support has also helped me through a bevy of other legal challenges brought on by Fox’s malicious lies about me:

• I sought and was granted a protective order against a man who was stalking and threatening me and my family; he unsuccessfully appealed that order twice. 

• A frivolous and absurd civil suit in which I was named was dismissed with prejudice.

• I was subpoenaed to testify under oath before the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, and your support allowed me to retain expert legal counsel during the difficult months leading up to and during that testimony. 

On top of all this, I’ve continued my work, speaking at 25 events around the world, online and in person. In addition to the writing I’ve done in this newsletter, I’ve published externally, too. I wrote about being the subject of deepfake pornography in The Atlantic, and about combatting so-called Ukraine Fatigue in Foreign Affairs.

One of the most important things to me in the wake of the massive campaign to push me out of public life is that I keep my head above the hypothetical parapet, no matter how dangerous or difficult it becomes. The knowledge that I have a community like this behind me has made it a bit easier.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and best wishes for 2024.