Fwd: URGENT: BuzzFeed News inquiry re allegations of sexual harassment
[{"sender": "Lawrence Krauss", "recipients": ["jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]"], "timestamp": "12/11/2017 2:14:35 AM", "subject": "Fwd: URGENT: BuzzFeed News inquiry re allegations of sexual harassment", "body": "OK.. Here it is.. suggestions?\n1. Item 1: I did neck with that woman, but never forced myself on her, and we talked about kissing or going \nbeyond that and decided not to.\n2. Item 2: This was what I told you about.. A student who came to me for advice about science \ncommunication.. I never approached her, or did anything, and have emails rebuffing her requests to meet off \ncampus for coffee or meals.. not because they were suggestive, but because I didn't think it was appropriate. I \ndid ask her about being a female in a male dominated physics major group because I wanted to find out what \nproblems might be occurring. I was respectful of her, and in fact my wife and I gave her a lift later at a AAAS \nmeeting that I had helped get her a fellowship to attend. I was shocked later to learn that she had \ncomplained. There was no official investigation., no formal complaint lodged.. When I spoke to the Dean and \ntold her the above, including showing emails, it was agreed that there would be no formal complaint but \nbecause the student had been upset I would not interact with her at all. I was shocked and dismayed, as I had \nworked very hard to be supportive and mentor this girl\n3. Item 3: I have no idea about this.\n4. This never happened.. In March 2008 at the convention I was approached by a student who did ask to sit at a \ntable with the then executive director of the Dawkins foundation. She asked me to join her in the hot tub. I said \nnow. Afterwards the exec. director informed me that this person was complaining that I had harassed her, and \nshe told me as she was there at the time she would be more than happy to explain that it was quite the opposite.\n5. This was a cruise with Nancy, who was my female companion. When that report appeared I explained that \nmy wife Nancy was upset at the allegation as she was my companion and such a complaint could be considered \nlibelous, the complaint was removed from the bloggers web site. Moreover, CFI not only continued to invite \nme on cruises but to speak at their events, including this year, where they have strict harassment policies. I \ncontinue to receive letters of thanks from them for my contributions, attitude, graciousness etc.. No complaints \never. Not one!\n6. This one you know about.\nShall we talk?\nLMK"}, {"sender": "Peter Aldhous", "recipients": ["Dr. Krauss"], "timestamp": "December 10, 2017 at 5:12:27 PM PST", "subject": "URGENT: BuzzFeed News inquiry re allegations of sexual harassment", "body": "Dr. Krauss:\nAs you know, I'm a reporter for BuzzFeed News who has been investigating sexual misconduct allegations \nagainst you. As we've already discussed by email, I'd very much like to interview you about these allegations in \ndetail.\nIn particular, you stated in an email sent on Nov 13 that two universities had investigated an incident (# 6 \nbelow). You claimed that \"both Universities independently concluded that the report was unsubstantiated and \nfabricated with malicious intent.\" We are not aware that either university concluded fabrication or malicious \nintent, so if you have evidence to support this assertion, we would like to see and discuss it.\nThe story concerns your actions towards students while a professor of physics at Case Western Reserve \nUniversity, as well as your conduct in non-academic settings as a prominent figure in the skeptics movement. I \nam reporting this story along with two of my colleagues on the science desk, Azeen Ghorayshi and Virginia \nHughes.\nOur story is about several allegations of sexual misconduct dating from 2006 to 2016 (see full details below). \nOur reporting also goes into how the various institutions you have been affiliated with — Case Western, \nArizona State University, the Australian National University, the New College of the Humanities, and the Center \nfor Inquiry, for which you serve as an honorary member of the board of directors — have handled complaints \nand concerns about your behavior during this time.\nOur story is corroborated by emails, university documents, official complaints, testimony from victims and \neyewitnesses, and interviews with more than two dozen of your current and former academic colleagues, \nstudents, and peers in the skeptics movement.\nI wanted to offer you the opportunity to comment and/or respond to the main facts we plan to publish. If you \nwish to comment on any of the below findings, we need to hear from you as soon as possible. We are \nplanning on publishing our story Tuesday morning, Eastern US Time.\nBased on our reporting, this is what we plan to publish:\nIncident 1:\n• In November of 2006, at an event launching the new Center for Inquiry in Washington D.C., you met a \nvolunteer for CFI D.C.\n• At the event, you asked for her business card. Later, you followed her as she was leaving and asked \nher if she was \"of age.\"\n• Later, you emailed her to invite her to dinner.\n• You planned to dine with her in the restaurant at the Washington D.C. hotel where you were staying.\n• You told her to come up to your room first because you needed to finish some work.\n• In your hotel room, you seemed in no rush to leave. You ordered a cheese plate, and later champagne, \ndespite her suggestion that you go down to dinner.\n• You then made a comment about her eye makeup, getting very close to her face.\n• You then lifted her by her arms, and pushed her onto the bed beneath you, forcibly kissing her and \ntrying to pull down the crotch of her tights.\n• She struggled to push you off her.\n• You said, \"When I was in college I could never get a girl that looked like you.\"\n• When you pulled out a condom, she got out from under you. She said \"I have to go,\" and rushed out of \nthe room.\nIncident 2:\n• In an incident that occurred in fall of 2007 while you were a physics professor at Case Western Reserve \nUniversity, a student tried to talk to you about her plans after graduation. You mentioned to her how tough it \nmust be to have all the other physics majors asking her out on dates.\n• In a second incident in December of 2007, while you were still at Case Western, the same student \nvisited your office to interview you for a student science journal. You closed the door behind her, and ignored \nthe questions she had prepared. Then you made a casual comment about taking her out for dinner.\n• Later, in a regular column for the school paper, she described her experiences with you, without \nmentioning you by name. \"There was even one particular creep of a professor who once told me he thought \ndifferently of me compared to other students and asked me to dinner: a situation so disturbing that it left me \nupset for weeks afterward,\" she wrote.\n• She was then approached by a dean at the university, who suspected that she was referring to you, \nbased on a previously reported incident with another student. He encouraged her to make a complaint, and \nshe did.\n• University investigators interviewed both you and the student.\n• On September 4, 2008, Susan Nickel-Schindewolf, the university's associate vice president for student \naffairs, wrote to the student, telling her that the investigation was complete. She wrote that you had been told: \n\"This type of behavior could constitute sexual harassment in violation of the university's sexual harassment \npolicy.\n• The letter also stated that you were prohibited from making contact with the student as long as she \nremained at Case.\n• The letter also stated that you are required to get approval from the dean or the chair of the physics \ndepartment before setting foot on the campus again.\n• The letter also stated, \"Dr. Krauss expressed regret about having a negative impact on you, and also \nhis willingness to use this complaint as an opportunity to reflect and improve on his future interactions with \nstudents.\"\n• By then, you had already left Case, taking up your current position at Arizona State University the \nmonth before.\n• \"The opportunities being offered at ASU are simply too great to turn down at this stage in my career,\" \nyou told Case colleagues, in an email announcing your departure on April 16, 2008.\nIncident 3:\n• A former Case Western physics department administrator confirmed that she had reported a previous \nincident involving a student who had confided in her about your inappropriate behavior towards her.\nIncident 4:\n• You met a student from another university, an atheist activist, in March 2008 at the American Atheists \nConvention in Minneapolis. She wanted to expand the atheist group she ran at the midwestern university she \nwas attending, and hoped to convince you to come and speak. You initially seemed enthusiastic.\n• During the convention, attendees including you and Richard Dawkins went for dinner with the student \nand volunteers for Dawkins' foundation.\n• Afterwards, the student invited you to join the volunteers for a drink.\n• You asked her to come get you in your hotel room. She was wary of your intentions, and so brought a \nmale friend with her. Opening the door to find them both there, you informed her you had decided not to go.\n• You met this student again at the American Atheists Convention in Des Moines, Iowa, in April 2011.\n• \ntable.\nYou pulled over a chair for her in the bar, and then started running your hand up her leg under the \n• She tried to shift her body away from you, and you persisted in putting your hand on her leg. She \ncrossed her legs, and you kept trying. Then she turned her entire body away.\nIncident 5:\n• This incident allegedly occurred on in May 2011 on a CFI cruise. We understand that CFI staff were \n\ninformed that you had propositioned a female cruise-goer, who rejected an invitation to join you and your \nfemale companion for sex in your cabin.\n• At least two CFI staffers were sufficiently concerned about reports of your behavior that they urged \nCFI's president not to invite you on a 2014 cruise of the Galapagos Islands. You were invited on that cruise, \nhowever.\nIncident 6:\n• During a visit to Melbourne, Australia, in November 2016, you were accused of sexual misconduct once \nagain.\n• The incident happened at a dinner held at the Melbourne Zoo as part of the Australian Skeptics  \nNational Convention, where you were a featured speaker.\n• With conference delegates chatting over drinks, a woman asked you for a celebrity selfie.\n• As the woman held out her phone to take the picture, you reached over her shoulder and grabbed her \nright breast.\n• She immediately reacted, bodychecking you and spinning around. \"Don't do that,\" she said.\n• BuzzFeed News has seen the complaint made by another woman to ASU, ANU, and the New College \nof the Humanities in London, including the selfie, her face obscured to conceal her identity. It shows your hand \nin motion as a blur in front of her shoulder, apparently moving toward her chest. Two other eyewitnesses have \nconfirmed the complainant's account of what happened.\n• In April 2017, the complainant described the incident on her blog. After hearing more about your \nreputation for inappropriate behavior from blog readers, she decided to file a complaint about the Nov. 2016 \nincident.\n• On July 16, she filed formal complaints with Arizona State University, and with the Australian National \nUniversity in Canberra and the New College of the Humanities in London, where you have visiting \nappointments.\n• Both Arizona State and the Australian National University told her they would look into the matter. But \nneither university found against you.\n• \"Based on the material available to the University, we do not have sufficient evidence to substantiate \nthe allegations,\" Kiaran Kirk, dean of the College of Science at the Australian National University, wrote to her.\n• Erin Ellison, who heads Arizona State's Office of Equity & Inclusion, wrote to her explaining that an \ninquiry \"did not find a violation of university policy.\"\n• In October, Arizona State denied a request from BuzzFeed News for documents relating to complaints \nof sexual harassment against you. However, Cynthia Jewett, the university's senior associate general counsel, \nnoted that two individuals, neither affiliated with the university, had complained about you. \"The University did \nnot find either communication to state a credible allegation,\" Jewett wrote.\nMiscellaneous facts:\n• In 2008, you founded the Origins Project at Arizona State University in Tempe, a multidisciplinary effort \nto understand the origins of the universe, life, and social systems. You have led that effort ever since.\n• Thanks to best-selling books like The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe From Nothing, frequent \nessays in publications including the New Yorker and the New York Times, and the documentary you made with \nbiologist Richard Dawkins, called The Unbelievers, you are celebrated as one of America's leading public \nintellectuals.\n• You served on the science policy committee for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and are a \nvocal critic of President Donald Trump.\n• You also make regular public appearances across the world, often at gatherings of skeptics and \natheists.\n• At CSICon in Las Vegas in October, a few dozen fans paid $500 per head to attend a VIP luncheon \nwith you and Dawkins.\n• Many more lined up to get you to sign their copy of your latest book, The Greatest Story Ever Told — \nSo Far.\n• Online, people can buy T-shirts emblazoned \"Lawrence Krauss for President.\"\n• In talks and interviews, you have argued that our universe arose without divine intervention, that \nreligion drives xenophobia, and that our brains are hardwired to believe.\n• You have stated that science provides answers to many of life's biggest questions, and can even fix \ngreat societal injustices.\n• Earlier this year, at a Q&A event to promote your new book, the conversation came around to the \ndeath of women and minorities in science. \"Science itself overcomes misogyny and prejudice and bias,\" you \nsaid. \"It's built in: Questioning yourself, always questioning results, questioning others, relying on empirical \nevidence.\"\n• You have clashed with some skeptics over your defense of Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire financier who in \n2008 was convicted for soliciting prostitution from underage girls, and spent 13 months in a Florida jail.\n• Through his private foundation, Epstein has funded the work of several prominent scientists. He has \nprovided funding for your Origins Project, supporting lectureship and scholarship programs, most recently \npledging $100,000 in 2014.\n• In April 2011, you told the Daily Beast: \"As a scientist I always judge things on empirical evidence and \nhe always has women ages 19 to 23 around him, but I've never seen anything else, so as a scientist, my \npresumption is that whatever the problems were I would believe him over other people.\"\n• In a blog comment about the Epstein controversy, you wrote: \"I remain skeptical, and I support a man \nwhose character I believe I know.. .If you want to condemn me for that, so be it.\"\n• You were made an honorary member of CFI's board of directors in December 2011.\n• A blog post published in August 2013 described incidents #1 and #4, naming you. Another post, \npublished at around the same time, described incident #5.\n• The first post was edited to remove your name after you had commented that the allegations of assault \nwere \"potentially illegal.\" The second post was quickly taken down.\nAgain, if you wish to comment on or clarify any of these points, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.\nIf I do not respond immediately it is because I am on another call, so please leave the best phone number to \nreach you.\nThanks,\nPeter Aldhous"}]