Maatje Benassi Defamation Fund

We are Maatje and Matt Benassi, a US military family and earlier this year, my wife and I became victims of a conspiracy theory that went viral on social media and it almost ruined our lives.  We need your help to bring a civil lawsuit against our harasser to get justice and stop him from doing this to other innocent families. 

The harasser who promoted the lies -- a man who has a history of spreading misinformation and defaming innocent Americans -- claimed we were conspirators in a twisted Deep State plot to spread the coronavirus to China.  This went viral, as Chinese state-run media picked up the conspiracy and demanded my wife's medical information.  Because of these lies, we've been defamed, harassed and threatened since late March.

We've tried a number of options to avert a civil defamation lawsuit against these conspirators.  Initially we hoped they would just stop spreading lies -- they didn't.  We interviewed with a major news organization (CNN video) in hopes that they would get the message that we weren't involved -- they continued.  We removed hundreds of social media videos and posts to limit the spread of lies about us -- they persisted.  We've worked with social media companies to terminate their accounts -- they wrote books.  We worked with Amazon to remove the books and we hired an attorney to send a cease and desist letter -- they're planning a movie.  We feel our only option left is a civil lawsuit and unfortunately, we've found out that justice is very expensive in America.

Our simple cease-and-desist letter sent by our attorney to our harasser was $1,700, and to write that letter we had to put up a $2,500 retainer.  My attorney told us that initiating a civil lawsuit would take an additional $10,000 retainer and upwards of $125,000 in total costs.  Recently, we spoke with an individual who successfully won a similar harassment suit and his attorney fees were over $300,000. 

Any help is truly appreciated and we can't thank you enough for taking the time to consider donating to us.

Thank you,  Maatje & Matt Benassi

100% of this fund will support legal fees associated with bringing a civil defamation lawsuit against multiple conspiracy theorists/harassers who continue to propagate the lie that we are in-part responsible for ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. 

Any funds not used to support our family's associated legal fees will be donated to the HONR Network ;  their mission is to fight on-line hate and harassment.