Re: URGENT: BuzzFeed News inquiry re allegations of sexual harassment by Lawrence Krauss
Mr. Lindsay:
I'm a reporter for BuzzFeed News who has been investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Lawrence Krauss.
The story concerns Krauss's actions towards students while a professor of physics at Case Western Reserve University, as well as his conduct in non-academic settings as a prominent figure in the skeptics movement. I am reporting this story along with two of my colleagues on the science desk, Azeen Ghorayshi and Virginia Hughes.
Our story is about several allegations of sexual misconduct dating from 2006 to 2016. Our reporting also goes into how the various institutions Krauss has been affiliated with — Case Western, Arizona State University, the Australian National University, the New College of the Humanities and the Center for Inquiry, for which you formerly served as president — have handled complaints and concerns about his behavior during this time.
Our story is corroborated by emails, university documents, official complaints, testimony from victims and witnesses, and interviews with more than two dozen of Krauss's current and former academic colleagues, students, and peers in the skeptics movement.
I am writing to you now because you are personally named in the story, and because you had executive responsibility for CFI's actions during the time of some of the alleged incidents.
I wanted to offer you the opportunity to comment and/or respond to the main facts we plan to publish regarding your involvement as the former head of CFI during this time. If you wish to comment on any of these findings, we need to hear from you as soon as possible. We are planning on publishing our story Tuesday morning US Eastern Time.
Based on our reporting so far, this is what we plan to publish that concerns you:
One incident involving Krauss allegedly occurred in May 2011 on a CFI cruise.
Attendees had Krauss allegedly propositioned a female cruise-goer, who rejected an invitation to join him and his female companion for sex in their cabin.
No complaint was made, but the incident was reported to a CFI staffer at the time.
CFI’s leadership continued to embrace Krauss, making him an honorary member of its board of directors in December 2011.
But at least two staffers were sufficiently concerned about reports of Krauss’s behavior that they urged you not to invite him on a 2014 cruise of the Galápagos Islands.
In June 2013, after you rejected their advice and invited him on the cruise, one of those staffers resigned.
At a conference in March 2012, another woman, who at that point was also an employee of CFI, told you about an incident in 2006 in which Krauss forcibly kissed and groped her in a hotel room. According to this woman, after she told you about this in person, you responded to her with silence.
The woman later told two other employees in CFI's management about the incident, and expressed her discomfort at having Krauss continue to speak at events.
CFI continued to book Krauss as a speaker at its events.
Again, if you wish to comment on or clarify any of these points, please get in touch with us as soon as possible. If I do not respond immediately it is because I am on another call, so please leave the best phone number to reach you.
Thanks,
Peter Aldhous
(415) 800-3471
(415) 503-7323
Dear Mr. Aldhous,
Adam Isaak resigned because I had a public spat with his girlfriend, Rebecca Watson, who had issued a public call for CFI employees to quit. (That dispute is a whole other story, tangential to your Krauss piece, so I will not get into it here.)
Timing is important here. The email from Pat was in March. The dispute with Watson started in mid-May, after which Adam stopped showing up for work. (He said he was sick & then went on vacation, or vice versa). He then then left some time in June. If the Krauss matter "pushed [him] over the edge," then he was tenaciously hanging on to the ledge for a few months.
The email from Pat Beauchamp was in the first person and Pat indicated she was speaking for herself. (I found the email exchange last night; I will forward it to you.) Adam had never been shy about expressing his concerns to me -- he asked for raises, complained about the hosts on the podcast he was producing etc. The notion that he and Pat were working together but that he decided he could not reveal his participation is difficult to credit.
I will be traveling to my home this evening. Plan to reach my home by 7:45, but if I don't answer right away, please try a bit later. My number is: .
Sincerely,
R. Lindsay
LAWRENCE !!
Since the story broke late last week in Buzzfeed about the numerous allegations of sexual harassment and creepy behavior by Lawrence Krauss, we've been treated to a litany of bad arguments in his defense, many by his wife, who used a secondary Twitter account to engage people on the issue. The arguments are almost uniformly illogical and disingenuous.
I propose you write an article debunking alien abductions using the same argument. these people didnt know one abother. there are 10s of them. why should they lie. . etc. TELL nancy to stop. you are getting into dangerous territory. this is not a court of law. . facts DO NOT make a difference. . as you can see there are now some others who have been too afraid to come forward in the article. . you are self inflicting
LAWRENCE, 4,=A0 Im not sure if you have decided to commit reputational hari kari.=C240 its ok with me. but these consequences were discussed ad=nauseum with you. if four or five ASU students decide together to co=plain , all bets off. . and you are egging them on.
Melody Hensley "A" (who wishes to remai= anonymous, though I'm almost positive I know who it is) Nora (= student at Case Western) Melanie Thomson (who witnessed him grab anoth=r woman's breast at a skeptic's conference in Australia, a=ong with Michael Marshall and Jo Alabaster. Four former employees of Ar=zona State's Origins Project (anonymously). They include a 19 year=old undergrad with two witnesses confirming her story of his creepy behavi=r.
That's 13 separate people who either were the victims or =he witnesses of their victimization. They come from multiple universities,=three different countries, at a variety of events over a long period of ti=e. As a result of some of those investigations, two institutions —=Case Western Reserve University and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretica= Physics — banned him from their campuses. And both Arizona State =niversity and Australian National University said on the record that he li=d about what their investigation of those complaints concluded.
This=is not a he said/she said. It's a he said/13 other people said and=three major educational institutions said. And those aren't the on=y ones. I know of several other people with similar stories who are afraid=to talk about them in public for fear of being attacked just like the accu=ers are now being attacked.
you should wish in retrospect not t= have responded at all.
The correspondence from Ron Lindsey to Peter Aldhous.
Lawrence M. Krauss
Director, The Origins Project at ASU
Foundation Professor
thanks.. I don't know about others I =ill relay this to Nancy.
=b>Lawrence M. Krauss
Director, The Ori=ins Project at ASU
Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative
Foundation Professor
School of=Earth & Space Exploration and Physics Department
Arizona State Univ=rsity, P.O. Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404
Research Office:=span class="m_-6189807211976031442m_-277658877943275076Apple-converted-s=ace"> <tel: > | Assistant =Jessica): <tel: >
Origins Office (Cynthia): <tel: >
Thanks... I am=not replying or egging them on.. I will speak to Nancy.. I wish in r=trospect I had not sent him a note using the words "false with mal=cious intent" as you recommended.. I had a piece about that =n my long response, explaining that I explained to him it was my language =ot the Unversity's, because their investigations showed the claim =as false, and I argued that was malicious..
thank you. And of course I was never banned from th=se institutions.. I should make that clear in my long response as well.. =C24>
I believe what you are seeing is from=the usual suspects, but indeed, probably not best to confront them any mor= directly.
LMK
=b>Lawrence M. Krauss
Director, The Ori=ins Project at ASU
Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative
Foundation Professor
School of=Earth & Space Exploration and Physics Department
Arizona State Univ=rsity, P.O. Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404
Research Office:=span class="m_-6189807211976031442Apple-converted-space">
<tel: > =C2 | Assistant (Jessica): <tel: >
Origins Offic= (Cynthia): <tel: >
<=pan style="font-size:9pt;color:rgb(68,114,196)"> <mailto: >
=u>
origins.asu.edu
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--Origins P=object 10 Year
Celebration-
Be a part of something 10 years in the making!
Apri= 5-9th 2018 – Visit for more info https://www.origi=s10year.com/ =/span>
=/span>
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but you did tell me to write him those words.. but yo= are correct about many things..
Lawrence M. Krauss
D=rector, The Origins Project at ASU
Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative
Foundation Professor <=b>
School of Earth & Space Exploration and Physics Department
Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404
=esearch Office: <tel: > | Assistant (Jessica):
Origins Office (Cynthia): <tel: >
=/span> <mailto: >
krauss.faculty.asu.edu
Celebration-Be -Origins a part Project of something 10 Year 10 yea=s in the making!
April S-9th 2018 i>=804, Visit for more info https://www.originsl0year.com/
and i was right. in all instancees as if you in your=nuttiness decide to file this lawsuit you keep banging on about,.=A0 that sentence will carry the day