Freedom of the Press Defense Fund Kurin v. Balter

I have been sued for defamation for $18 million for my #MeToo reporting, by Danielle Kurin, an archaeologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara whose misconduct I exposed. I will be represented pro bono if all goes well but there will be expenses for depositions, travel, service of subpoenas, etc. I will donate any excess funds to charity with input from donors about which ones it should be, or return the money if GoFundMe allows that.  I also pledge to regularly account for exactly how the money is spent, with detailed updates.

Thank you, this is for freedom of the press and the First Amendment, and also for an end to abuse and misconduct with impunity--and for the right of #MeToo survivors to tell their stories.

For more information on the lawsuit and the misconduct I reported on, this link has back links to the original stories.

http://michael-balter.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-litany-of-lies-uc-santa-barbara.html 

Also this story on the lawsuit in the UCSB student, the Daily Nexus:

https://dailynexus.com/2020-07-11/ucsb-asst-professor-sues-journalist-for-defamation-over-reportings-about-title-ix-violations/ 

For more on my #MeToo reporting, what I do and why I do it, this YouTube interview:

http://michael-balter.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-confessions-of-metoo-reporter.html

And for why I do this reporting on my blog, this story from the Columbia Journalism Review:

https://www.cjr.org/opinion/metoo-academia-sexual-assault-harassment.php