EFTA02525677.pdf

From: Lawrence Krauss a Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2018 5:30 PM To: Jeffrey E. Subject: final draft email Dear =eil and Michael: Attached is a copy of some correspondence from Buzzfeed, =hich has followed on six months of attempts (following on their being =ontacted by a third party who made a claim regarding a selfie session =t an event in Australia that ASU and ANU had previously shown to be =alse) to produce allegations of sexual harassment by me. Over =his period they produced 5 false allegations, primarily off of web =laims which I subsequently demonstrated to be false. Nevertheless =he harassment by them has continued. Most recently, Buzzfeed searched for =ther defamatory examples, and through someone, presumably at Perimeter, =eceived the following claim. —At the Perimeter Institute's "Quantum to Cosmos" Festival in October =009, a woman made a formal complaint of sexual harassment against you. =he institute immediately removed you from the premises and banned you =rom ever coming =ack. =/blockquote> =/div> =div class=""> After I disputed =his claim, they came back with the following claim, which they said was =n the record by someone from Perimeter: In October of 2009, you went to Waterloo, Ontario, to be a =uest speaker at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival at the Perimeter Institute. During the event, a sexual harassment complaint was filed =gainst you. You were immediately removed from the premises and banned =rom ever coming back. EFTA_R1_01665582 EFTA02525677  The institute would not provide more details to respect the =omplainant's privacy. =/span> <=div> <1=iv> I disputed this, and included an email from you, Neil as a =emonstration that it was false (I redacted the information that was not =elevant to them): Begin =orwarded message: From: "Neil Turok" Subject: Holden XXX Date: March 31, 2011at 9:30:26 AM MST To Dear Larry, I hope you're doing very well. It =as nice to have you at PI for the Q2C Festival and I do hope you'll be =ble to visit again soon. I'm writing in regard to Holden =XX, who I have been working with recently =E241140 With my best wishes, Neil Subsequent=to that, Buzzfeed came back with the following: Thank you for sending =he email from Neil Turok. We have raised this with the Perimeter =nstitute, which has clarified its position, as follows: During the event, a sexual harassment complaint was filed =ith the administration against you. 2 EFTA_R1_01665583 EFTA02525678  In 2012, as part of a =ormal review of its internal policies, the institute made a decision =hat you would not be invited to return. I believe this final claim is false, and I would like =onfirmation from you. It may be a fine point, but I believe it is =mportant. Originally Michael informed me immediately after the =vent in 2009 that there was a complaint of inappropriate =ommunication with one of the staff--something I still dispute--but be =hat as it may, he informed me by email that I shoudn't =ommunicate with the staff I had interacted with at the time, and the =atter was then considered closed. Several years later I was =nvited to give another public lecture but your outreach coordinator =ater rescinded the invitation, although I was reimbursed for that. =nbsp;As you are aware, I subsequently discussed my concern about this =ith Neil in Vancouver in that year, and inquired about exactly what it =as all about, and informed him that either a formal procedure to resolve any issue in which I could participate and respond might be =ppropriate, or the matter should be dropped. Neil said he would explore =he matter, and neither he, nor anyone else, ever contacted me following =hat. I have never been informed of anything like Buzzfeed has =laimed. Indeed I have been invited back to Perimeter for scientific =eetings by various colleagues in the intervening years. I =ould find it highly irregular if any formal procedure took place with =uch an outcome without my knowledge or without any due process, and =ithout subsequently informing me, and all evidence I have suggests the =ontrary. I am very concerned by this claim below, for obvious reasons. =nbsp;First, the original Perimeter source provided false and defamatory =nformation to Buzzfeed, changing a story only after I provided =ounter-evidence. The accurate history if there is one, is =hat there was a complaint from someone at Perimeter about inappropriate =ommunication and that 3 years later a decision was made by the =utreach coordinator, perhaps in collaboration with others, not to =nvite me back at that time for a public lecture. I would like to =ave your confirm for me that Buzzfeed's claim is incorrect a it =tands I would prefer to leave it at that, but if necessary one =ould add that there was a report of inappropriate communication with an =mployee at the event at the time, which I disputed and the matter was =losed. Please =onfirm my understanding of this issue for me if you will. As you =an imagine, making this public is embarrassing for me, Buzzfeed =as tried, at every turn, to misrepresent facts in the worst possible =ight, it is important for me to not allow them to continue to do this =ith impunity. For example, they contacted my university and asked =f there any claims fo sexual harassment against me, and though the =niversity explicitly replied there were none from the University, but =hat there was an external allegation about a remote event that the =niversity had investigated and had discredited (the one I mentioned =bove) and about which they would therefore not provide further =nformation, Buzzfeed informed me that they intended to report that they =ontacted the University with a request for information about sexual =arassment allegations at ASU and that the University would not give =hem any information. Last, while it would not ber surprising if Buzzfeed has =eiinterpeted statements from Perimeter staff just to elicit a response, =ut if a member of your staff made the original false allegation to =uzzfeed (violating confidentiality in the process I expect) I wanted =ou to be aware of this possibility, and if necessary act =ccordingly. I really appreciate your prompt attention to this =equest. Lawrence Krauss Lawrence M. =rauss Director, The Origins Project at ASU Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative Foundation Professor School of Earth & Space Exploration and Physics =epartment 3 EFTA_R1_01865584 EFTA02525679 Arizona State University, P.O. Box =71404, Tempe, AZ 85287.1404 -Origins Project =0 Year Celebration- Be a part of =omething 10 years in the making! April 5-9th 2018 — Visit for more info <https://www.originsl0year.com/> 4 EFTA_R1_01665585 EFTA02525680