EFTA01007207.pdf

From: Lawrence Krauss To: "Jeffrey E." <jeevacation®gmail.com> Cc: Lawrence Krauss Subject: Re: first email from brother (law professor) that isn't stupid and judgmental in years Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2018 16:35:37 +0000 I will be ending my appeal letter with a statement about my new awareness of the need to act carefully etc, and pledge to do so.. Lawrence M. Krauss Professor Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 Research Office: On Aug 8, 2018, at 8:49 AM, jeffrey E. <jeevacation®gmail.com> wrote: yes, i agree with your brother . and it would have been great if this arrived before your interviews. -! its very personal. . I thin it has a better chance of succss than justin the moron On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 11:42 AM, Lawrence Krauss < > wrote: actually interesting. From my religious right wing law professor brother.. Dear Lorrie, Here is my advice. Before dispensing it, two obvious but important caveats: • I know nothing of your current legal strategy and I do not want/need to know about it. I am NOT intervening in your relationship with your lawyer. Rather, I am writing as your brother and as someone who is arguably very well-versed on controversies in the education industry. • I of course know nothing or virtually nothing about your personal life these days. With those caveats, my advice is as follows: • if the ASU investigation was based on one singular event (the alleged groping) with no parallel accusations in the background, and given that you strenuously deny the groping allegation, i would fight it tooth and nail. I would make your fight all about the excesses of current political correctness, the lynch mob mentality for accused males, etc. • however, lurking in the background are the Buzzfeed charges by many other women, bolstered by journalists in attack mode. Whether these accusations are true or not (see my 2nd caveat above), they create a "Harvey-Weinstein" or "Bill Cosby" type atmosphere surrounding you. I think it vital that you in t deny each and every accusation, you will not be believed except by your true believers, and they are not a majority of those who will make decisions concerning you. It is easy to surround oneself with allies and friends and to believe oneself invincible, but you must face the fact that a majority of folks are neither allies nor friends. EFTA01007207  • Therefore i think you should pursue a mixed strategy. On the one hand, you should non-aggressively, soberly, suggest that the groping allegation is exaggerated but likely the result of a good faith misunderstanding. At the same time you should acknowledge that all these accusations have woken you up. You had never fully realized how vulnerable women are, and how the "me-too" campaign reflects decades of oppression and exploitation. You were blindly ignorant of, and insensitive to, this reality. this blind ignorance was all the more inexcusable in that you yourself have a daughter. You absolutely pledge that all your future behavior will reflect this newfound realization. You pledge to enroll (and indeed you should find and enroll in before making this pledge) in a program designed to educate and sensitize men to the pervasive atmosphere of sexual assault and harassment. You pledge to devote the rest of your career to this goal and to change your behavior to reflect this new realization. You pledge never ever again to make gestures that even have a slight chance of being perceived as harassing to females. You apologize profusely for all your hurtful gestures in the past, and recognize that the women who have complained about you are not making their complaints up. You were too physical in the past, you were blind to the vulnerability of women exposed to men in positions of power and influence, you abused that position and their trust even though you were sure at the time that you were doing nothing wrong. You know better now, because you understand women's vulnerability in ways you didn't before. You humbly ask Arizona State, or indeed any university that is interested, to give you another chance to show that you are in fact nothing but a caring, active physicist who is now more respectful of women. You are absolutely dedicated to pursuing your academic aspirations without future distractions. Importantly, you should do something dramatic, such as offer 100% of the royalties from your next book to some foundation that assists women who have been victims of harassment. You get the drift. Again, as per my first caveat, this is not a legal strategy, this is a PR strategy. It can accompany your legal strategy. Of course you can reject it based on you and your lawyer's legal strategy. But if you do that, you should encourage your lawyer to recognize that your battle is not only or even primarily legal. Your battle is one for the hearts and minds of the educational establishment. That battle is above and beyond the legal fees of your attorney. Lorrie, several decades ago a murderer in the state of Washington entered a pharmacy and cunningly tampered with a bottle of Tylenol by substituting poison for a couple of pills. The murderer was trying to kill (and succeeded in killing) an unknown stranger in order to camouflage the murdererer's poisoning death of his wife (he would claim that his wife bought another tampered bottle of Tylenol). Johnson and Johnson was of course sued in Products Liability. J&J knew that it was not responsible for the poisonings and that it had done nothing wrong, but when national headlines created a huge scare about Tylenol, J&J bit the bullet and spent hundreds of millions on a massive campaign of recall, reimbursement and repackaging of its product. This very expensive PR campaign rehabilitated J&J. It arguably saved the company. Had J&J stuck to its legal guns, had been blind to the larger PR issue, it might perhaps have won a legal battle but it would almost certainly have lost the war. Your brother, Michael Lawrence M. Krauss Arizona State U Research Office EFTA01007208  please note The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged, may constitute inside information, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. It is the property of JEE Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. 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