Thread by @BenjaminNorton

This thread is the real story of the politically motivated hit job on R.L. Stephens.

It shows how a *US government employee* helped initiate a witch hunt—based only on anonymous unsubstantiated rumors—against DSA's most prominent Black leader, who happens to be an open communist

A political faction in DSA (Momentum) has long been fighting to try to silence and destroy RL and his faction (Praxis).

And a literal employee of the US DOJ initiated a DSA investigation against RL, based on anonymous whispers, that ultimately *showed him to be totally innocent*

In response to anonymous smears, DSA's leadership hired a private law firm to investigate fake rumors about RL. After months of investigating, *their own investigation showed he is innocent*.

RL then requested at an NPC meeting to make this report public. He wanted transparency.

Meanwhile no one ever publicly accused RL of anything specific. There was a whisper campaign that he had supposedly sexually assaulted someone. But no specific accusation was ever made public.

And we now know this was initiated by Allison Hrabar, a US Dept. of Justice employee.

In response to anonymous rumors about RL, DSA's paid staff hired a private law firm—Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP—for an "Independent Investigation into Allegations of Sexual Assault, Harassment and Bullying."

After months of investigation, the law firm concluded *RL is innocent*.

Note, this law firm was not investigating concrete accusations against RL. Instead, it was being used by the political opponents of RL and Praxis inside DSA to *try to find any dirt they could find* on RL.

And the law firm was not able to find anything. Because RL is innocent.

To understand the political dynamics here, RL is an elected member of DSA's 16-person governing body, the National Political Committee (NPC).

And he is the leader of the NPC group called Praxis, which has been under constant attack by the NPC's Jacobin-affiliated Momentum slate.

The law firm's investigation began in March 2018. On July 9, Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP submitted its report to DSA's National Director, Maria Svart.

If you actually read the report, you will see that the law firm—which was paid expressly to try to find dirt on RL—found nothing.

Let's go through the vague allegations that the paid law firm itself rebuked.

Its report states clearly, "We found no evidence indicating the Mr. Stephens’ bulling and harassing behavior is singularly focused on women."

Moreover the report states clearly, "the allegations of sexual assault could be substantiated."

No one contacted the law firm that was paid to find dirt on RL, after repeated requests.

No one ever made a formal accusation of sexual assault against RL. And they found no evidence

The report also claims RL "raised his voice" and was "disruptive."

I hope I don't need to point out the racist stereotypes accusing Black men of supposedly being "angry" and "disruptive" for daring to express disagreement or for daring to speak out against racism inside DSA.

It bears mentioning that DSA is an extremely white organization, with an internal culture of racism that makes it difficult for people of color to disagree with the majority white leadership—especially with the Momentum-oriented faction, which has a lot of power in "left media."

In short, the private law firm's own report shows that there was no evidence to the whisper campaign that tried to destroy RL's reputation with anonymity and suggestion.

RL recognized this report showed him to be innocent. So he formally requested for the document to be released

At the July NPC meeting, RL moved to release the attorney/client privileged report.

Members of the Momentum slate opposed publishing the report, as they knew it would expose the witch hunt against RL.

You can see this in the minutes from the meeting: dsausa.org/statements/min…

Now the law firm's report is being circulated on social media: drive.google.com/file/d/1W0_YLG…

The Google doc shows that DSA Program Associate Lawrence Dreyfuss is the one whose email account it links to. It is 100% real.

But people are misrepresenting the report. Critics are not even reading the parts that exonerate RL, and are instead looking at the bogus accusations.

Again, the report shows RL is innocent, not guilty. That's why he wanted it released in the first place—and why Momentum didn't!

This is where the US government employee comes in.

No one ever formally accused R.L. Stephens of sexual assault. So where did these whispers come from? We now know it was Allison Hrabar, a literal US government employee.

Allison Hrabar is a US Department of Justice employee who also happens to be on the Metro DC DSA chapter's steering committee.

This US government employee just admitted in a Twitter thread that she initiated the anonymous accusations against RL.

Typo: *NONE* of the allegations could be substantiated

In regard to this RL Stephens scandal, my language was hasty and sloppy, and I need to make some important points of clarification: I should not have emphasized Allison Hrabar's work with the DOJ, and it was a mistake to imply that her job is relevant to this investigation.

I have no evidence that COINTELPRO or any kind of intelligence activity is involved, and I should not have written anything to suggest any individual is implicated. For this reason, I deleted some of my tweets referencing Hrabar and COINTELPRO.

When I mentioned COINTELPRO I was not accusing anyone specifically of being an operative or provocateur. Rather I meant to simply acknowledge there is a long history of intelligence agencies using internal scandals to break apart leftist groups, sow discord, and create mistrust.