Washington Post politics reporter Felicia Sonmez sued the paper and several of its current and former editors for discriminating against her as a victim of sexual assault.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in DC Superior Court, Sonmez said she was not allowed to report on sexual misconduct after she issued a statement in September 2018 on the resignation of a Los Angeles Times reporter that she Said that he had assaulted her in China. He has said that whatever happened happened with consent.
Sonmez said in that statement that she was grateful that the Times took her allegations seriously but criticized how she handled the investigation, adding that a response from institutions is necessary to combat sexual misconduct.
She said the Post prevented her from writing about Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, who is now a Supreme Court judge. She said that the Post’s managing editor, Cameron Barr, spoke publicly about her own experience, telling her that she had “taken a side on the issue of sexual harassment”, while the Post’s national editor Steven Ginsberg told her that it Must present the presence of his conflict of interest to report on sexual misconduct.
Sonmez said the ban was later extended so that she could not cover sexual misconduct at all, and she was often removed from stories.
The newspaper also put him on leave in January 2020 after he tweeted a link to a story about a rape allegation in 2003, hours after Kobe Bryant died. After severe criticism from Post colleagues, he was approved to return to work.
Meanwhile, the ban was lifted in March 2021, a day after Politico’s Story Post’s coverage ban and Sonmez’s criticism of how editors did not support him when he was threatened online.
Sonmez’s lawsuit says she suffered humiliation and emotional distress due to the alleged discriminatory conduct, which she said violated the DC Human Rights Act, as well as physical pain from grinding her teeth at night, which The reason was two surgeries to get relief from his jaw pain.
She is seeking damages and forcing the newspaper to correct its conduct and take steps to prevent similar situations.
Sonmez sued Barr, Ginsberg, former Post executive editor Marty Barron, managing editor Tracy Grant, deputy national editor Lori Montgomery, who was named the Post’s business editor on Thursday, and senior politics editor Peter Wollston. Barron declined to comment in a LinkedIn message and did not immediately respond to an email.
Washington Post spokesman Chris Coratti declined to comment on the suit.
Former Associated Press executive editor Sally Buzby was named in May as Barron’s replacement as head of the Post’s newsroom.
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