Right-wing influencer sued for alleging transgender was helicopter pilot in fatal crash with jet

A right-wing influencer is being sued for alleging a transgender military pilot was piloting the helicopter that crashed into a commercial jet in January at a Washington, D.C.-area airport, killing all 67 aboard.

The influencer, Matt Wallace, shared a social media post that falsely claimed the pilot who flew the helicopter on Jan. 29 was transgender and shared a picture of Jo Ellis, who is a transgender.

Ellis, 35, filed the suit Wednesday in a Colorado court, arguing Wallace “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign." The amount of monetary damages, or money, Ellis is seeking will be determined in court, according to The New York Times.

The day after Wallace posted the photo, Ellis, a pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard, posted a video on Facebook confirming Ellis was alive and saying the claims were false.

“It is insulting to the families to try to tie this to some sort of political agenda," Ellis said in the video. "They don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve this. And I hope that you all know that I am alive and well, and this should be sufficient for you all to end all the rumors.”

Wallace, an influencer on X with roughly 2 million followers, deleted his posts after the video and on Jan. 31 made a social media post stating Ellis "was not piloting the helicopter," the Times also reports. He did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment.