Amy Griffin Files Defamation Suit Over Accusation That She Stole Another Survivor's Story

Overview

• Griffin filed a federal defamation complaint in Nevada that says a former classmate’s claims in a New York Times article and a separate California suit are false and asks a judge to declare the allegations untrue and award damages.
• Her filing argues she documented the abuse in writing in 2020 and gave a detailed interview to the Amarillo Police Department in 2021, and it disputes the accuser’s claimed contacts and meetings as factually wrong.
• The woman who sued Griffin in California earlier this year is proceeding anonymously as Jane Doe and says being identified and then sued has retraumatized her and is an attempt to silence her.
• The New York Times has defended its reporting and said Griffin’s complaint misrepresents what the paper published and that reporters engaged in extensive fact-checking before the story ran.
• No court has resolved the factual disputes and the competing suits raise broader questions about how courts, journalists and publishers should evaluate memoir claims, recovered memories and survivor anonymity going forward.