Twitter A woman believed to be Jaime T. Phillips poses with Twitter user "Quay Manuel" at a Donald Trump campaign event.
Following the publication of a story detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, The Washington Post has accused a woman of making up a story in conjunction with an organization created to expose liberal bias in news media.
In a story published Monday, The Post noted that it was contacted via email by a woman who later claimed to go by the name Jaime T. Phillips. The woman said she wanted to come forward with details of her sexual relationship with Moore, which she said dated back to the early 1990s and ended with her getting an abortion when she was a teenager. However, further research and fact-checking into claims produced evidence that the woman believed to be Phillips was fabricating her story in an effort to embarrass The Post.
The false allegations come three weeks after a story was published by the newspaper containing sexual misconduct accusations against Moore from four women, many who claimed to be minors when incidents occurred. Moore and his campaign have continuously denied that any of the interactions took place.
The Post accuses Phillips, 41, of fabricating her story in coordination with Project Veritas, an organization formed to attempt to expose liberal bias in the media. Public records readily available online indicate that Phillips is divorced and lived in Maryland for some time before moving to Atlanta, Georgia. Several of her now-deleted social media accounts show that she’s a supporter of President Donald Trump and circulated several controversial news stories on her various accounts.
Here’s what you need to know about the incident and Phillips:
1. Phillips Claimed That Moore Impregnated Her When She Was a Teen & Had to Have an Abortion
Washington Post Reporter Stephanie McCrummen, left, interviews Jaime Phillips at a Greek restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia on November 22.
Phillips claimed in multiple interviews to The Post that Moore impregnated her when she was a teenager. The series of interviews took place over a two-week span, and she told reporters a story — which has been deemed to be false — about a sexual relationship with Moore that started in 1992 and led to her getting an abortion when she was 15.
“During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public,” the article stated.
Phillips contacted The Post through a cryptic email received by reporter Beth Reinhard, who was a co-author on the initially Moore allegation story. The alias of the email account was “Lindsay James,” not Jaime Phillips, and it was received one day after the initial story ran.
“Roy Moore in Alabama,” the alleged email to Reinhard started by saying. “I might know something but I need to keep myself safe. How do we do this?”
Phillips told reporters that she lived in the New York City area, but is originally from Alabama. She claimed that she moved in with an aunt in the Talladega area when she was younger. She claimed that she met Moore in 1992 and has a “secret sexual relationship” with him, adding she “knew it wasn’t right,” but she didn’t care.
The newspaper decided against moving forward with the story when research and fact-checking indicated that Phillips made up many of the details. Reporters confronted her with multiple inconsistencies in her story, and she continuously expressed reluctance to come forward with her accusations.
The Post Said It Believes Phillips Worked for Project Veritas
On November 27, reporters from The Post stated they saw a woman believed to be Phillips walking into the offices of Project Veritas, based in New York. The stated mission of the organization, run by James O’Keefe, is to target the mainstream news media and organize several undercover stings involving operatives meant to expose media bias.
In researching Phillips’ story, The Post found a March job posting on Project Veritas’ Facebook page, saying it was looking for 12 “undercover reporters.” The goal of the job, as described in its job description was: “To adopt an alias persona, gain access to an identified person of interest and persuade that person to reveal information.”
Post reporter Aaron Davis, who co-authored the most recent article, approached O’Keefe outside his company’s office November 27 in Mamaroneck, New York. That was after the woman, believed to be Phillips, walked inside the office. O’Keefe refused to answer questions, saying: “I am not doing an interview right now, so I’m not going to say a word.”
O’Keefe and Project Veritas released a video of the confrontation and posted it to YouTube. However, as The Post later noted, a large portion of the interaction was edited.
The Post continued to inquire O’Keefe about the subject matter, and he repeatedly declined to answer questions. Executive Editor of The Post, Martin Baron, said that typically, the newspaper honors “off-the-record” agreements, but because they determined it was a “scheme” in an attempt to embarrass the publication, they said that they wouldn’t honor the agreement and told the intricate details of how they realized Phillips was trying to dupe them. That included using a fake name at first and requesting to only be contacted through email and an encrypted text message service.
2. Phillips Had a Twitter Account Which Praised Donald Trump & Attended at Least 1 Campaign Rally
A tweet of a woman believed to be Phillips posted by another Twitter account encouraging people to vote for Trump.
Public records indicate that Phillips is originally from Clarion, Pennsylvania and lived for some time in the Frederick, Maryland area until she moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 2014. Court documents from Montgomery County Circuit Court further indicate that Jamie was at one time married to Nathan Kahl, who lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and she legally had her name changed to Jaime Kahl after their marriage. The couple filed for divorce in October 2002, and her maiden name was restored by the state.
While a large majority of her believed social media accounts have been deleted or deactivated since the story’s publication, some of her tweets are still available online. She once had a Twitter account named @JamieTennille, and she used to go by the username “Jamie Trump” on Twitter.
A twitter account believed to belong to Phillips is named “J’aime Covfefe” and says in its biography: “#MAGA!!!!! Leo’s ? Mom! Sports & Music Fan! #NASCAR #PGA #TrumpTrain #PresidentTrump #AmericaFirst #DrainTheSwamp”
The account is linked to a YouTube video featuring a documentary about the Clinton family and its foundation. Several posts to the account re-tweet and spread theories on alleged wrongdoings by the left.
A post by another Twitter user and Trump supporter, “Quay Manuel,” showed a woman believed to be Phillips holding a Trump/Pence campaign sign next to him with a tweet saying: “We were so happy that night!”
Recent posts on Phillips’ now-deleted Twitter account centered around the Seth Rich controversy, Fusion GPS, President Barack Obama and attacking media for being “fake news.” She often defended the Trump administration in tweets.
During one of her interviews with The Post, Phillips said that she was upset Trump endorsed Moore and claimed she wanted to come forward to ensure that he’d lose the Senate race.
“So my whole thing is, like, I want him to be completely taken out of the race,” The Post alleges she said during an interview. “And I really expected that was going to happen, and now it’s not. So, I don’t know what you think about that.”
3. Phillips Claimed She Had a Job Interview at the Daily Caller but Had a GoFundMe Campaign to Raise Money for a Move to New York to ‘Combat the Lies’ of Liberal Media
The GoFundMe campaign believed to have been launched by Jaime T. Phillips.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence against Phillips, as found by The Post, was a now-deactivated GoFundMe campaign in which a Jaime Phillips of Atlanta, Georgia was seeking money to relocate to New York.
In a description of the funding campaign on May 29, Phillips wrote that she was “moving to New York” after accepting a position to work “in the conservative media movement to combat the lies and deceipt of the liberal MSM (main stream media).”
“I’ll be using my skills as a researcher and fact-checker to help our movement,” she wrote.
I was laid off from my mortgage job a few months ago and came across the opportunity to change my career path. The timing of being laid off and then being presented with a chance to finally do some good in this world all came together at just the right moment.
Because of my recent layoff however, I am in need of funding/sponsorship for me to be able to make this big life change. I would like to be able to start this new adventure with a mind at east so that I can do the best work possible and not start out constantly playing catch up.
Any help for my cause would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading!
The GoFundMe campaign was brought to Phillips’ knowledge during a subsequent interview at a Greek restaurant in Virginia. During the interview, Phillips was pressed by a reporter on the description of the fund and was told the conversation was being recorded.
“I was looking to take a job last summer in New York, but it fell through, so I ended up not taking the job,” she told reporter Stephanie McCrummen, specifying that the job was going to be with The Daily Caller. “But it ended up falling through, so I wasn’t able to do it. My fiancee was relocationg to New York, so I was looking for a job to go with him, but it didn’t work out. So I ended up staying doing what I was doing.”
Phillips told McCrummen that she’s involved in the mortgage industry and had an interest in stories on The Daily Caller‘s website, saying that she thought she’d be good at using the skills she’s learned to perform research.
Phillips said that she went through an interview process with a person from the publication named Kathy Johnson and left “with a good feeling,” but didn’t end up getting the job. However, a follow-up call to the publication indicated that nobody by the name of “Kathy Johnson” works at The Daily Caller.
4. Records Indicate a ‘Jaime T. Phillips’ Had Her Mortgage Broker License Suspended in September 2016
Jaimie Phillips alongside two others at a Trump event.
There is an entry a mortgage broker in Atlanta, Georgia under the name “Jaime Tennille Phillips.” In the entry on the website, it states that Phillips is a “registered mortgage broker” employed by Amerisave Mortgage Corporation in Atlanta. It said that she’s been a mortgage broker since August 1, 2013 and reports under another name, Jaime Tennille Kahl, the name she used after marriage.
Phillips claimed to be employed at a company called NFM Lending, located in Westchester County, New York. However, when reporters from The Post contacted them, staff said they had no record of a person under her name being employed there.
In a monthly summary of mortgage activities for the period ending in June 2016, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance released a document stating that a “Jaime Tennille Phillips” had a license as of June 2, 2016 for NFM, Inc.
An entry in a monthly summary of agents.
Just a few months later, though, in the September 2016 summary release, Phillips’ license was noted as “surrendered/cancelled” as of September 20, 2016.
5. Phillips’ Interviews Came After Voters in Alabama Received a Robocall Encouraging Women to Come Forward With Damaging Information About Moore in Exchange for Money
The story which was believed to be faked by Phillips and told to The Post came just under two weeks after reports surfaced that voters in Alabama were receiving robocalls from a recorded voice claiming to be The Post reporter Lenny Bernstein. The voice on the other end of the recorded message encouraged females “between the ages of 54 to 57” to come forward with damaging information of Moore in exchange for a reward of $5,000-$7,000.
Hi, this is Lenny Bernstein, I’m a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5000 and $7000 dollars. We will not be fully investigating these claims however we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at albernstein@washingtonpost.com, thank you.
The message was deemed false by The Post‘s Baron, who said in a written statement to WKRG News that he was baffled someone would stoop to such a low level to try and undermine factual reporting.
“The Post has just learned that at least one person in Alabama has received a call from someone falsely claiming to be from The Washington Post,” the statement said. “The call’s description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.”
The real Lenny Bernstein commented on the matter on his personal Twitter account, saying thanks to those that have supported him.
Hi, @elliothannon: Unless you know something I don’t, I definitely do work at the Post. Best, Lenny
To all who’ve been in touch: Thanks for the support. For the record, I definitely DO work at the Post and we definitely DON’T report that way. Appalling effort to discredit the great work the Post and other journos do.
John Rodgers of the Roy Moore for Senate campaign denied it had anything to do with the phone call and added that it’s the first time he’s ever heard of this type of robocall. Moore is going against Democrat Doug Jones in the December 12 general election.