Slack messages presented as alleged evidence of a “plot to sue.”

I have never sued anyone connected to this dispute. My entire legal history here consists of defending myself against a frivilous lawsuit McNamara funded, and you voted for, and seeking protection orders in response to coordinated harassment. Someone whose only legal actions have been defensive is now named in a malicious prosecution complaint as a co-conspirator in a speculative extortion scheme. Sit with the irony of that for a moment.

Your attorneys sent me an evidence preservation letter on June 4, 2024, notifying me I might be named as a defendant or involved in your suit. I responded the same day. I told them I had no involvement with Breaking Code Silence beyond defending myself against the lawsuit you all initiated, no personal history with you, and that I had reported McNamara’s conduct to the FBI Cybercrimes Unit, which had opened a guardian case. I told them further contact constituted harassment and demanded they cease communication immediately. Nearly two years later, they filed a complaint with a paragraph about me that is false and defamatory.

I notice McNamara dropped off the complaint. Too much of a liability? Too easy to disprove? At some point, you have to ask yourself whose interests this is actually serving.

Anyway, let’s be clear about what the record actually shows. In January or February 2022, BCS requested a meeting with us to discuss settlement. We agreed to hear their offer. On February 11, 2022, the court granted our motion to dismiss the trademark case. The discussions continued anyway, focused on how to conclude the matter with the least possible damage to the broader social movement. On a call, we asked for repayment of our attorney fees and formal dismissal of the case for all parties. During that same conversation, BCS disclosed that Katherine McNamara had taken organizational IP in a leadership dispute. I recommended they report the conduct to law enforcement if they believed criminal activity had occurred. In a follow-up email, I sent the FBI Cyber Task Force contact information for the agent already handling my own prior report of similar conduct by McNamara. That referral is documented. That email is the document your attorneys have characterized as evidence of a plot. It is a law enforcement referral sent by someone whose motion to dismiss had been granted.

Now, I know you know this, but before our settlement discussions with BCS took place, there was already a legal dispute between BCS and Katherine McNamara. It was reported to us that BCS participated in mediation with Katherine before the lawsuit was filed, and that Katherine was represented by attorneys from Unsilenced. To claim we had anything to do with that dispute before the de-indexing deliberately leaves out the full context. The dispute involved more than the de-indexing. It centered on the actions of Katherine McNamara and the alleged theft of their intellectual property. The fact that BCS narrowed its claims during the proceedings does not make it a conspiracy. If you would like to learn more about how lawsuits work, feel free to check out the blog titled Plot Twist.

For the record: in 2019, I co-created the core accounts and intellectual property of the #BreakingCodeSilence movement together with the website’s original creator. We retained ownership of those accounts throughout. In 2021, Katherine McNamara, or persons acting on her behalf, seized them without our consent and rebranded them as Breaking Code Silence, a 501(c)(3). The official website, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook group, emails and Google Drive content were taken from our control. The Drive contents were downloaded without authorization, documented through a Google Takeout request made when our access was cut off. We were only able to recover a portion of our IP. 

Ownership of these accounts was a central dispute in the lawsuit and settlement discussions. We did not concede it. I retain full ownership of the BreakingCodeSilencemovement Facebook page, the YouTube channel, the associated Gmail accounts, and the breakingcodesilence.net website, which was returned to its original creator. I transferred none of these assets to Breaking Code Silence, the 501(c)(3), at any time. My ownership was not negotiable then, and it is not negotiable now.

The written record of those “settlement”  discussions shows exactly what I asked for: dismissal of the lawsuit against all parties and immediate payment of attorney fees by the organization. I explicitly stated that BCS’s lawsuit against Unsilenced did not involve us and that we would not play games trying to beat Katie. That is the record of someone declining an offer, not conspiring to extort anyone. The name Jeremy Whiteley was never once mentioned in those discussions. The figure of $3,000,000 was never raised. There was no plan to sue you or Katie McNamara, for that matter. There was no plan beyond filing for our attorneys fees in our case. Which we did. 

These discussions show defendants declining an offer from the organization that was actively suing them. An organization whose board you sat on. A lawsuit you voted for. And a lawsuit you privately told Josh Scarpuzzi was filed on misinformation, in the same conversation you acknowledged that BCS’s own attorneys did not know their clients were lying to them, and suggested I file a claim on my homeowners insurance to cover the legal bills you had just voted to create. Jeremy, your own words are the most powerful evidence of your own complicity.

Chelsea Filer sent an email directly to your attorneys, Adam Tate and Catherine Close of Julander Brown & Bollard, on October 31, 2024, with Katherine McNamara copied. In that email, Chelsea unequivocally stated that she had no involvement in the lawsuit against either Katherine McNamara or you, and that the characterization of a “plot to sue” was a deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the facts. Chelsea further explained that the Slack channel your attorneys speculated might contain evidence of a lawsuit conspiracy, including what they described as “at least some possibility” of discussions about de-indexing a website and framing Katherine McNamara for hacking, actually began with discussions regarding the FBI guardian case. Chelsea later testified under oath that the Slack conversations at issue were related to settlement discussions, not any plan to sue or engage in misconduct. That testimony is corroborated by the Slack records themselves, including my rejection of the settlement offer that was discussed in the channel.

This wild theory, based on a lack of evidence, and an unrecoverable slack channel is NOT grounds to make such egregious allegations against us. Your attorneys were told in writing, with documentation attached, that their conspiracy theory was false. They filed Paragraph 28 anyway, more than a year later.

Involving me in a malicious prosecution case when I have not initiated a single lawsuit against anyone in this entire dispute is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence. That evidence does not exist. The language your complaint attributes to us, that we agreed to “do all possible to support the case to prevail,” was never presented to us in any offer and was never language we used or agreed to. That characterization was pulled from internal notes about us, not from any communication with or by us.

It is worth noting that a central basis of your complaint is reputational harm caused by the BCS lawsuit against you and legal fees accrued to defend it. I understand that harm. Having false allegations filed against you in a public court document, associated with conduct you did not commit, damages your reputation in ways that are difficult to quantify and nearly impossible to fully repair. I am living that experience right now because of Paragraph 28, and because you have published a “plot to sue” narrative about me on your bcslawsuit website that mirrors the same false characterization contained in that filing. You have done to me, in a sworn court document and in a public website, precisely what you are asking a court to hold others accountable for doing to you. The same theory of harm you are asking a court to remedy is the harm you are currently causing me. And this is a pattern that started years ago, it needs to stop.

Jeremy, I Want to Talk to You Survivor to Survivor…

I do not know why you got involved with Breaking Code Silence or what you believed you were signing up for when you joined that board. But I do know that you are a survivor of Provo Canyon School. I know what it means to come out of those places carrying pain that takes years to understand. I know what it means to want to do something with that experience, to turn it into purpose, to find community in other people who understand.

So, I want to ask you something directly, survivor to survivor: was this about taking control or was this about creating change for you? 

Because Breaking Code Silence is gone. The organization is functionally dead. The community it once held together is fractured. The momentum that existed in 2020 has been spent on years of litigation between the very people who were supposed to be fighting for kids still locked in facilities right now. The lawsuits keep coming. The websites keep multiplying. The filings keep naming new people. Every dollar spent on legal fees, every hour spent on discovery, every week lost to depositions and motions and appeals is a dollar and an hour and a week that did not go toward the children this movement was built to protect.

It is time to move forward. Not because anyone won. And not because the truth has been fully told or justice has been fully served. But because the cost of continuing is being paid by the community we both belong to, and that community cannot afford it anymore.

Sincerely,

Jenna Bulis

Regarding Receipts

Exhibit A: Scarpuzzi Chat, June 2021, produced during litigation

This is a Facebook Messenger conversation between Josh Scarpuzzi and Jeremy Whiteley, dated June 2021, produced by Josh Scarpuzzi during the course of litigation. In it, Whiteley states that BCS’s attorneys “just don’t know that their clients are lying and being dishonest to them,” advises that Jenna should file a claim on her homeowners insurance policy to cover her legal bills, and instructs Scarpuzzi “you didn’t hear this from me.” This conversation was produced as discovery evidence and is published here as part of the documented record. No personal identifying information beyond the names of the parties to the litigation has been included. Download here and here.

Exhibit B: FBI Referral Email Chain, February 11, 2022, redacted

The email was sent by Jenna Bulis to Vanessa Hughes and Jenny Magill on February 11, 2022, six weeks before Breaking Code Silence filed its federal complaint against Katherine McNamara. Chelsea Filer was copied. Jenny Magill acknowledged receipt and confirmed BCS would follow up with the agent. Email addresses and phone numbers have been redacted to protect privacy. Download here.

Exhibit C: March 20, 2022, Slack Channel, collaboration-repair

This is the private Slack channel between Jenna Bulis and Vanessa Hughes dated March 20, 2022, documenting the settlement discussions referenced in this post. It shows the offer made by BCS, Jenna Bulis’s explicit rejection of that offer, her stated non-negotiables, and her refusal to participate in BCS’s litigation strategy. Published here as documentary evidence of what those discussions actually contained. Download here.

Exhibit D: Evidence Preservation Letter, Julander Brown & Bollard, June 4, 2024, email redacted

This five-page letter was sent to me by M. Adam Tate of Julander Brown & Bollard on June 4, 2024, notifying me I might be named as a defendant or material witness in a planned malicious prosecution action. This is the same firm and the same attorney who filed the complaint in Whiteley v. DLA Piper LLP (US) et al. on May 7, 2026. Download here.

Exhibit E: My Response Email, June 4, 2024, redacted to remove email addresses

My written response to the evidence preservation letter, sent the same evening it was received. Email addresses have been redacted from the header to protect privacy. The body is unaltered. Download here.

Exhibit F: Chelsea Filer Letter to Julander Brown & Bollard, October 31, 2024, redacted to remove email addresses, published with Chelsea Filer’s consent

Sent by Chelsea Filer directly to attorneys Adam Tate and Catherine Close of Julander Brown & Bollard, with Katherine McNamara copied, on October 31, 2024. Published here with Chelsea Filer’s explicit consent. Email addresses have been redacted to protect privacy. The body is unaltered. Download here.

Exhibit G: Legal filing by Julander Brown & Bollard in case Breaking Code Silence v McNamara

In a filing to compel Slack chats from BCS regarding the settlement discussions with Chelsea Filer and Jenna Bulis stating a “theory” that due to the timing of the de-indexing and the dismissal of the Papciak case that there was “at least some possibility” that these discussions contained not only a plot to sue but a plot to de-index the website and blame Katherine McNamara. Download here.

Exhibit H: Correspondence with Julander Brown & Bollard re: TPO and Website Non-Compliance, January–March 2025, redacted to remove email addresses

Email correspondence with Adam Tate and Catherine Close of Julander Brown & Bollard regarding the Temporary Protection Order issued against Katherine McNamara and her continued operation of wwaspsurvivorstruth.com and breakingcodesilencelawsuit.com. Correspondence includes a request that the firm accept service on Ms. McNamara’s behalf. Mr. Tate responded that the firm does not represent Ms. McNamara “as it relates to this issue.” Download here.

Exhibit I: Instagram Conversation with Jeremy Whiteley, September 4, 2024

Screenshot of a direct message conversation on Instagram between Jenna Bulis and Jeremy Whiteley, dated September 4, 2024, regarding breakingcodesilencelawsuit.com. In the conversation, Whiteley states: “When BCS filed this frivolous lawsuit they issued a press release. And a news site picked it up. So due that I have I have to have my side of the story out there to protect my career. Unfortunately this site will not [sic] becoming down because of that. And my legal team has advised me if that. I am only doing what my lawyers have told me to do.” Download here. 

The purpose of this letter is to ensure that a complete, accurate, and chronologically documented factual record is publicly available with respect to the allegations made about me in Paragraph 28 of Whiteley v. DLA Piper LLP (US) et al. I stand by every statement made herein and in all my prior posts published at bcsfacts.com. Should any party seek to compel my testimony, deposition, or production of documents in any litigation arising from the matters addressed herein, I intend to vigorously contest such efforts and to seek all available damages, costs, fees, and other remedies arising from that compelled involvement as a continuation of the pattern of legal harassment directed at me and documented throughout this record.

Disclaimer: This post is a personal response to false allegations published in a sworn court filing. It is published on a personal platform in accordance with First Amendment protections as a matter of public record correction. All factual statements are based on the author’s personal knowledge. Linked documents are authentic records. Redacted images have had personal identifying information removed to protect privacy. This post is not intended to harass, defame, or misrepresent any individual and does not constitute legal advice. For the full disclaimer governing this site, see the disclaimer page at bcsfacts.com.