Background left: Conservative conspiracist Jacob Wohl gives an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 2, 2023. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images). Background right: NOV 1, 2018: Jack Burkman speaks to the media about alleged allegations against Robert Mueller at the Holiday Inn in Rosslyn Va. (Credit Image: © John Middlebrook/CSM via ZUMA Wire) (Cal Sport Media via AP Images). Inset: Tom Birner is seen on hidden camera video on the YouTube sting show “Predator D.C.” (YouTube)
Right-wing scammers Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl are facing a $5 million lawsuit by a Washington, D.C., elementary school teacher over an alleged plot to cast him as a pedophile in a video sting in the style of “To Catch a Predator,” a reality TV series in which men arriving at a house to have sex with a minor are secretly confronted and recorded by hidden cameras.
Tom Patrick Birner said in a 15-page federal complaint filed Wednesday that in May 2022, he met a girl on Tinder who went by the name “Emily” and said she was 19 years old. After the two exchanged phone numbers and some texts, “Emily” encouraged Birner to meet her in Maryland and told him that she was actually 16 years old, according to the filing. Birner, however, says that he believed the girl to be over 16, because she “looked and acted over the age of 16.”
The following month, said Birner, he went to a home in Edgewater, Maryland, that “Emily” said belonged to her parents, where upon arrival, “Emily” told him “to take his clothes off and to sit on the couch in the home and to masturbate while she watched.” The scene Birner described in the filing then unfolded into a sting-style operation designed to create the illusion that law enforcement caught Birner in a sex act with an underage girl.
“After a moment or two, ‘Emily’ excused herself and went upstairs. After ‘Emily’ left the room, Defendants Burkman and Wohl entered the room where Plaintiff was seated along with a camera crew who began filming the Plaintiff while he was naked without warning and without his permission,” the complaint says.
Birner said in the complaint that he believes “Emily” is really Storm Moya Bodernik, born on March 3, 1999, and that Bodernik is the person who spoke to police after Wohl and Burkman summoned them to the house.
“As the Plaintiff was sitting on the couch, naked, the Defendants began interrogating the Plaintiff about why he was at the house and why he was naked with an underage girl,” the complaint said. “The Defendants brought their employees, who were men dressed in security attire into the room where the Plaintiff was seated to intimidate him.”
Birner said the interrogation and accusations of sexual misconduct went on for an hour, despite Wohl and Burkman knowing the accusations were false. Birner said that during this interrogation, one of the duo’s employees, posing as a law enforcement officer, searched his backpack without permission, and found two Adderall pills.
“The Defendants, or their employees, called the police and claimed they had a person with illegal drugs and a suspicion of being a child abuser or pedophile,” said Birner.
Per the complaint, police arrived and arrested Birner, who was ultimately charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, to which he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to community service.
Later, Birner said, Wohl and Burkman uploaded edited videos of the incident to their YouTube show “Predator DC.”
“The scenario the Defendants constructed was entirely false and set up for the purpose of entrapping and humiliating the Plaintiff for their own benefit and for the publicity of their web show Predator D.C.,” said Birner, who noted that the allegations against him were not only false, but that under Maryland law, it is not a crime for an adult to have consensual sexual relations with a female who is 16 years of age or older.
The YouTube video, posted on April 6, 2023, starts showing the Plaintiff being arrested. Then, on-screen text shows statements, “We lure them in,” “We catch them in the act,” and “We bust them.”
The video also shows saying, “Every parent’s worse nightmare,” as Biner is arrested.
Birner said that Wohl and Burkman contacted his employer and girlfriend with the “absolutely false” allegations of misconduct, and that as a result of the defendants’ defamation, he was fired from his job as an elementary school teacher, and continues to suffer from anxiety, fear, shame and stress.
“Despite the Defendants’ false allegations, the Plaintiff is not a predator,” Birner said bluntly in his filing. “He is not a pedophile. He is not a danger to society. He did not intend to prey upon an underage teen.”
Birner brought multiple claims against Wohl and Burkman for defamation, conspiracy, tortious interference with contract, and intentional infliction of emotional distress and is seeking $5 million in damages.
Law&Crime reached out to representatives for the parties, but did not immediately receive a response.
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