Producer and podcast host Jared Monroe, also known as "Not Gay Jared," accused his former employer of legal abuse and harassment.
Monroe detailed his experience and complaints with a former employer in a fifteen-minute video shared to X on Tuesday.
"I'm currently being legally abused and intimidated into silence by a former employer," Monroe said. "This has been going on for a while now, and it simply cannot live in darkness for another day."
Last October, Monroe said he was served a cease and desist letter from his former employer which threatened "severe legal action in the form of a lawsuit" and demanded Monroe "cease communication with [his] friends." The former employer also served Monroe a Rule 202 petition, which grants the ability to perpetuate or obtain a person's testimony for use in an anticipated lawsuit or investigate a potential claim or suit by or against the petitioner.
Although Monroe did not directly name his former employer, many deduced the employer in question was Steven Crowder, host of Louder With Crowder, which Monroe produced and co-hosted from 2014 to 2018.
Monroe's former employer also reportedly demanded he turn over documents from "all communications" with many of his friends, which included other former employees, along with other communications in other forms with other unnamed persons over an unlimited period of time.
The former Crowder employee declined to comply with the request.
"I have seen how this former employer handles legal issues, and I knew that once I opened the door to legal abuse, it would never ever be shut," Monroe said. "This is how they operate."
Monroe went on to claim other fellow former employees of the unnamed employer were currently being exploited and abused by legal means.
"This kind of harassment at the hands of the powerful isn't just designed to financially ruin somebody, it's designed to cripple their soul," he continued, adding he also did not want to violate the trust and relationship with friends by complying with the request.
On Friday, Monroe received another notice that his former employer had been awarded their request for Monroe's mandatory oral deposition and private communication records.
Monroe said his former employer cited an alleged violation of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which Monroe signed with his employer upon his departure, as their reasoning for seeking legal recourse. Monroe said his decision to leave the employer was due to a "toxic and abusive work environment," adding the workplace was "rife with sexual misconduct, degeneracy, and aggression."
"Starting from the day I delivered my notice of resignation, I was put on the phone with company lawyers and the good cop, bad cop coercion campaign to get my signature on an NDA was well underway," Monroe said. "I was told many lies throughout this process. I immediately hired my own legal counsel, and by the grace of God understanding my predicament, he even agreed to work for half of his normal rate."
However, Monroe's former employer argued Monroe could not continue his work in media in the United States or abroad for two years following his departure.
"This is not because I had voluntarily signed some sort of non-compete in my original employment agreements, it was because they decided a non-solicitation clause that was in said original agreement would retroactively be interpreted as the broadest and strictest non-compete one could draft," he continued.
Monroe was also instructed to turn over his Twitter account, which Monroe had owned and operated since 2009, which his former employer claimed was the company's "intellectual property." The former employer also claimed Monroe's personal production equipment, which Monroe said he had owned for years prior to his employment, was also "company property."
"After producing every receipt to validate my ownership, a vicious lie that I stole from the company was born and disseminated by my employer," Monroe said. "All I wanted to do was peacefully leave. It was clear by my employer, though, that this was not only unacceptable, but that I needed to be punished for doing so."
Monroe said he was averse to signing the employer's NDA upon separation, though was pressured into following through out of fear of mounting costs to fight future legal abuse and harassment by his former employer.
Per the NDA, Monroe was allowed to use his skill set to pursue employment at another "specific" company. However, Monroe said the provision proved to be short-lived as his former employer served Monroe with another cease and desist and was "unlawfully terminated" from his subsequent employer as well.
"Free speech matters ... and these kinds of NDAs right here stemming from this are unquestionably unconstitutional," Monroe said. "I will not live with the burden of this unconstitutional NDA over my head for the rest of my life. Especially when information I have can be used to aid other victims escape their own abusive situations, which is the context for which this former employer feels they 'caught me' breaking my agreement."
"What I'm afraid of is legal harassment in perpetuity, not the truth," he continued. "Only one side of this ordeal is spending a fortune to hide truth and punish anyone who dares speak up for themselves or other victims."
Monroe went on to discuss that his legal fees fighting the new set of notices from his former employer had reached over tens of thousands of dollars and could easily surpass hundreds of thousands in total over several years of litigation. Monroe also announced he was seeking donations to continue his legal battle in hopes of his former employer being ordered to release him and other former employees from their "unconstitutional" NDAs.
"I will be using these donations to fight back and file a counter motion placing my unconstitutional NDA before a judge to have it dissolved in its entirety," Monroe said. "I want my First Amendment rights back. I want to stop this cycle of abuse, and I want truth to be known."
Monroe has launched a GoFundMe campaign and has currently received over $30,000 of his $100,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.
"No more darkness. Victims of the cruel and powerful deserve a voice," Monroe concluded. "Truth is the sword that slays the monsters, so let there be truth."
