Alyssa Mercante, a Senior Editor at Kotaku, sent YouTuber Smash JT a cease and desist letter alleging that he defamed and harassed her.
Alyssa Mercante on X
In a YouTube upload, Smash JT announced, “Alyssa Mercante has now sent an official cease and desist from her ‘lawyer’ about how I need to apologize for things I’ve said to her because they’re defamatory in nature, which is interesting because everything I’ve said has been in response and using what she’s said to form my opinion and explain why I feel that way about her.”
From there, Smash JT addressed Mercante’s lawyer, Lane Haygood, who sent the letter. “This guy struck me as everything that an ambulance chaser lawyer would be,” he said. “That would take literally any case that anyone brought to him as long as he thought, ‘Hey, maybe I can make a buck or two off of this. So sure, I’ll throw a letter out there. What could hurt? We’ll send some scares to him. We’ll make him admit in the guilt that he is not guilty of and then maybe we can use that against him to push even further and try to get more.'”
Then addressing Mercante, he said, “And something Alyssa clearly hasn’t learned yet is her words and things she says and does can be and will be used against her in a court of law and she doesn’t really want to go down this road.”
Smash JT via Smash JT YouTube
From there, he shared the letter that Haygood sent to him on behalf of Mercante accusing him of defamation and harassment and demanding he retract a number of statements and issue an apology to Mercante.
He shared the letter to X that asserts, “Jeff, We write to you today as counsel for Alyssa Mercante. You have made unlawfully harassing and/or defamatory statements about Alyssa. We are writing to request that you voluntarily retract them and publish an apology (the language of which we will suggest to you) before we pursue other legal avenues against you.”
He responded to this section, “No, I haven’t and you can’t state that as fact when you haven’t proven it in a court of law.”
Here is the letter in full (2/2) pic.twitter.com/1smRy0fJBc
— Smash JT (@SmashJT) September 27, 2024
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Regarding the accusation of defamation, it specifically references a number of posts Smash JT made on X. First, it points to one he posted on March 30th where he wrote, “Whorification? What’s that? Like what Alyssa Mercante does sucking d**ks in her off time for money?’
“Whorification”? What’s that?
Like what @alyssa_merc does sucking dicks in her off time for money? https://t.co/qjYlGyRx7x— Smash JT (@SmashJT) March 30, 2024
Second, it points to another he made on April 1st, where he wrote, ‘How do I put this in a way you’d grasp? The Amico was about as much fun as sucking 20 d**ks in a row… but instead of being paid for it, I paid 10K to do it.”
I don’t need excuses because I don’t create echo chambers.
How do I put this in a way you’d grasp?
The Amico was about as much fun as sucking 20 dicks in a row… but instead of being paid for it, I paid 10K to do it, so no, not worth it & I regret the decision to partake.— Smash JT (@SmashJT) April 1, 2024
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Smash JT commented, “Notice how they don’t say what Alyssa said because then that would implicate her as egging me on trying to get a response because her initial tweet on me there was making fun of my initial investment. So I figured, ‘Okay, that opened the doorway to make fun of her.’ But, again, with Alyssa that only goes one way.”
Next, the document points to two YouTube videos and his SmashJT.com website where Smash JT made similar comments. It specifically notes he said, “Alyssa Mercante […] has since come forward stating that she used to be a sex worker, sucking d**ks for money before working at Kotaku.”
It then claims, “those statements are factually false.” Smash JT reacted to this questioning, “Are they? Because she’s said things herself that alluded to sucking d**ks for money, which is where I got it from. How much research did you do before you wrote this letter, Mr. Lane Haygood?
Haygood then claims Smash JT knew the statements were false before he made them. He responded, “No I didn’t, actually, because of what she said, I assumed she was telling the truth.”
The lawyer went on to assert, “These statements are not mere insults, trash talk, or rhetorical hyperbole such as would render them protected speech.” Smash JT reacted, “Yeah, they were.”
Alyssa Mercante on X
Haygood then accuses, “Futhermore, because commenting on Alyssa and her work has proven so lucrative for you, there is incentive for you to continually ‘up the ante’ in your criticisms of her.”
Smash JT replied, “I haven’t talked about Alyssa in like a month. If I was making so much money talking about her, don’t you think based off of what you’re saying here that I would never stop talking about her if that was my goal. This doesn’t make any sense.”
Screenshot of Smash JT via Smash JT YouTube
Next, Haygood accuses Smash JT of “recklessly disregard[ing] good taste and the truth in an effort to provide the content that sustains your social media presence. This is the very definition of ‘actual malice.'”
Smash JT replied, “If you’ve been watching my channel for awhile I focus on the truth. That is the goal of what I talk about when I cover things. Someone coming from Kotaku who does not do that is very interesting to point at me and say that I’m not focusing on the truth. It’s just fascinating.”
Alyssa Mercante via Smash JT YouTube
He then goes over the portion of the letter that demands a retraction of Smash JT’s comments and requests him to apologize. Specifically, it wants Smash JT to state, “It was wrong of me to suggest Alyssa Mercante has engaged in sexual contact for money. I let my rhetoric get away from me, and I did so hoping to inflame you, my audience. I apologize for spreading lies about Alyssa, and for doing so to manipulate you, my viewers.”
“So she’s trying to make me look like a liar and trying to expose me and what I’ve said to my audience as a horrible person and hopes to try to take me down because she’s lost any kind of credibility throughout this entire endeavor,” Smash JT responded. “So now she’s going the legal route trying to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to make him say something and threaten him with a lawsuit. That’ll make him really fail at life and that’ll be my first win to own the chuds!'”
Alyssa Mercante via Blerd Without Fear on YouTube
Next, he addresses Mercante’s harassment claim, which states, “In addition to the defamatory statements above, your continual posting about Alyssa, particularly in conjunction with your campaign to ‘End Kotaku’, constitutes a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that harasses the person and that serves no legitimate purpose and there constitutes harassment under … the California Penal Code.”
Smash JT replied, “This is coming from someone trying to threaten to sue me, for contacting my wife and trying to create a hostile environment in my home world, and trying to get us divorced by telling her how awful her husband is because she can’t stand to see someone else successful.”
Regarding, the accusation of “continual posting,” he said, “She’s been talking about me nonstop even after sending this letter. She still posts about me what feels like almost daily. Which is just fascinating to me that this is so one-sided that this guy is either willfully ignorant to her client or knows what she’s doing and is pretending that everything is perfectly fine on her side.”
Alyssa Mercante via The Aristocratic Utensil YouTube
As he got to the end of the letter, Smash JT declared, “That sounds like a direct threat if I do not follow this demand letter that you will be suing me and if that’s the case I have no option but to take up legal counsel and counter sue for everything you’re coming after me with. And, really again, Alyssa, I don’t want to go down this road with you. I’m telling you this is a bad idea for you.”
The letter then concludes, “Jeff, you are a family man yourself. Imagine your family in this situation. What would you want to happen?” He reacted, “What the f**k does my family have to do with this? How dare you bring that into this letter. How unprofessional could you be as a lawyer to say that at the end of this, to make me feel guilt, and make me feel bad, and make me feel like I’m the one in the wrong. You are a piece of s**t lawyer.”
“And holy crap if you guys do come after me with this, you will feel the wrath of hell. I will not stop and I genuinely mean that. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. And holy crap, Alyssa, you’re even stupider than I gave you credit for initially,” he concluded.
Alyssa Mercante via Blerd Without Fear! YouTUbe
What do you make of Mercante’s letter and Smash JT’s response?
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