Hack Reporter Turns on Journalistic Crusaders and Family Court Reformers
By Rick LaRivière with Michael Volpe and Richard Luthmann
A civil war has erupted within the family court reform movement, now dubbed “Susan Bassi’s Journalistic Treason” by Family Court Fraud Warrior Project “General” Dave Weigel.
Why? Susan Bassi, a California investigative reporter who built her name exposing family court corruption, committed a cardinal sin of journalism. She “torpedoed the play.”
Bassi was party to a nasty divorce case in Santa Clara County and spent the last decade championing “court transparency.” However, her recent actions are unthinkable.
Julie Holburn, an Orange County journalist and protective mother, fights to expose her children’s abuse by an ex-husband. Holburn’s case is disturbing – she claims Costa Mesa police stonewalled her and protected corrupt court players, while her kids were “chased, attacked, and held hostage” by their father.
Holburn wants police records, including bodycam footage, that will show the abuse. To date, Costa Mesa PD has failed to comply with California’s open public documents law, the California Public Records Act (CPRA), which requires government agencies to provide public access to records they maintain, unless an exemption applies. It’s designed to ensure transparency by guaranteeing the public’s right to inspect and obtain copies of government documents.
Costa Mesa PD said Holburn wasn’t entitled to the documents because she wasn’t a “real journalist,” an argument as old as time used to shield government corruption from the light of day. When Glenn Greenwald first broke the Edward Snowden story, some U.S. officials and pundits publicly questioned whether he qualified as a “real journalist.”
Enter Richard Luthmann, a Florida-based muckraker known for bulldog tactics, and Dave Weigel, a Wall Street whiz turned activist leading a project to “turn pain into proof” of family court fraud. They came to Holburn’s defense.
Luthmann blasted Bassi, accusing her of committing a “cardinal sin of journalism” by torpedoing Julie Holburn’s case and “selling out the truth for her own ego and alliances.”
Weigel also blasted Bassi’s actions as a betrayal of “protective parents and fraud warriors,” accusing her of selling out the very victims she publicly vows to help.
“Just wait until we expose the full depths of this journalistic treason,” Weigel fumed, vowing to hold Bassi and other “turncoats” like her accountable.
Once allies in a common cause, these muckrackers and crusaders are now at each other’s throats in a coast-to-coast spectacle of outrage, with Bassi cast as a traitor against the family court reform movement.
Story Snub Sparks Uproar – “Don’t Torpedo the Play!”
The flashpoint of this feud is Bassi’s shocking refusal to cover Julie Holburn’s story. Despite Holburn’s pleas – and despite operating in Holburn’s backyard – Bassi flatly declined to report on the case. She cited a “standing policy” against covering “litigants or ex-spouses,” claiming such coverage “serves no legitimate purpose” and might invite defamation.
Holburn was stunned. Bassi had followed Holburn’s ordeal for years, even viewing raw video of the children’s abuse as it happened. Yet when it came time to shine a light, Bassi went dark.
The snub felt like a betrayal to Holburn and her kids.
It soon emerged that Bassi had personal ties to Holburn’s adversaries: she’s friends with Christi Black, a woman Holburn says infiltrated her camp under false pretenses and leaked info to Holburn’s ex’s attorney. Bassi was warned of Black’s alleged scheme back in January, emails show, yet she distanced herself and kept Holburn’s story in the shadows.
The real bombshell came when Holburn was denied access to public records on her case. Luthmann jumped in to help, firing off emails to Costa Mesa Police demanding they release the records “without further delay,” and CC’ing fellow journalists – including Bassi – to put pressure on the authorities.
But Bassi did the unthinkable: she interjected to “torpedo” the effort.
“Please take me off this thread. I am not associated with…Julie Holburn. I have no idea who this is… It is not how we do records requests,” Bassi wrote to police, washing her hands of Holburn.
Her disavowal undercut the united front and emboldened the stonewalling.
Michael Volpe compared Susan Bassi’s actions to a near-miss in journalism history involving Nellie Bly. Bly, the pioneering investigative reporter, famously went undercover in the late 1800s inside New York’s Blackwell’s Island insane asylum.
During her covert work, another reporter recognized her. She whispered, “Don’t say anything, I have a play.” That journalist stayed silent, letting her finish the investigation.
The result was Bly’s exposé “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” one of the most groundbreaking stories in American history.
Volpe’s point was simple: when another journalist has a story in motion, you don’t blow it up. By jumping in to disavow Julie Holburn’s public records request, Volpe argued, Susan Bassi did exactly the opposite—she torpedoed the play instead of letting it land.
“Don’t torpedo the case, Mike – that’s the point,” Luthmann scolded on-air, livid that Bassi had broken ranks.
Bassi even chastised Holburn for going public, warning she would “seek the appropriate remedy” in court if the attacks continued.
Holburn, feeling muzzled, fired back in an email now echoing across the internet: “You have violated the most precious and delicate nature of trust… your conduct & disregard for victims… is disgraceful and heinous.”
Susan Bassi’s Journalistic Treason: Luthmann Blasts ‘Trollop’ Hypocrisy
What began as a professional disagreement has exploded into a full-blown grudge match, complete with public name-calling, legal threats, and lurid allegations. With co-host Michael Volpe on “The Unknown Podcast,” Richard Luthmann unloaded on Bassi. The Florida firebrand called Bassi “a liar” who pretends to be a transparency crusader but “went out of her way” to bury Holburn’s story.
Luthmann didn’t mince words. He branded Bassi “a self-righteous, elitist trollop” who harbors a “documented…malice” against Holburn that blinds her to corruption in her own backyard. He even joked that “she’s a bigger bitch than Kyle’s mom on South Park.”
In a fiery email (widely shared online), Luthmann warned Bassi to “not set foot in Florida” or face an immediate lawsuit. He cited Florida’s defamation laws and demanded a retraction after Bassi had privately sneered that his “practices do not reflect the standards of legitimate journalism.”
Bassi’s holier-than-thou attitude lit Luthmann’s fuse.
“She’s using supposed ethics as a sword and shield,” he griped, noting that “there’s no such thing as [journalism] ethics” beyond truth versus defamation.
He and Volpe skewered Bassi’s timidity – accusing her of refusing important stories out of fear of being sued, “not very courageous” for a self-proclaimed watchdog. The mudslinging quickly turned to Bassi’s own integrity. Luthmann lambasted her for “fawning” over TikTok while taking money from the China-linked platform, implying she’s been compromised by CCP cash.
“By accepting money from TikTok, you are engaged in kompromat,” he thundered, accusing Bassi of letting Chinese influence taint her coverage.
He also exposed Bassi’s cozy role at the nonprofit Davis Vanguard, where she sits on the board and wields donor funds. Internal emails show Bassi demanded an unfavorable Holburn article be scrubbed from the Vanguard site – calling the piece “irresponsible” and threatening legal action in the name of “our advertisers and donors.”
According to Luthmann, Bassi even told sources to pay up via “donations” if they wanted coverage.
“It appears she’s a psycho with a ‘style guide’ and the ear of the donors,” Luthmann quipped, saying Bassi’s pay-to-play whiff utterly betrays the “standards of legitimate journalism” she claims to uphold.
He pointed to a court ruling against Bassi – a judge upheld a domestic violence restraining order after finding Bassi sent her ex-husband a barrage of abusive, harassing emails.
“Get your own house in order, Susan, before you preach ethics,” was the essence of Luthmann’s tirade.
Susan Bassi’s Journalistic Treason: Family Court Reformers Take a Stand
Meanwhile, after the broadcast, Dave Weigel piled on with righteous fury from the wings. The Family Court Fraud Warrior Project leader decried Bassi’s retreat as treason against the movement. Weigel blasted Bassi for “failing to stand up for warrior parents” like Holburn, arguing that her betrayal handed abusers and officials a victory.
“We will not accept this journalistic treason,” Weigel declared, throwing down a gauntlet to Bassi and any others. “Journalists who refuse to stand up for warrior parents and protective families are complicit in the fraud model. They hand abusers and officials a victory by silence and sabotage.”
For her part, Susan Bassi remains defiant. She’s refused to retract a word – “You will get no retraction. See you in court,” she snapped in reply to Luthmann’s ultimatum.
Luthmann’s rejoinder? A crude final taunt: “Cowboy up, bitch!”
He even joked about serving her a “Susan Bassi Special” from Popeye’s (two fat thighs and a left wing) if she dares show up in Florida.
As the smoke clears, Bassi’s one-time ally Julie Holburn is still fighting for her children and the truth. She says Bassi’s high-minded crusade was a sham all along – that the celebrated advocate “turned her back when it really counted.”
In Holburn’s words, “You have violated the most precious trust… your disregard for victims is disgraceful and heinous.”
