Chuck Johnson won’t deny impersonating @BuzzFeedNews’ @jtes to doxx an alleged assault victim http://t.co/F0MruwAiFh pic.twitter.com/cyv5TkXk0C

— Adam Serwer (@AdamSerwer) June 1, 2015

I had emailed Johnson five days before Josie was contacted by someone claiming to be me. I was looking to report out who was responsible for the posters hanging around Columbia of Emma Sulkowicz and the words “Pretty Little Liar.” There was speculation that Johnson was involved, so I asked him if he had anything to do with the posters or their complementary Twitter account @fakerape. (Johnson has also registered the domain fakeraperegistry.com.)

“I thought we were clear,” Johnson replied. “I don’t answer inquiries from a cat pornography site that doxxed an innocent man for exercising his constitutional rights.” (He was referring to a BuzzFeed story from last fall that reported a member of the fraternity at the heart of the Rolling Stone University of Virginia story had hired a lawyer known for representing college men accused of rape.)

“Good luck on your witch hunt,” he wrote. “I wish you nothing but failure.”

I called Johnson on Monday, about a week after learning about the email sent to Josie. He hung up on me as soon as I explained why I was calling. Then he texted me: 𠇊s a rule I don’t participated in any interviews with BuzzFeed. Cat pornographers aren’t journalists.” Over text message, I asked him three more times if he impersonated me using the address jtes1984@gmail.com. As before, Johnson didn’t take the opportunity to deny he impersonated me using that email address. He restated his refusal to answer the question. I emailed him again to let him know this story was about to be published.

“Once again I do not answer inquiries from BuzzFeed,” he replied. “I would be very careful if you accuse me of committing a crime with the lack of evidence you’ve presented here.”

Again he did not deny the impersonation.