The Atlantic cuts ties with writer Yascha Mounk over rape accusations

February 6, 2024

The Atlantic magazine said it has cut ties with one of its prominent contributors after he was accused of raping another journalist nearly three years ago.

Celeste Marcus, a managing editor at the culture and politics journal Liberties, took to her X social media page and alleged that Yascha Mounk, the 41-year-old German-born political scientist and author, raped her in her apartment in June 2021.

When reached by The Post, Mounk said: “I am aware of the horrendous allegation against me. It is categorically untrue.”

Marcus on Sunday posted a screenshot on X of a Jan. 8 email she sent to Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg and the magazine’s executive editor Adrienne La France.

“I’ve just published in Liberties, where I serve as managing editor, an essay about rape which includes a memoir of my own rape,” Marcus wrote in the email.

“It has been two and a half years since the rape, and I believe it is past time for you to know that the rapist was Yascha Mounk.”

Marcus told Goldberg and LaFrance that “you have a rapist on the staff of your illustrious publication.”

“He raped me in my apartment after midnight on June 25th, 2021,” she wrote in the essay, indicating that the alleged incident occurred in Washington DC. “Believe me, this is not a wild or mischievous allegation.”

In her essay, Marcus added that she didn’t report the rape to the police “because I was broken and could barely function at the time. … In all likelihood it would have yielded only more pain, and only for me.”

Mounk is a freelance journalist whose byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Slate, and Zeit online. He has become known for his skepticism of “woke” ideology and “cancel culture.”

Last year, Mounk published the book “The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time,” which criticized overemphasis in liberal politics on race, gender, and sexuality. Mounk also runs a podcast called “The Good Fight,” which is described as “the podcast that searches for the ideas, policies and strategies that can beat authoritarian populism.”

Anna Bross, a spokesperson for The Atlantic, released a statement on Sunday saying that the magazine was “aware of the allegation concerning a freelance contributor.”

“The accused freelance contributor is not an employee of The Atlantic,” Bross said.

“We have not published any new work by the freelance contributor since being made aware of the allegation and we suspended our relationship with the freelance contributor last month when we first learned of the accusation.”

In the most recent edition of Liberties, Marcus wrote a piece titled “After Rape: A Guide for the Tormented.”

Marcus did not name Mounk in the essay, but she did reveal his identity in an X post that included the screenshot of the email sent to Goldberg and LaFrance.

According to Marcus’ essay, Mounk told her “That was not rape.”

In a statement to The Post, Marcus criticized The Atlantic for not keeping her updated.

“I sent Mr. Goldberg my essay, which is in no small part about the wreckage wrought by being treated as if my rape was an insignificant trauma,” Marcus wrote in the statement emailed to The Post.

“He chose to withhold transparency about action taken — if any was indeed taken — after my allegation was made.”

Marcus told The Post in her statement: “I can hardly overstate how painful that choice was for me.”

“I had prepared myself for the pain an investigation would surely yield, pain which would be mollified by the fact that I would have opportunity to submit evidence and make my case.”

“I had not prepared myself to be ignored.”

The Post has sought additional comment from The Atlantic.