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Michael Tracey, Plaintiff

v.

Jessica Reed Kraus, Defendant

Case No. 25-PLAG-0925

JUDGMENT

The Court finds:

Defendant copied substantial portions of Plaintiff’s work with only trivial edits.

Defendant failed to provide attribution.

Defendant profited from the appropriation.

VERDICT: GUILTY of plagiarism.

SENTENCE:

12-month suspension from Substack leaderboard.

Pinned public apology.

Retroactive attribution in all affected posts.

SO ORDERED.

/s/ HON. JUDGE JUDY

Presiding, Court of Substack Integrity

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Shady's avatar

Case closed!

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RunnerGirl66's avatar

The problem is Substack doesn't seem to care!! It's probably because she's making so much money for them.

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Kirby Sommers's avatar

For what its worth this woman is one of the "mommy bloggers" who flew to Washington, DC where they were handed the first batch of nothing-Epstein-documents.

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Michael Tracey's avatar

Wow. You are correct.

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Kirby Sommers's avatar

Yes, I've been on top of the Epstein thing for a long, long time. You even took a screen shot of my now vanished Twitter account from years ago when Virginia and I used to speak, DM frequently.

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Jessica Reed Kraus's avatar

Kirby, I've credited your work too. It's unfortunate to be attacked by people I support and share. I thought by linking you and Michael I was helping push traffic your way. I guess I was wrong.

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Tim N's avatar

You plagarized the work of a good journalist and were passing it off as your own. Plagarism isn't "sharing," and stealing the work of a journalist and insinuating it's yours isn't "support." Do you really not get that?

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Magic Girl's avatar

You plagiarized Michael Tracey's valuable work. None of us will sit here quietly.

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Sir Baxter's avatar

Plagiarism is theft, Jessica!! Simply giving another journalist/writer credit doesn’t make it OK! Too bad you “fired”!the excellent writers you had previously working with you. Oh what a tangled web you weave…🙄

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Kirby Sommers's avatar

First, I don't know you. Second, neither you or anyone from your neck of the woods have ever DM'd me or contacted me in any way to let me know you were or are using my work. It would be helpful for people who slip into any of my platforms to tell me up front what you (or they) are there for. Please send me a link (as a reply here) and let me know where you have cited me and my work. Thanks. P.S. Someone just quickly sent me a link to a SCREEN IMAGE someone very likely sent you stating that I am upset that CANDACE OWENS STOLE 90% of my work -- (which is true -- including a MISTAKE I made) -- however, included in this screen image is a FALLACY from someone who made a bold statement that is INACCURATE. Really, you need to get a grip and check your sources before naming me with someone's insane comment.

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BookWench's avatar

You were wrong by stealing Michael's work.

Stop trying to act like a victim here.

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K4OU's avatar

She says there’s no victims so why does she care about a binder?

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Implausibly Convenient Alibi's avatar

I saw that this morning - she posted huge swathes of your work on Instagram. She calls this 'digesting' and then laying it out 'in her words'. Which I think translates to: takes out big words that other Left Coast mommies can understand. It also translates into plagiarism. She avoids posting anywhere that she can get called out on her BS.

She's tight with Meghan McCain and Tulsi, and yes was one of the Epstein dossier photoshoot participants. Now that you've called her out, she's going to get breathless AND self-righteous AND indignant AND AND then she's going to say it's ALL FINE and JUST TRY AND COME AFTER HER AND AND AND...

You get the picture. Try not to get sucked into the vortex, she's a hanger-on.

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Michael Tracey's avatar

Can you link the Instagram posts you're referring to? And what do you mean she is "tight" with Meghan McCain and Tulsi?

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Implausibly Convenient Alibi's avatar

I just took screenshots, but if you go to her Instagram 'Stories' they are still there from about 16 hours ago. I'll email you the screenshots. @houseinhabit

Edited: she was at Tulsi's confirmation hearings in her girl squad with Meghan McCain and a few other mean girls. Then she published pictures from the private dinner upstairs at a very swank DC restaurant in Tulsi's honor afterwards. Lots of hugs and kisses and white wine.

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Gutterdandy's avatar

Yeah, she's very much into the jet setting world these days. Too busy hugging and kissing to write her own stuff, it seems.

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Sir Baxter's avatar

And, wait for it…queue the next “poor me, I’m the victim” post from Jessica!! 😭😭

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Magic Girl's avatar

Kraus has come onto this comment section and yep she's doing just that!! 10:10 a.m mountain time Sep. 9, 2025.

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Jessica Reed Kraus's avatar

Why does it matter who I'm friends with? Why attack someone on the same page here - meaning to promote Michael to a new audience. I just discovered him this week and was impressed by the Epstein work. I even added his book titles I believe.

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DECQuine's avatar

Jess, you went about it wrong.

You know how to fix it, if you're inclined.

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Sir Baxter's avatar

By promote, did you mean to say copy or plagiarize? You cannot excuse your behavior simply by stating you agree with his stance. And, by saying how you threw some crumbs his way!! Your behavior makes me question how many others you have used in this same manner? Is this why your promised deep-dives take so long to write or never even come at all! 🤔

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BookWench's avatar

Because you stole his work!

When you blatantly plagiarize someone, don't be surprised when people start digging into your background.

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Emilie Hagen's avatar

Substack automatically subscribes everyone to her when you sign up for the app. Also if you unsubscribe they resubscribe you. People have been complaining about this for years but nothing is ever done

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Michael Tracey's avatar

Really? Can you show any proof of this?

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Emilie Hagen's avatar

Yes- I have over 50 DMs of people saying Substack won’t let them unsubscribe to her. They automatically subscribed me to her the other day when I never went to her page. Also if you want to see for yourself, sign up on Substack with a new email and you’ll see she’s an account they automatically subscribe you to unless you click the box and unmark it (most people don’t do that bc they don’t see it when signing up)

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Michael Tracey's avatar

Please send me the info by DM or email (mtracey8 @ gmail)

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K4OU's avatar

The great thing is THIS comment section is she can’t delete comments and block anyone who pushes back like she did to thousands of her paid Substack followers and her IG followers. Not even rude pushback. Just asking questions when things didn’t add up. She claims curiosity is not a crime while simultaneously blocking anyone who asks questions. She constantly plays the victim and will NEVER admit when she got something wrong. She will continue to delete articles instead of owning up and double-down and delete and block. She’s a classic pathological narcissist and pushes her own narratives claiming to be a truth teller but does stuff like this. She is a grifter. She continues to burn bridges and cleans out anyone who says anything negative so her other followers can’t see it. I’m not one of those people who just devote time to talking crap on her. I’ve just never followed anyone for so long who is terrible to her paid subs and followers and completely contradicts herself in every hypocritical way. She’s just not a good human and I don’t say that loosely. Shes mean and awful to the people closest to her. She steals other people’s work and gaslights into trying to make them think SHE was helping THEM. The only good thing out of this is now I’m following you. You’re a great writer whether I agree with you or not! I appreciate all aspects. 😊

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Laura's avatar

I relate to all the above so much! Well articulated.

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Chuck Campbell's avatar

Tracey is a fucking hack. Lower your expectations…

lower

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elizabeth nickson's avatar

Plagiarism like this is always always a sign of writer exhaustion, out of control ambition, and pushing yourself before you are ready. Uncorrected, it’s the end of a career. I read Jessica at the beginning, now her thing is just churning gossip. And that is frankly creepy.

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John Scigliano's avatar

Good to call her out. Next step? Need to take her writing down off substack. Criminal theft!

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Gutterdandy's avatar

I used to read Kraus's "House Inhabit" blog during the whole Marilyn Manson $MeToo "scandal" that fell apart when one of his main accusers admitted under oath that the whole thing was a scam designed to end Manson's career. She was alright on that issue. Overall though, former "liberal" Kraus is too interested in becoming one of the "beautiful people" Manson once sang about. She did seem to borrow liberally from other online sources on the Manson case, and as someone who has been plagiarized himself, I do offer condolences to MT on this. It feels quite shitty when one writer does this to a supposed "colleague."

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Lisa N.'s avatar

Wow, egregious.

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RunnerGirl66's avatar

If you want receipts for all of Jessica's plagiarism, DM HouseInHorror on IG.

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Mike Solana's avatar

I think we've seen a proliferation of this sort of thing because AI has made it very easy to copy / paste and "please write a version of this that contains all of the information but is worded in my language" etc.

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Michael Tracey's avatar

This looks more like manual plagiarism to me. I think AI would've done a more convincing job.

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Chuck Campbell's avatar

One pos plagiarizes another POS. Both crying about it. Is it Karma Christmas?!?!

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elizabeth nickson's avatar

The block quote function on SS is VERY easy to use - it even makes the page look and read better.

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Brittany's avatar

This is not her first plagiarism complaint. And I’m sure it won’t be her last.

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DECQuine's avatar

Yeah, but sometimes Dreams take Decades.

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

Very unflattering, and unethical. Why write if you can't use your own voice?

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Magic Girl's avatar

Not just the voice but all the work that went into Michael's investigative expose of the Epstein Circus!!

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David Cashion's avatar

Grifters are not honest people ?

Who knew ?

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Lisa Jackson's avatar

She is the Copy & Paste Queen of San Clemente!

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Lisa Jackson's avatar

May I suggest you get in touch with houseinhoror on IG? She's the keeper of all HIH receipts! https://www.instagram.com/houseinhorror_?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

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