USA Fencing board faces lawsuit alleging chair made false statements at DOGE hearing on trans athletes

Fox News

4 days ago

EXCLUSIVE: Two USA Fencing board of directors members are suing the other six members, alleging chair Damien Lehfeldt made false statements to congress at a May 7 Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee hearing on transgender athletes.
The lawsuit, which seeks to have Lehfeldt removed as USA Fencing chair, was filed on USA Fencing's behalf by the two plaintiff members.
The plaintiffs, Andrey Geva and Abdel Salem, each have long ties to the sport and organization.
Geva is a former U.S. National Coach who led the U.S. Women's Épée Team at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, before being elected to the board in 2024. Abdel competed for Egypt in individual and team épée events at the 1984 Summer Olympics, the former head fencing coach of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and in 1996 was named the U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year.
Now, they are taking the organization to court after alleging Lefheldt falsely announced Geva's resignation from the board at a meeting on June 7, and over several allegations involving the May 7 Doge hearing.
The May hearing was called in response to a viral incident where women's fencer Stephanie Turner kneeled to protest a transgender opponent, and was subsequently punished by USA Fencing. Lefheldt was the lone figure to testify on behalf of the organization.
The lawsuit claims Lehfeldt made "false and misleading claims" at the hearing, which now risk the organization being declassified as a national governing body (NGB).
"Defendant Lehfeldt's non-corporative demeanor in bad faith and untruthful and misleading statements at the congressional hearing on May 7, [2025] has prompted the Congress to consider decertifying USFA as an NGB, thus potentially risking Team USA's qualification in the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Game," the lawsuit states.
"His lies have alienated thousands of members in the fencing community who have provided more than 90% of USFA's revenues."
Geva claims he attempted to speak at the hearing as well, but alleges he faced "threats" aimed to "deter" him from it. Geva ultimately submitted a letter to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on May 2, expressing "opinion on biological men's advantage over women in fencing." Cruz's office had recently opened an investigation into USA Fencing over its transgender eligibility policy after the Turner incident.
The letter was then referenced during the DOGE hearing by subcommittee chairwoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene.
"'Transgender women's fencers have significant competitions in women's competitions,' he writes," Greene said during the hearing, reading from Geva's letter.
The lawsuit alleges Geva was then messaged by a fellow board member, blaming him for his honest personal opinion, and then two board members called for a "special board meeting intended to remove or otherwise discipline Plaintiff Geva."
USA Fencing has acknowledged the lawsuit in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"USA Fencing proudly serves its members — athletes, coaches, referees and clubs — across our community with absolute transparency and integrity. This derivative lawsuit misrepresents our organization, and we will vigorously defend the organization in court; any attempt to disparage them will be addressed appropriately," the statement read.
"Because litigation is ongoing, we cannot discuss details. Our focus remains unwavering: advancing fencing nationwide, supporting every member's success, and upholding the values of the Olympic and Paralympic movement."
The organization has been under immense national scrutiny following the release of the footage of Turner's protest on April 2.
Lefheldt's testimony at the May 7 hearing only intensified the criticism.
Lehfeldt, who was subpoenaed and did not come voluntarily, made elevated the controversy ahead of the hearing with a series of Instagram stories that were later blown up and used against him on the committee floor. In one post, which went viral before the hearing, he responded to a question that asked whether he was "okay" with putting female fencers at a disadvantage with a simple, brash answer: "Yeah."
Then, during the hearing, Lehfeldt admitted multiple times he regretted answering that way and admitted the question required a "more-nuanced" response.
At one point during the hearing, Lefheldt confessed to falsifying an email from a fictitious fencing mother "Dorothy" who disagreed with him and called those members with similar view of "Dorothy" "grand wizard" of Ku Klux Klan.
"It was a poor attempt at humor," Lehfeldt said.
Rep. Tim Burhcett, R-Tenn., asked Lehfeldt whether he would let his daughter fence against "a man." Lehfeldt suggested he would allow it while boasting about his organization's safety precautions.
"As long as the competitor has met all the hormonal requirements and complies with the policy, I would be okay with it," Lehfeldt said.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., suggested that Lehfeldt was "not" a man for his organization's gender eligibility policy.
"Real men protect women, you're not one," Mace said.
Mace even asked Lehfeldt to simply apologize to Turner for punishing the fencer, to which the chair declined and pointed out that Turner received a black card for her refusal.
Turner told Fox News Digital after the DOGE hearing that she would work to lobby leadership changes to USA Fencing after stepping away from the sport.
"I'm going to be pushing for people to resign, to be honest. I'd like to see some people resign for the comments that they've made, especially publicly, ones that are harassing and meant to humiliate concerned women, mothers and daughters," Turner said.
Now, two members on the board of directors have joined that cause.
Amid the ongoing scrutiny, USA Fencing's board voted to amend its current policy that prioritized states with LGBTQ-friendly laws for host sites for competitions and a policy that may have prevented the playing of the national anthem at some events, at its June 7 meeting.
The previous policies became one of the organization's biggest points of criticism after Turner's viral protest.
USA Fencing has declined to explain the motivation behind the changes.
"It would be inappropriate for staff to speculate on the personal motivations of USA Fencing's volunteer Board of Directors," a USA Fencing spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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