A top advisor to Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign threatened to defame a former female staffer for shining light on the Senate hopeful’s sexting scandal.
Media strategist Morris Katz threatened former campaign aide Genevieve McDonald, who left the campaign in the fall, for sharing Platner’s sexually explicit text messages with media outlets. Katz has notably also advised for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s campaigns. (RELATED: Graham Platner Reportedly Sent Sexually Explicit Texts On Popular Messaging App)
McDonald said the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had called her prior to publishing their stories as a courtesy call. After the Journal contacted Platner’s campaign, Katz “demanded” that McDonald retract her comments and record herself calling the publication, telling them their reporting was inaccurate. After she refused, Katz threatened to defame McDonald in a text message.
“Just want to be clear on where we are right now,” Katz wrote in a message to McDonald. “If the story goes in its current iteration we’ll communicate directly on the record, and by name, that Genevieve violated the personal trust of Amy and Graham and shared explicit falsehoods to sabotage the campaign.”
The information McDonald shared was not only accurate but was brought to her attention by Platner’s own wife.
Platner’s wife Amy Gertner reportedly warned his campaign last summer that he had exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women, which she had discovered in the spring of 2025. Gertner alerted McDonald herself about the texts in late August, according to the WSJ.
Platner’s campaign also confirmed the existence of the messages showing Platner communicating with up to six different women.
The wife of the Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate disclosed the texts between Platner and other women to his campaign. https://t.co/WmTAV5ihTe
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 30, 2026
Gertner called the scandal a betrayal and an “invasion of [their] privacy.”
“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend,” Gertner said of McDonald. “I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives — the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind.”
“Our marriage today is stronger than ever before,” Gertner added. “I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.” (RELATED: Graham Platner Wrote About Masturbating In Public Toilets, Mocked Wounded US Soldier)
Katz doubled down and defended Platner’s apparent infidelity, saying his sex scandal is “no one’s fucking business.”
“It’s no one’s fucking business what happened in Graham & Amy’s marriage before he was ever a candidate for office,” Katz said in a post on X. “There should be no place in our politics for incompetent, opportunistic operatives who violate privacy, betray trust, and prioritize vengeance over decency.”