Benny Johnson considers legal action against New York Times

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Benny Johnson says New York Times downplayed arson dangers his family faced

Conservative podcaster is considering legal action against paper, shares footage with Fox News Digital

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Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson says he is considering legal action against The New York Times over what he calls a "sloppy hit job" that downplayed the dangers his wife and newborn child faced when a rowhouse that shared a wall with his home was set ablaze in Washington, D.C. 

The 2020 fire killed two dogs and security camera footage shows police officers using a crowbar to pry open Johnson’s front door before his wife exits while holding a baby as black smoke pours out. New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger penned an Aug. 30 story headlined, "He Plagiarized and Promoted Falsehoods. The White House Embraces Him," that implied the influencer embellished what his family experienced. 

"Absolutely, we are looking into [legal action]. It's something that has caused an enormous amount of pain to my family. Why bring this back up? Why force my wife to relive this? It was the worst day of our lives," Johnson told Fox News Digital. 

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Political commentator Benny Johnson attends the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on August 12, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

"The entire article and my entire engagement with this reporter for The New York Times was him saying that effectively, ‘We don't deserve sympathy for having our house damaged in a horrible fire [where] there's a video of my home with flames and black smoke in my child’s nursery,’" Johnson continued. "It’s a real lack of humanity that’s demonstrated on the left, and they really need to fix that." 

The fire was raised when Johnson, a pro-Trump pundit who has 3.8 million followers on X, attended an Aug. 12 press briefing about the administration cracking down on crime in the nation's capital.

"As a D.C. resident of 15 years, I lived on Capitol Hill. I witnessed so many muggings and so much theft, I've lost track," Johnson told press secretary Karoline Leavitt. "I was carjacked. I have murders on my Ring camera and mass shootings. I witnessed a woman on my block get held up at gunpoint for $20, and my house was set ablaze in an arson with my infant child inside." 

Johnson believes the Times worked to discredit his claims. The paper reported that "police records show nobody has been murdered since at least 2017 on the block where Mr. Johnson lived in Washington. And his home was not burned, though his next-door neighbor’s house was ‘intentionally set’ on fire, according to the city’s fire department." 

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Security footage shows police officers attempting to open the front door of Benny Johnson’s rowhouse after the connected unit was set on fire.