The evangelical Christian lawyer who led the defense team in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial is accused of trying to cover up the murder of one of his organization’s employees by a New York City gang that preyed on gay men, after which he and his adult son allegedly tampered with evidence and impeded the police investigation into the 2022 killing.
In a $20 million-plus lawsuit filed Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court and obtained by The Independent, Linda Clary Umberger claims attorney Jay Sekulow and his son, Jordan, not only misled the cops about her son’s murder, but also blocked her from collecting an insurance payout she had hoped to receive following his death.
Clary Umberger's suit paints the Sekulows’ alleged actions as an attempt to conceal the fact that they had hired a gay man to establish a local base for their faith-based legal nonprofit, the American Center for Law and Justice, in a sumptuous townhouse near Central Park.
In her complaint against both men and the ACLJ, along with Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (CASE), an organization headed up by Jay Sekulow that co-owned the townhouse, Clary Umberger says the response to her son’s homicide “ranged from unhelpful to hostile.”
“It appears from their conduct that Defendants were primarily interested in keeping the matter quiet, not wishing to draw public attention to the fact that they had spent $16.5 million – presumably raised from donors – to purchase New York City real estate and not wishing to draw public attention to the fact that they had employed a gay man who had been murdered,” the complaint alleges. “They were hoping the matter would be quickly and quietly resolved.”
.jpeg?trim=167%2C0%2C169%2C0)
Reached on Wednesday evening by The Independent, Clary Umberger pointed out that it had been three years to the day since her son John Umberger was killed and said she was “grateful” for the interest in her lawsuit.
Compounding her woes, Clary Umberger, who lives in the Atlanta area, said her dog was recently bitten by a rattlesnake and remains hospitalized. Citing the ongoing legal action, Clary Umberger deferred any further comment to her attorneys, who declined to discuss the case on the record.
On Thursday, attorney Michael Bowe, who represents Jay and Jordan Sekulow, denied the allegations in Clary Umberger’s complaint.
“The murder of John Umberger was a tragic and a huge loss of a very talented and good young man who ACLJ was honored to have as a colleague,” Bowe told The Independent. “The complaint’s allegations against our client are demonstrably untrue, which will become clear as the case proceeds.”
The elder Sekulow, who gained significant public attention during Trump’s first term as the lead lawyer defending the 45th president on the Senate floor after the House of Representatives impeached him for trying to blackmail Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing sham investigations of Joe Biden and son Hunter, has a long history of anti-LGBT+ activism.
A veteran Supreme Court litigator who has argued — and won — multiple cases before the high court, Sekulow, 68, was the primary author of a 2002 amicus brief which urged the justices against overturning a Texas law which criminalized “homosexual conduct.”
Jordan Sekulow, 42, serves as the executive director of the ACLJ and co-hosts a syndicated radio program with his father.
.jpeg?trim=529%2C0%2C0%2C0)
During the last week of May 2022, John Umberger took a train from Washington, D.C. to New York City “to enhance ACLJ’s contacts and presence [there], and to work on enhancing the townhouse’s security, housing and meeting facilities,” according to Clary Umberger’s complaint.
Once he arrived, Umberger penned a handwritten note to Jordan Sekulow, expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to work for the ACLJ, the complaint states.
“He was excited to be working for Defendants, to be visiting New York City, and to be working on the Townhouse,” it says. “John had taken a reduction in pay to join ACLJ and the conversations at his hiring indicated he would have a path to partnership at the organization.”
On the night of May 27, 2022, Umberger and some friends went out to a Midtown Manhattan gay bar called The Q, where two men, Jacob Barroso and Jayqwan Hamilton drugged him with lidocaine and fentanyl-laced cocaine and led him back to the ACLJ townhouse.
There, the pair gained access to his mobile phone, wallet, and bank account, stealing $25,000 in cash, and used their own mobile phones to take video footage of themselves “frolicking” as Umberger lay dying as a result of the toxic cocktail he’d been unwittingly given, according to the complaint. Barroso and Hamilton subsequently used Umberger’s ACLJ credit cards to make a series of unauthorized purchases, “including a despicable post-murder spending spree at a Footlocker store,” the complaint contends.
.png)
Clary Umberger alleges in her suit that the ACLJ townhouse “lacked security,” without cameras inside or outside, or security personnel on-site.
“Indeed, except for basic locks on the doors, the Townhouse lacked any security measures whatsoever,” the complaint says. “Accordingly, the perpetrators easily were able to gain entry with John in his incapacitated state.”
In the days that followed, Clary Umberger became concerned when she didn’t hear at all from her son during the long Memorial Day weekend, according to the complaint. So, on June 1, 2022, she reached out to Jordan Sekulow to ask if he or his father had spoken to John.
Jordan Sekulow told her they hadn’t heard from him since the previous Friday and said he’d dispatch a property manager to check on him, the complaint states.
One of the Sekulows’ employees then discovered John’s body, and it was the Sekulows — plus their “chief of security,” a man named Jacob Carringer, who initially informed Umberger of the news, the complaint further alleges.
.jpeg?trim=128%2C0%2C103%2C0)
It says Jordan “insisted” there had been “no foul play” and told her that her son had died of natural causes. Yet, the complaint contends, he began telling ACLJ personnel that John had died “of a self-induced ‘overdose.’”
“That false rumor began making the rounds, by text message and otherwise, spreading information that would prove to be false, and tarnishing John’s image posthumously,” the complaint states, further arguing that the misleading assertion also led NYPD detectives to initially treat Umberger’s death as a non-criminal matter.
What’s more, Clary Umberger alleges that the Sekulows’ or their employee “cleaned up” the crime scene before calling police to report her son’s death and allowing investigators access to the townhouse by removing his stationery, pens, papers, and company-issued laptop and concealing the computer — and its contents — from police investigators.
Although Clary Umberger received an undisclosed sum from life insurance coverage her son had taken out, her complaint says the ACLJ prevented her from pursuing any claim she could have been entitled to under a $10 million liability policy the organization had for staffers.
“In short,” the complaint states, “Defendants made it impossible for the Estate or Linda to collect proceeds they would have been entitled to and thereby have necessitated the filing of this action.
This March, ACLJ and CASE reportedly sold the Upper East Side townhouse where Umberger was murdered for $27.5 million, securing an $11 million profit – some 70 percent more than the initial purchase price – after just three years.
“For his efforts on the project,” Clary Umberger’s complaint says, “John lost his life.”
The previous month, Barroso, Hamilton and a third man, Robert DeMaio, were convicted of Umberger’s murder and that of another victim, 25-year-old social worker Julio Ramirez, who also died after being drugged at a Manhattan gay bar. Last week, Hamilton and DeMaio received prison sentences of 40 years to life; Barroso was sentenced to 20 years to life.
Clary Umberger’s lawsuit claims negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and tortious interference, seeking compensatory damages of at least $23 million, plus punitive damages to be determined at trial.
Trump posts meme saying he’s ‘on a mission from God’ featuring alt-right symbol Pepe the Frog
Trump commutes notorious gangster’s sentence... thanks to Kanye West
Trump now claims 60 Minutes interview caused him ‘mental anguish’
Golf pro sues family friend after face ‘permanently disfigured’ by ‘careless’ swing
Top DOGE officials are already fleeing as Musk leaves government
