A transgender inmate in Indiana who was convicted of reckless homicide of a baby is suing President Donald Trump for alleged sexual assaults caused by his “transphobic” and “extremist rhetoric,” according to court documents filed on April 1.
Jonathan C. Richardson, also known as Autumn Cordellioné, claims in the handwritten complaint that Trump’s “extremist rhetoric and transphobic hate speech” has “emboldened the Defendants and the assailants that brutally assaulted and raped plaintiff, not once, but multiple times, to act on their hate and prejudices, constituting the cause of action and his liability in this case.” As a result, President Trump was negligent because he allegedly knew that others could act on his words.”
Cordellioné also claims that the alleged assaults occurred after he was transferred from New Castle Correctional Facility (NCN), where he was “housed in protective custody,” to Westville Correctional Facility (WCA), a male-only prison. Fox News Digital contacted the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) to determine whether the transfer was due to Trump’s executive order mandating that federal prisoners be housed in units based on their biological sex.
When asked about the lawsuit, a White House spokesperson stated, “President Trump has vowed to defend biological women from gender ideology extremism and restore biological truth to the federal government.”
The inmate is seeking $3.5 million in compensatory damages from Trump and the other defendants, including prison employees and 12 other “gang affiliated inmates,” who allegedly “stabbed” and sexually assaulted him over a four-day period in January.
“Trump’s president now, and we won’t even get in trouble for f—–g you trannies up, we’re patriots, and even if you tell on us, Trump will pardon us and probably give us a medal,” Cordellioné claimed one of the offenders said, according to the complaint.
Cordellioné further claimed that the unit team manager and case manager said similar things during the alleged assaults.
“I’ve seen your case on the news, and I personally don’t think us taxpayers should have to pay for your surgery,” the case manager allegedly stated.
The lawsuit claims that the offenders violated Cordellione’s Eighth Amendment rights and engaged in gross negligence under Indiana tort law.
Cordellioné’s years-long legal battle began in August 2023, when he sued the Indiana Department of Correction, supported by the ACLU, over a state law that prohibits taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for inmates.
Cordellioné, who is serving a 55-year prison sentence for the reckless homicide of an 11-month-old stepchild, has since filed several complaints, including a civil lawsuit against the prison chaplain for allegedly prohibiting the wearing of a hijab outside of immediate bed quarters, despite identifying as a Muslim woman.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has been defending the state’s law, and in January he filed a brief in a court of appeals defending Indiana’s law prohibiting inmate sex-change operations. The attorney general argued that the Eighth Amendment does not require the state “to provide experimental treatments generally, and it certainly doesn’t here, when multiple doctors have said this inmate is a poor candidate for surgery,” a spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital.
In March, Judge Richard Young, a Clinton appointee, directed the IDOC to schedule sex reassignment surgery for Cordellioné at the “earliest opportunity.”
Fox News Digital reported earlier this month that states that fail to comply with federal orders to house inmates based on their biological sex will face “imminent changes” and funding cuts. Trump’s orders also prohibit federal funds from being used for sex reassignment surgeries on inmates.
