Former University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh is being added to a lawsuit involving former assistant coach Matt Weiss.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press, the most recently filed lawsuit is an amended class-action complaint from 11 women accusing Weiss of hacking into their accounts and stealing personal photos. The original lawsuit was filed March 21, with at least 74 women eventually joining with lawsuits against Weiss, the university, its board of regents and Keffer Development Services, a software and data storage company.
Former University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh is being added to a lawsuit involving former assistant coach Matt Weiss.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press, the most recently filed lawsuit is an amended class-action complaint from 11 women accusing Weiss of hacking into their accounts and stealing personal photos. The original lawsuit was filed March 21, with at least 74 women eventually joining with lawsuits against Weiss, the university, its board of regents and Keffer Development Services, a software and data storage company.
Related: Eleven Women File Fifth Lawsuit Against Former Michigan Football Coach Matt Weiss
Per the reporting of Christian Romo of the Free Press, Harbaugh, former Michigan president Santa Ono and 48 other people currently or previously affiliated with the university have been added to the amended suit. Other newly added defendants include interim president Domenico Grasso, former president Mark Schlissel and athletic director Warde Manuel.
As part of the amended lawsuit, the plaintiffs are accusing the university of allowing Weiss to coach in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl despite knowing he had illegally accessed private photos.
"The University put the interests of the University football team ahead of those of the victimized female students, further discriminating against the Plaintiffs and Class Members," a court filing released Friday reads, according to the Free Press.
"Instead, even though it knew Weiss was behind the breach of female student-athletes’ personal, private and intimate images and information, it allowed Weiss to coach in the 2023 national championship semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl. Only after the game, on January 5, 2023, over two weeks after it received notice of Weiss’s conduct, did the University even put the incident on its police blotter."
Michigan fired Weiss on Jan. 20, 2023, shortly after putting him on a leave of absence. Harbaugh led the Wolverines to the national championship following the 2023 season, then left to take the head coaching job with the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers.
Related: Michigan Fires Co-Offenisve Coordinator Weiss Days Into Computer Access Probe
The FBI indicted Weiss on March 20, 2025, charging him with 14 counts of unauthorized access and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. The FBI claims that Weiss hacked into the computer systems of more than 100 universities and accessed the personal data of more than 3,000 student-athletes, mostly women.
As reported by Romo, Harbaugh has previously said that he wasn't aware of the allegations until after the Fiesta Bowl loss to Texas Christian University on Dec. 31, 2022. The plaintiffs allege that the university knew Weiss had accessed photos at the university's Schembechler Hall from Dec. 21-23, 2022, over a week before the game.
As part of the amended lawsuit, the plaintiffs are requesting a trial by jury and accusing the defendants of 23 counts, including Title IX violations, right-to-privacy violations and civil rights violations, Romo reported.
The plaintiffs are also accusing the university of hiding Weiss' identity to students during the initial police investigation.
