So, in other words, in your view John is lying about this. You would claim that Greg Smith did not write a long, biting critique of John Dehlin that was quashed by a General Authority. It is all made up, just a conspiracy theory.
You are a nut. John did not make this up. Ultimately the information has come from a reliable source. No one, including Daniel Peterson, has directly denied the existence of this piece.
I had a nice meeting with Brian Hauglid today, and though we mostly talked about the Book of Abraham, I did bring up this issue with John Dehlin just to get his thoughts. I didn't ask him if it were true. Instead, I said something like, "and what do you think about the FARMS hit piece on John Dehlin being pulled by an apostle"? His response wasn't "what are you talking about" or "I've never heard of such a thing." Instead it was clear from his response that he knew exactly what I was talking about. His eyes lit up as if to say "Ohhh yeah!" and his verbal response was something like, "that whole thing was unfortunate."
So I'm not buying any apologetic argument that says John is making this up. I have confirmation from no fewer than three scholars who would be in a position to know about this.
And yes, Dan doesn't publish articles he doesn't agree with 100%. He has told me this on the forums in the past. So there is really no way to divorce Dan Peterson's views from the vitriol that Maxwell tried to publish.