Official out after report on tweets
The same day a Media Matters report came out detailing violent, bigoted tweets posted by Texas Assistant Attorney General Nick Moutos, a spokeswoman for the office said he no longer works there.
The spokeswoman did not provide a reason for Moutos’ departure nor respond to questions about whether the tweets played any role.
Moutos, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, had been working in the office since 2017 and was paid $100,652, according to the Texas Tribune salary guide, which pulls its information from state records.
The attorney, who lost a race for the 35th Congressional District in the Republican primary, has supported QAnon, a right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory, Media Matters reported. The theory alleges without evidence that there is a cabal of pedophiles tied to Satanism who are plotting against President Donald Trump and running a child sex trafficking ring.
In a tweet Thursday that cited the author of the Media Matters report, Moutos defended his support of the theory and spoke out against censorship of QAnon supporters.
“I oppose the #Censorship of #FreeSpeech & #Purging of QAnon followers & supporters,” he wrote. “Q does not support violence. I support #2A & promote
#SelfDefense. I have warned terrorists to stay away & will defend myself & my family. How is fighting #ChildTrafficking & #Pedophilia bad?”
In a separate tweet, Moutos also seemed to allude to losing his job.
“Speaking out against the #ChinaVirus #Plandemic & #Democrats using it to steal #Election2020 makes people angry,” he tweeted. “Stories slamming me & others in #Salon #MensHealth #AlterNet were enough to cost me my job.”
Moutos tweeted last month that U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were terrorists who belong in Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, and he has made similar comments in various other tweets.
He’s also called Black Lives Matter protesters terrorists and encouraged violence against them in reacting to St. Louis couple Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who pointed guns at demonstrators, saying that if they “came to my neighborhood” it would have been “open season on terrorists.”
When asked about Moutos and the tweet, the spokeswoman said he no longer worked for the Texas Attorney General’s Office and had no other comment. It was unclear whether he was fired or had quit.