The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cops: Bogus report sent gunman to D.C.
N.C. man believed Clinton ran childsex ring at eatery.
WASHINGTON — The bizarre rumors began with a leaked email referencing Hillary Clinton and pizza parties. It morphed into fake online news stories about a child sex-trafficking ring operating out of a popular Washington, D.C., pizza joint.
On Sunday, it culminated in violence when police say a North Carolina man fired a rifle inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant as he attempted to “self-investigate” the conspiracy theory known in the Twitterverse as “Pizzagate.”
No one was hurt and the man was arrested. But the shooting alarmed those from neighboring businesses all the way to the White House about the real-life dangers of fake news on the internet. One of those people posting on the conspiracy theory is the son of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed national security adviser.
On Monday, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest, asked about the shooting, said, “There’s no denying the corrosive effect that some of these false reports have had on our political debate, and that’s concerning in a political context. It’s deeply troubling that some of those false reports could lead to violence.”
Edgar Maddison Welch, 28 of Salisbury, N.C., was arrested Sunday afternoon in an affluent neighborhood of the nation’s capital, police said in a statement. No one was injured.
The fake news stories alleging that Clinton and her campaign chief ran a child sex ring out of the restaurant have been denounced by the owner of the popular pizza restaurant.
“We should all condemn the efforts of certain people to spread malicious and utterly false accusations about Comet Ping Pong,” owner James Alefantis said. “Let me state unequivocally: These stories are completely and entirely false, and there is no basis in fact to any of them. What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences.”
Even Monday, Michael Flynn Jr., who has posted frequently on the Pizzagate theories, continued to push the conspiracy theory. He’s an adviser to his father, Michael Flynn, whom Trump has selected to serve as national security adviser.
Flynn Jr., who has accompanied his father to presidential transition meetings inside Trump Tower and lists the presidential transition website as part of his Twitter bio, tweeted Sunday night that, “Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it’ll remain a story.”