A Louisiana man pleaded guilty Thursday to calling in a threat to a Washington, D.C. pizzeria two doors down from Comet Ping Pong, just three days after a man entered that restaurant with a gun to “self-investigate” the now-infamous “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory.
Yusif Lee Jones, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of interstate threatening communications before U.S. District Court Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr., local TV station KSLA reported Friday.
Jones admitted in his plea to calling Besta Pizza on Dec. 7 to say he was trying to “save the kids” and threaten to “shoot everyone in the place,” according to the report.
Three days earlier, on Dec. 4, Edgar Maddison Welch walked into Comet Ping Pong with an AR-15 rifle and a Colt .38 handgun to take a “closer look” for evidence of the Pizzagate conspiracy.
Welch fired one shot and was arrested shortly after, having found no evidence to support the bizarre theory that posits in part that the owners of Comet Ping Pong run a child sex trafficking ring in the basement of their establishment with the knowledge of Hillary Clinton and members of her inner circle.
NBC News reported Thursday that Jones said he believed the Pizzagate conspiracy.
“I’m coming there to finish what the other guy didn’t. I’m coming there to save the kids,” he said, according to court filings cited in the report.
“Yes I heard of it. It’s on the internet,” he said of the conspiracy. “Yes, I do believe it,” he said later.
Jones faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, restitution and a $250,000 fine, KSLA reported.
