Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security advisor, has reportedly promoted conspiracy theories and unfounded accusations at least 16 times since August.
Flynn used his Twitter account in recent months to push unproven and outrageous allegations about top Democrats, according to a Politico report published Tuesday.
The report cited Flynn’s retweet of a post claiming that Hillary Clinton “secretly waged war” on the Catholic Church and another which called President Barack Obama a “jihadi” who “laundered” money for Muslim terrorists in Iran.
Flynn promoted a claim that John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign manager, took part in occult rituals involving bodily fluids. He also posted tweets suggesting that Clinton’s emails contained information on “Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc” and asking readers to “decide” for themselves based on a “MUST READ” article by True Pundit, a fake news site.
During the presidential campaign, True Pundit pushed the false claim that Clinton wore an earpiece during a debate. The site broke into the mainstream after publishing a bizarre conspiracy theory that Clinton led a child sex trafficking ring run from the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant, which Flynn promoted a week before the election.
On Sunday, a man entered the restaurant with an AR-15 assault rifle and fired at least one shot. He was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, and reportedly told police that he came to “self-investigate” the fringe conspiracy theory dubbed “Pizzagate.”
