
a report that sparked a chain of events that brought conspiracy theories to White House officials on letterhead relating to the Virginia Aviation Company.įormer acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue told the committee that the claim in the video was “pure insanity.”Ĭommittee member and Republican US Representative Adam Kinzinger said the committee’s investigation “found that this unsubstantiated, baseless conspiracy theory has made it all the way from the Internet groove to the highest echelons of our government. His claims drew from an Italian newspaper article by a right-wing television commentator that claimed the Trump administration was investigating whether a US embassy official in Rome conspired to manipulate the election results. Mr Johnson’s bogus allegations suggest a military satellite controlled by an Italian defense contractor was manipulated by an anti-Trump State Department official with support from foreign intelligence services. The conspiracy theory was also shared among GOP officials in Nevada. Ron Watkins - a site administrator for 8chan, widely regarded as the source of the Q Post and now running for Congress as a Republican in Arizona - began raising claims in early January 2021. The conspiracy theory spread by a man named Brad Johnson in far-right media is drawn from claims made on far-right social media platforms and messageboards such as 4chan and TheDonald.win and amplified by QAnon influencers.

In his request for the Justice Department to investigate the conspiracy theory, Mr Meadows emailed the video to Rosen.

The video was posted on YouTube on 18 December. “Why can’t we just work with the Italian government?” According to texts received by the committee, Mr. The right media outlet before it came to the attention of Republican Congressman Scott Perry, who sent Mr Meadows a YouTube link. The technology used, this claim circulated among QAnon-affiliated groups and the far-right. He reportedly pressured Rosen to investigate several rejected allegations, including a “theory” that Italian officials in coordination with Barack Obama and the CIA used satellites and the military to manipulate American voting machines. Mr Meadows – according to documents previously obtained by members of Congress and reviewed by news outlets last year – allegedly made then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen fake fraud claims in the states in the wake of Mr Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss. The narrative follows the fraud investigation that fueled the violence at the US Capitol on January 6. UNIQLO X Reyn Spooner Available late-June.

Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows requested that the US Justice Department convene the Italian government to consider a conspiracy theory that has moved from QAnon-linked corners of the Internet to the White House, a vote baseless by a House select committee. A unique collaboration featuring vibrant Reyn Spooner designs.
