Pizzagate

About

Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory regarding a series of emails hacked from former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s account, which some supporters of Donald Trump claimed were coded messages discussing an underground pedophile ring operated at the Comet Ping Pong Pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C.

Origin

In March 2016, John Podesta's email account was compromised in a data breach. In October, Wikileaks began publishing over 20,000 messages from the account in a searchable database (shown below).^[6]

On November 3rd, 2016, an anonymous 4chan user submitted a thread to the /pol/ (politically incorrect) board about a new batch of Podesta emails released by Wikileaks, discussing Comet Ping Pong Pizza as a possible pedophile ring.^[4]

Spread

That same day, another 4chan user replied to a thread urging readers to check for possible code words in the leaked emails (shown below).

On November 4th, 2016, a Pastebin^[2] was created titled "archive of Pizzagate information." That day, Redditor DumbScribblyUnctious submitted a post titled "Comet Ping Pong – Pizzagate Summary" to /r/The_Donald.^[8] On November 5th, Twitter user @PizzaPartyBen^[9] tweeted about the conspiracy and urged his followers to investigate it further (shown below).

On November 6th, YouTuber Evil Hillary uploaded a video about the conspiracy theory titled "Podestas, Pizza and Pedos" (shown below). Within two weeks, the video gathered upwards of 340,000 views and 840 comments.

That day, the Washington City Paper^[3] published an article titled "Alt Right Conspiracy Theorists Obsess Over Comet Ping Pong." On November 7th, the /r/pizzagate^[1] subreddit was launched for discussions about the conspiracy theory. That same day, the food news site Eater^[5] published an article titled "Internet Crazies Think This DC Pizzeria is the Center of a Clinton Sex Ring." On November 13th, the MLordandGod YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "Pizzagate: Scandal of the Century Will Take Down Clintons, Democratic Party and US Govt" (shown below). The following day, a 4chan user posted a new thread about the pizzagate scandal, listing various sites and archives containing information about the conspiracy theory.^[7]

On December 4th, 2016, the son of General Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, posted a tweet about the conspiracy theory (shown below).^[4]

Arrest

On December 5th, 2016, 28-year-old North Carolina resident Edgar Maddison Welch was arrested for pointing a rifle at a Comet Ping Pong Pizza employee. After the employee fled, Welch proceeded to fire the weapon inside the building. No one was injured during the incident. That day, Twitter user @faizsays posted an interview with two customers present when the gunman arrived (shown below).

On 4chan's /pol/ board^[10] and the /r/cospiracy^[11][12] subreddit, some accused the incident of being a false flag conspiracy.^[10] The following day, BBC^[13] published an article about the arrest, noting that the pizzagate conspiracy theory had been amplified by Alex Jones at Infowars.

Shortly after his arrest (shown below), The New York Times interviewed Welch.^[15] They wrote:

"Mr. Welch, the father of two daughters, said he woke up Sunday morning and told his family he had some things to do. He left 'Smallsbury,' a nickname for his hometown, for the 350-mile drive to Washington with the intention of giving the restaurant a 'closer look' and then returning home. He wanted to 'shine some light on it.' As he made his way to Washington, he felt his 'heart breaking over the thought of innocent people suffering.' Once he got to the pizzeria, there was an abrupt change of plans. Mr. Welch would not say why he took a military-style assault rifle inside the restaurant and fired it. According to court documents, Mr. Welch said he had come armed to help rescue the children[…]I just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way."

On June 22nd, 2017, Federal District Courts in Washington sentenced Welch to four years in prison and three years probation. Welch, who surrendered soon after police arrived at Comet Ping Pong Pizza in December, spent the last six months appealing to the courts, apologizing for what he now sees as an "incredibly ill-advised decision" because "the intel on this wasn’t 100 percent." The court also ordered him to pay $5,744 in restitution to Comet Ping Pong Pizza.

Though the owner of Comet Ping Pong Pizza, James Alefantis, said that the incident and the Pizzagate conspiracy has tarnished his restaurant's name, he is "glad that this incident with this person has gone through, and it was lucky that no one was injured or hurt physically."^[16]

In court, the U.S. attorney a video recorded by Welch, in which saying goodbye to his daughters on his six-and-a-half hour drive to Washington, D.C. In the video (shown below), Welch tells his daughters that he loves them but "can't let you grow up in a world that's so corrupted by evil. I have to at least stand up for you and for other children just like you[…]Like I always told you we have a duty to protect people who can't protect themselves … I hope you understand that one day."

Several news outlets covered Welch's sentencing, including The New York Times, The Guardian,^[17] ABC News^[18] and more.

Search Interest

External References