What Is Going On With This Highly Suspect Scheme Alleging Women Were Paid to Accuse Robert Mueller of Sexual Harassment??? [UPDATED]
Politics
On Tuesday, special counsel Robert Mueller’s office reported that it has referred a highly suspect scheme in which women were allegedly offered money to make up claims of sexual misconduct against Mueller to the FBI for investigation.
According to the Atlantic, Mueller’s office first learned of the alleged scheme from reporters, who had been emailed by a woman who claimed she was offered $20,000 by a man with ties to the rightwing conspiracy theorist and DC lobbyist Jack Burkman:
The woman told reporters in an email, a copy of which I obtained, that she was contacted by a man “with a British accent” who wanted to ask her “a couple questions about Robert Mueller, whom I worked with when I was a paralegal for Pillsbury, Madison, and Sutro in 1974. I asked him who he was working for, and he told me his boss was some sort of politics guy in Washington named Jack Burkman. I reluctantly told [him] that I had only worked with Mr. Mueller for a short period of time, before leaving that firm to have my first son.”
She continued: “In more of an effort to get him to go away than anything else, I asked him what in the hell he wanted me to do. He said that we could not talk about it on the phone, and he asked me to download an app on my phone called Signal, which he said was more secure. Reluctantly, I downloaded the app and he called me on that app a few minutes later. He said (and I will never forget exactly what it was) ‘I want you to make accusations of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment against Robert Mueller, and I want you to sign a sworn affidavit to that effect.’” The man “offered to pay off all of my credit card debt, plus bring me a check for $20,000 if I would do” it, she wrote. “He knew exactly how much credit card debt I had, right down to the dollar, which sort of freaked me out.”
The alleged is important here, as reporters were unable to verify numerous personal details the woman provided, leading some to believe the woman herself was a hoax. A conspiracy within a conspiracy!
From the Hill Reporter:
This individual said that they were a female living in Fort Myers, Florida, but she would not speak to any reporters over the phone. Hill Reporter looked into this woman, as did many other journalists we have spoken with, and we all reached a conclusion that this was likely a hoax of some sort. No one by the name provided lived in Fort Myers, Florida according to the numerous background checks which we ran.
We decided to investigate this matter to see who could be behind this apparent hoax. First, we reached out to a phone number that this woman gave us. After calling the number, we promptly received what we viewed as a threatening text message back, which read, “You’re in over your head…. Drop this”. The message included the home addresses of two of our editors, including myself.
Then out of nowhere, we received a phone call from another number originating from the same area code, of a man who claimed to be Mike Wilcox of a company called ‘Surefire Intelligence’. He again threatened us, telling us to “stop communicating with” the woman who had contacted us previously. (Both phone numbers have since been disconnected).
What the fuck is going on? As someone who is NOT a conspiracy theorist, I find this all very confusing, but bear with me as I try to untangle all of this.