It’s always hilarious when leftists showcase their foolishness. And even more so when actual journalists are so easily proven unworthy of their press passes.
That’s exactly when one right-winger managed to reel in the Washington Post, hook, line and sinker.
Ironically enough, the Washington Post actually shared the news of their faux pas.
According to WaPo:
A fake FBI raid staged Monday by a notorious right-wing activist and conspiracist turned into an embarrassment for The Washington Post, which briefly reported the faux event as if it were the real deal.
The “raid” on a house in Arlington, Va., actually involved actors recruited by Jacob Wohl, who has a history of making false accusations and has orchestrated dubious events in an effort to smear perceived opponents of President Trump.
This time, Wohl recruited actors to pose as FBI agents, telling them they would be participating in a scene for a “TV pilot,” one of the actors involved told the Daily Beast. The actors donned FBI-style windbreakers and pretended they were raiding a house during early-morning hours.
It appears Wohl used photos of the event to trick a reporter into believing that Wohl’s longtime associate, Jack Burkman, was being targeted by law enforcement officials.
Fact vs. Fiction
To be honest, it’s hard to say why Wohl created the deception. Perhaps he was just looking for a little drama.
In a story written by Metro reporter Rachel Weiner, The Post briefly reported Monday that a real FBI raid had taken place. The story was updated about two hours later to note that the raid was a fabrication and later taken down entirely with an editor’s note in its place saying it “was published because The Post failed to obtain appropriate confirmation.”
The story unfolded as a confluence of outright falsehoods by Burkman and Wohl coupled with lapses by Post journalists.
A purported neighbor of Burkman emailed a tip to The Post on Monday morning to report “a bunch of commotion” outside Burkman’s house. “His house was being raided by the FBI,” said the email, which included a link to photos and video of the alleged raid.
Burkman and Wohl later corroborated this version of events to The Post; Wohl said agents had taken computers, papers and cellphones.
It’s worth saying other dramas about “scrubbed cell phones” are already buzzing around Washington, DC.
In fact, Lindsey Graham recently hinted that Durham might soon have a big announcement. So Burkman’s comedic timing is on-point.
Among others, the pair hosted a “news” conference in late 2018 to lay out alleged sexual assault claims against special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mueller’s supposed accuser never materialized. They also tried in 2019 to paint then-Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as a sexual predator.
That stunt blew up when the supposed accuser said the allegations were entirely made up. Further, he was paid to make them.
When The Post initially contacted the FBI, the Bureau said that it could not confirm or deny that a raid had taken place in Burkman’s neighborhood.
News organizations usually are reluctant to report on police activities without direct confirmation from an authoritative source; in this instance, Burkman and Wohl were the only ones to confirm the events in the original version of the story.
In other words, gotcha!
