Well knock me over with a feather, Charges of Mayor Pete Sexual Assault Were Fake News

A little early for the Trump scum to lay their cards on the table, but they must be real scared. 

A Michigan college student says pro- Trump agitators recruited him to falsely claim he was raped by Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg , then published the smear without his permission.

Hunter Kelly, a 21-year-old gay Trump supporter, said conservative activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman sought to use him for the "despicable scheme" they concocted to blunt Buttigieg's momentum and help the president's reelection bid. The incident may offer a glimpse into disinformation tactics, powered by fake social media accounts and partisan news sites, that could become a staple of the 2020 campaign.

Wohl denied Kelly's accusation, saying the student had reached out to him. Burkman said on Twitter he believes Kelly's initial account of the assault was "accurate and true."

Invoking the powerful #MeToo movement against a pioneering gay candidate, the allegation appeared Sunday in a post on the publishing platform Medium under Kelly's name. The post accused the 37-year-old South Bend, Indiana, mayor of sexually assaulting him in February without providing any details, saying Kelly would share his story to the nation in the coming weeks. It said that Kelly was having suicidal thoughts after making the difficult decision to come forward.

Right-leaning news sites published the claim as reporters from other outlets spent Monday investigating. But the allegation fell apart Monday night, when Kelly issued a statement saying that he was never assaulted and had been set up. He said Tuesday he wanted to help President Donald Trump but ended up "roped into a Jussie Smollett-esque situation" by Wohl and Burkman, who have spread conspiracies and unverified or false allegations against other public figures.

Notably, the two staged a news conference last year in which they claimed a woman would accuse special counsel Robert Mueller of sexual harassment. The woman never showed up and has said she was tricked by Wohl into participating in the plot, which has drawn scrutiny from the FBI. Wohl's website touts his expertise in "media manipulation" and notes he has been banned from Twitter for spreading false information.

The Daily Beast reported Monday that Wohl and Burkman recruited at least one other male Trump supporter for the anti-Buttigieg hoax.

In his statement, Kelly said that he began communicating with Wohl, 21, on Instagram a month ago about how he could help Trump get reelected. He said that Wohl asked him to take part in a "task force" set up by the Trump administration to derail Buttigieg, whose standing in the race has dramatically risen in recent weeks. Kelly said that Wohl and Burkman arranged for him to fly from Michigan to Baltimore on Sunday, and then took him to Burkman's apartment in Arlington, Virginia.

Kelly said he was under the impression he would spend a few days helping research Buttigieg's background and trying to find dirt that might trip him up. But after he arrived, Kelly said, Wohl showed him the Medium post under Kelly's name and claimed it was just a draft. Kelly said he was unsure whether he wanted to move forward before he went to bed.

At 4:30 a.m., he said that he sent Wohl a message on the encrypted messaging app Signal saying that he was incredibly uncomfortable and not on board with the plan. But by the time he got out of bed at 11 a.m., Kelly said, the post had been published and was spreading across the internet with the help of fake Twitter and Gmail accounts that Wohl had created under Kelly's name. Kelly said he later learned the post had been published Sunday without his permission.

Kelly said that he felt sick and didn't want to be involved, but that Wohl and Burkman told him it was too late to turn back. Instead, he said they pressured him to sign a statement detailing false allegations that Buttigieg raped him at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, which he was to deliver at a news conference.

Kelly said that he signed the statement after resisting for 45 minutes and being told that leaving Burkman's residence "was not an option." He said that he ultimately left the apartment Monday with the help of relatives who live in the area and picked him up. By then, Kelly said, he was getting messages from relatives and friends who had been inundated with inquiries from the news media about the allegation.

Kelly, a student at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, apologized Tuesday and indicated he was considering legal action against Wohl and Burkman.

"I will not stand around idly and get dragged through the mud for two people to continue committing heinous acts in the name of 'protecting our country,'" Kelly said. "They are the real danger to our country."

chicagotribune

Kelly said that he signed the statement after resisting for 45 minutes and being told that leaving Burkman's residence "was not an option." 

They held him prisoner until he would sign the document?  Isn't that a criminal act?  Why doesn't he have charges laid against those bastards?  Just a law suit is lame.

Personally, of all the potential candidates, I would vote for Buttigieg if I were an American.  I respect and admire people with his qualifications and accomplishments. 

I think about the charge of kidnapping, but he is twenty one and it would probably take some lawyer to explore just how he was "detained."

He even signed "something" and then thought better of it and spoke up. (I'd bet his family/friends got into his head - after those two 'villains' did.)

Call it whatever you want, kidnapping, forcible detainment, whatever, but if it's true he was threatened that if he did not sign the document he would not be permitted to leave, I still think that threat is a criminal offence.  If he is suing for damages, then I'm not quite sure his damages would be worth millions of dollars.  The damages from this whole matter are really suffered by Buttigieg - his reputation has been unjustifiably smeared, and that would have a major effect on his chances of being a candidate.

Oh, the irony of trying to use a homosexual republican (a "fresh face" too) to bring down an "older" homosexual democrat. And the 'round' blew up in their chambers!

Not a word from our chief purveyor of fake news here on newstalkers

Lucky for him he's a Democrat.  Otherwise the FBI would use the false accusations to start spying on the Buttegig campaign and the media would  press for a special prosecutor to investigate him.  

Lucky for him he's a Democrat.  Otherwise the FBI would use the false accusations to start spying on the Buttegig campaign and the media would  press for a special prosecutor to investigate him.  

Actually, it looks like the 'lucky' one is Jacob Wohl. Wohl filed a false police report in Minnesota and submitted false evidence. It didn't make the evening news. 

He should be in jail right now. IOKIYAR. 

(Meant to answer Sean in previous comment)

Can you try to hold your side to the same standards you hold for everybody else?  The entire fake narrative you are quoting is just that - fake.  (Meuller told Barr his Barrspin was not correct, Barr decided to spin instead of tell the truth about what Mueller said, by the way)  So we aren't buying more of those lies about spying on Trump and the reasons the FISA warrants were issued multiple times.  It was about RUSSIA.  Now we see Trumpers committing crimes to try to smear democrats and that is no problem for you.  Again. Hold conservatives to standards or nobody cares about this whine.  And I hope the perps get prosecuted.  This wasn't even the first time they tried.

"Kelly resisted."

Kudos to young Hunter Kelly!  A gay republican stood up for the truth and for the sake of his conscience.

Those evil bastards who attempted to put him up to this, should now be sued in court by Buttigieg and his husband. This could have spoiled or seriously damaged a marriage!

Those two, conservative activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, should be removed from their positions; they are irresponsible. And nothing would prove this more than a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed—YESTERDAY!!!

While all politics have their seamy sides, this is a bit beyond the pale.

But then again in this day and age winning with honor seems to have become a joke.

What a shame that people who post fake news here (I mean, really, an article that was on InfoWars and WorldNetDaily?) don't post apologies when they're proven as the crap they are.

You don't really expect a retraction and an apology, do you?

I posted something similar in Sinners and Buttheads