Conservative Media Outlets Spread Viral 4chan Hoax About Chief Justice John Roberts, Watchdog Group Says
Since losing the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, President Donald Trump has promoted various evidence-free theories about widespread voter fraud. Prominent conservative figures and right-leaning outlets have done the same and one of their most explosive claims seems to be based on a viral internet hoax.
According to a Friday report from the watchdog group Media Matters, on December 11, after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Trump campaign, an anonymous user on the far-right message board 4chan alleged that Chief Justice John Roberts is helping the Democratic Party remove Trump from office.
Posing as a “Supreme Court clerk,” the user wrote that they heard justices “arguing loudly behind closed doors.” The person wrote that Roberts got into a shouting match with the justices, said to them that taking up the case would “cause riots” and that they have to vote how he tells them to.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the justices have not met in person for months, so the claims the anonymous person made were clearly false. However, that did not stop far-right publications from reporting on the allegations. Radio host Hal Turner posted the story on his website, citing a Supreme Court source.
The article quickly went viral. Apparently, Texas elector Matt Patrick came across it as well. On December 14, Patrick delivered a speech in the state legislature saying that he read a news report about a clerk hearing “screaming through the walls” as Roberts berated his colleagues.
C-SPAN’s communications director Howard Mortman tweeted a video of Patrick’s speech. The video went viral on Twitter, earning more than a million views. This caused Roberts’ name to trend on the platform, amplifying the false claim.
TEXAS ELECTORAL COLLEGE:
"The Justices went into a closed room…When Texas case was brought up he said he heard screaming through the walls as Justice Roberts and the other liberal Justices were insisting…afraid of what would happen if they did right thing…Moral cowardice" pic.twitter.com/JhnPN59wkP
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) December 14, 2020
Conservative television network Newsmax then picked up the story. Host Rob Schmitt presented it as a “bombshell whistleblower report.” One America News reporter Dan Ball also reported on the story and conservative blog RedState dedicated an article to it, though it noted that it lacked evidence.
“This is not the first 4chan hoax employing some kind of ‘insider’ to gain traction: The QAnon conspiracy theory also began on 4chan, started by a user claiming to be a government insider with knowledge of a secret plot,” the watchdog noted.
“And multiple ‘insider’ posts popped up on 4chan during the presidential campaign, with the posters claiming to be from Biden’s orbit, and some were then shared and spread on social media.”
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, in an interview on Thursday, Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn said that he is “concerned” about Roberts’ role in the alleged plot to rig the 2020 election.
