Trump’s Source on Fake Story That Britain Spied on Campaign: There’s a Conspiracy to Frame Me as ‘Conspiracy Nut’
LONDON—The source of President Trump’s false claim that British intelligence agents spied on his presidential campaign says there is a widespread conspiracy to frame him as a “conspiracy nut.”
Trump quoted former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson on Wednesday after Johnson appeared on the right-wing One America News Network to repeat incendiary and totally unproven claims that America’s closest intelligence ally was used by President Obama to surveil his successor during the 2016 campaign.
Johnson’s claims first hit the mainstream in 2017, when Judge Andrew Napolitano repeated his theory on Fox & Friends. Fox had taken a claim from Johnson—who says he was banned from appearing on Fox News himself—that was first shared on an internet forum and Russia’s RT network and pushed it into the mainstream.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here