Smollett Conspiracy Theories Target George Soros

A couple dozen protesters gathered in Chicago yesterday to demonstrate against the decision to drop charges against former Empire actor Jussie Smollett for his alleged hate crime hoax. But amid the signs criticizing Smollett and prosecutor Kim Foxx, there was one surprising name that drew protesters’ ire: billionaire Democratic financier George Soros.

Soros has nothing to do with the charges being dropped against Smollett, nor any other discernible connection to the actor. But that hasn’t stopped the rumor that Soros and other top Democrats are pulling the strings in the Chicago prosecutor’s office over Smollett from circulating widely on the right.

In Soros’s case, the Smollett “connection” comes in the form of $408,000 Soros gave to support Foxx’s election campaign in 2016. Those donations came nearly three years before the Smollett “MAGA Country” incident, but that hasn’t stopped various hoaxers on the right from suggesting that Soros paid off Foxx to let Smollett go or is otherwise involved.

MAGA personality Jack Murphy falsely tweeted that Soros gave Foxx $408,000 “in return for all charges being dropped,” a claim that garnered more than 7,000 retweets.

Screenshot via Twitter

InfoWars claimed that Soros and Barack Obama were “behind” the decision to drop charges.

“Where is the media covering this connection?” tweeted Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk.

Screenshot via Twitter

Soros and Obama aren’t the only prominent Democrats who have been tenuously pulled into the Smollett saga. A viral graphic passed around on social media claims, wrongly, that Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is dating Smollett’s sister. Meanwhile, columnist Michelle Malkin is blaming the Obamas because they are from Chicago.

“How did hate crime huckster Jussie Smollett get away with it?” Malkin wrote in her widely syndicated columnist last week. “All crooked roads in Chicago lead back to the Obamas.”

The rumors and hoaxes have had the effect of making the Smollett case the kind of lingering mystery that can be “investigated” on the right forever. On Fox News, Laura Ingraham has already promised her audience that she’ll investigate whether Soros intervened to save Smollett.

Jack Posobiec makes a graphic novel about himself

Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec is rebranding himself again, this time as a comic book character.

Dubbed Agent Poso, the graphic novel Posobiec is making will imagine Posobiec, now a reporter at would-be Fox rival One America News, as a secret agent.

“Think Spy vs. Spy, think 007, think Jack Bauer,” Posobiec told his fans in a livestream.

Making a comic book about a cooler version of yourself might seem like a bit much — especially since Posobiec’s alter ego will participate in ripped-from-the-headlines events, like a kind of MAGA version of The Newsroom.

But Posobiec, the promoter of a number of other hoaxes, says he has to make because liberals and “social justice warriors” have taken over the comic book industry.

“They’re controlled by SJW’s,” Posobiec said.

Posobiec didn’t respond to a request for comment about what kind of situations Agent Poso could find himself in.

QAnon keeps growing

QAnon, the conspiracy theory about executing your political opponents, continues to gain traction among Trump supporters.

On Thursday, at least dozens of QAnon supporters turned out with QAnon signs and clothes to a Trump rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In one video from the rally, a huge number of people in the line cheer a sign urging them to “make noise for Q.”

The rally-goers also shout QAnon slogans, suggesting that they’re familiar with the conspiracy theory.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence sent a tweet promoting Unplanned, a new anti-abortion movie that’s become a cause celebre on the right. Just a few hours later, Unplanned’s official Twitter account wrote “#WWG1WGA,” a reference to the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all.”

Screenshot via Twitter

Unplanned’s creators didn’t respond to request for comment on whether they’re QAnon believers, or whether the movie is targeted at that demographic.