After he was implicated in a conspiracy to concoct false sexual-assault allegations against special counsel Robert Mueller, Jacob Wohl, a prominent young supporter of President Donald Trump on social media, was ruthlessly mocked on Twitter for a hack job at covering his tracks.
Wohl, 20, who has been accused of defrauding investors in his financial firms, is known for peddling conspiracy theories, far-right talking points and boosting Trump on his social media accounts.
It looks as if Wohl is behind a pretend company called Surefire Intelligence named Tuesday on documents published by The Gateway Pundit, a far-right fake-news website for which he writes, alleging Mueller was accused of raping a woman.
The Gateway Pundit quickly took down the article and the documents. "Earlier today we were given information on accusations against former FBI Director Robert Mueller," Jim Hoft, the editor, wrote in their place.
"We took the documents down and we are currently investigating these accusations. There are also very serious allegations against Jacob Wohl. We are also looking into this."
Journalists from The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, Bellingcat, NBC News and other publications quickly got to work, establishing that the LinkedIn profile pictures of supposed Surefire Intelligence employees were either models or actors, such as the Hollywood star Christoph Waltz.
Other sleuthing revealed that Surefire's website was registered by someone using Wohl's email address, that Wohl was actually the man in a shaded anonymous image purporting to be company managing partner "Matthew Cohen" and that the firm's phone number redirected to Wohl's mother's voice mail.
On Tuesday, Wohl tweeted: "Several media sources tell me that a scandalous story about Mueller is breaking tomorrow. Should be interesting. Stay tuned!"
The conservative D.C. lobbyist Jack Burkman, known for pushing conspiracy theories, particularly around the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, claims to have several women willing to make allegations of sexual assault against Mueller.
Burkman promised a press conference on Thursday, during which one of the women would identify herself.
A couple of weeks ago, multiple journalists, including two reporters at Newsweek, received an email claiming women were being offered money to accuse Mueller, a former FBI director, of sexual misconduct.
A woman purportedly named Lorraine Parsons claimed that an associate of Burkman's had offered to pay off her late husband's credit card debt and give her a check for $20,000 if she falsely accused the special counsel of sexual assault. She would not speak further to reporters.
Burkman denied paying any women to come forward. Wohl, whose own apparent efforts to discredit Mueller were connected to Burkman, had also denied this.
In an interview with Hill Reporter, Burkman acknowledged working with Surefire and that Wohl was behind it.
"Surefire is a real company, an intel operation in Los Angeles," Burkman said. "We have known them for a long time. The guy's name is Jacob Wohl. They do a lot of intel work. They do a lot of good research."
Wohl later tweeted: "Very credible allegations are set to be made against Robert Mueller—The MSM is scrambling! They're accusing me of offering to pay accusers with ZERO PROOF and ZERO EVIDENCE!"
The special counsel's office said it referred to the FBI the allegations that women were offered money to make false claims against Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump 2016 campaign.
Odd. Jacob Wohl says he doesn't know nuttin' about Surefire Intelligence, the firm tied to the bizarre Mueller allegations. Take a look at the photos below of Mathhew Cohen, head of 'Surefire,' and of Jacob Wohl. pic.twitter.com/Q1rAW4wkPO
— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) October 30, 2018
hey dumbass jim hoft and jacob wohl: Robert Mueller was SERVING JURY DUTY IN DC the EXACT DAY you claimed he raped a woman in NYC (August 2, 2010). that's some surefire intelligence for ya pic.twitter.com/h1P0y85cAP
— lvl 45 chaos potus LIMITED EDITION! (@thetomzone) October 30, 2018
Seems unfair that Jacob’s mom built the Wohl and also has to pay for it
— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) October 30, 2018
Jacob Wohl trying to scam Robert Mueller is like the scene in the first 10 minutes of every Terminator film where a guy punches the robot and breaks his hand
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) October 30, 2018
Gateway Pundit, which published the Jacob Wohl-backed dossier filled with wild accusations about Mueller, is back-pedaling fast. They've taken down the file and are now trying to claim Mueller making a criminal referral to the FBI is an abuse of government power. pic.twitter.com/71uWGQjSfI
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 30, 2018
sad to see everyone pile on jacob wohl when my guy has been warning us about these kinds of stories for months! pic.twitter.com/CoRAvrxmZp
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) October 31, 2018
I'm reminded of this anytime Jacob Wohl's name is in the news pic.twitter.com/NgoHBNk40A
— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) October 30, 2018
1. Mueller is a prosecutor’s prosecutor
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) October 31, 2018
2. Jacob Wohl is a fool’s fool
Friendly advice for @JacobAWohl. When you are caught and a criminal investigation started ... best not double down bc FBI agents are lying in wait ... whoops! Too late! #Morongate pic.twitter.com/cj5pEHDoW6
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) October 30, 2018
Open source investigation pro-tip for @JacobAWohl and friends, if you plagiarise chunks of texts from other websites it makes your fake website look even more fake. pic.twitter.com/U2y3UAR1SZ
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) October 30, 2018
[Jacob Wohl voice] "I woulda gotten away with it too if it wasn't for literally just me"
— Fred Delicious (@Fred_Delicious) October 30, 2018
I would like to thank Jacob Wohl and his fake pals at Surefire Intelligence for showing the world how wonderful reverse image search is, and why everyone needs to learn to use it.
— Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman) October 30, 2018
Not following this Jacob Wohl stuff in detail but seems like some Zeno's Paradox thing where whenever you think you've reached the asymptote of stupidity it somehow becomes 50% stupider.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 31, 2018
Jacob Wohl aka 🥔 is really moving up in life. Investigated by the FEC for fraud in his teens and now a potential target in an FBI investigation in his 20s https://t.co/OKueHYCZ1m
— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) October 30, 2018
Uncommon Knowledge
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Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more
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