Conspiracy Theorist Mike Cernovich Wants Sexual Assault Victims Of Congressmen To Speak

Conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich tweeted Monday night, offering to cover the legal expenses of anyone who wants to come forward and tell their story of being sexually harassed by any member of Congress.

Numerous reports have come out recently accusing politicians (and others from the media and entertainment industries) of sexual assault and harassment. To name a few, senate candidate Roy Moore has been accused by multiple people of sexual harassment and assault; Minnesota senator Al Franken was accused of forcibly kissing and groping a sports broadcaster, for which he issued an apology.

Cernovich, according to an article in the New York Times, is a blogger, YouTube personality and a filmmaker who has a far-right social media following. He graduated from Univeristy of Illinois after which he attended Pepperdine Univeristy School of Law.

According to the Times report, he started off as a men's self-help writer. His work reportedly gave the message of male empowerment and often aswered the question of how men should behave around women. He also went on to state that men should adopt a "gorilla mindset" and be the alpha male when dealing with women. He also tweeted some tips for empowering men.

The report also went on to say that he shaped the far-right narrative by being a social media infleuencer. Through his daily updates using tweets and videos, the report said he promoted conspiracy theories which were factually incorrect; however, Cernovich termed his work "hardcore journalism."

In a Daily Intelligencer report from August, Cernovich said, “I like to call myself that, because it really triggers people when I do,” on being asked whether he thinks of himself as a journalist. However, in the same report, he said that he thinks of himself firstly as a “non-fiction writer."

“And I write about whatever interests me, and lately, the drama of all the things happening in D.C. interests me. So, in that regard, I’m definitely a journalist in the sense that I am breaking news and writing news that other people don’t have,” he continued.

Cernovich is well known for propagating the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory on his blog “Danger and Play" in 2016. According a report by New Statesman, a British political and cultural magazine, “Pizzagate” started in March 2016 when WikiLeaks leaked emails from Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman John Podesta.

In an internet forum called 4Chan — where users can post content anonymously — an unnamed user claimed, without any actual evidence, that a picture of two girls sharing a pizza was proof that Podesta was running a child sex racket.

The report said that after a new batch of emails was leaked in November 2016, this conspiracy theory got more attention. Users of the forum thought that the word “pizza” was a code word for the child sex racket and that a Washington, D.C., restaurant named Comet Ping Pong was the front for an underground child sex ring run by Hillary Clinton.

The conspiracy theory received more than its fair share of attention, to the point that a man with an assault rifle fired shots inside the restaurant. He had reportedly gone there to check for himself if there was indeed a child sex racket going on.

The debunked theory also made it to a Reddit channel named The_Donald and the issue became a headline to promote Donald Trump during his campaign for the presidency.