Officials: Potential for violence from fake news troubling
WASHINGTON (AP) — The bizarre rumors began with a leaked email referencing Hillary Clinton and sinister interpretations of references to pizza parties.
On Sunday, it culminated in violence when police say a North Carolina man fired an assault rifle inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant as he attempted to "self-investigate" the conspiracy theory known in the Twitterverse as "Pizzagate."
On Monday, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest, asked about the shooting, said, There's no denying the corrosive effect that some of these false reports have had on our political debate, and that's concerning in a political context.
Court records made public Monday state Welch fired an AR-15 assault rifle multiple times inside the restaurant but later walked out with his hands up and unarmed, leaving his weapons inside.
The precise origins of the conspiracy theory Welch said he went to investigate are murky, though it seems to have started gaining momentum in the week before the election.
Some elements trace back to hacked emails from Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta that were released by Wikileaks that refer to pizza parties, with online commentators speculating that "pizza party" is a code word for something more nefarious.