Trump DNI Calls Lincoln Project “Secret Pedophile Ring”

Richard Grenell, who served as Acting Director of National Intelligence under former President Donald Trump, is now on social media leveling politically-driven accusations of criminal conspiracy against a group of Republicans for calling out deceitful media practices.

The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservatives, have been releasing video ads to, in their words, fight Trump and Trumpism. In their latest, they address Rupert Murdoch, of Fox News, and the network’s stoking of xenophobia and hate. Former Acting DNI Richard Grenell responded to this with a tweet, calling the group a “secret pedophile ring.”

The secret pedophile ring is trying to tell us who they are mad at…..

And who is still giving this group money? https://t.co/srRgVzA7gf

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) March 29, 2021

The former president’s son also echoed the sentiment, retweeting Grenell.

The attack echoed the q-anon conspiracy theories, in which followers believe that Donald Trump is secretly working to take down a massive left-wing pedophile ring, and anyone who is against Trump must therefore be a pedophile or pedophile supporter. The conspiracy theory does not address the multiple allegations of sexual assault leveled against Trump himself.

As Mother Jones reported last year, Grenell was being called out publically for spreading election disinformation, even before Trump lost. This included such claims as a tweet suggesting Joe Biden was being hypocritical about mask-wearing. Grenell was quickly caught — the photo he used for the false claim was from 2019, before masks were being worn.

He also made misleading statements supporting Trump’s false claims that the Obama Administration had carried out a surveillance operation on him during the election campaign cycle, and retweeted disinformation from foreign agencies.