Conservative activist and noted Trump supporter Jacob Wohl has a habit of creating actual “fake news” and becoming the target of widespread mockery when his claims fall apart. In November 2018, Wohl held a press conference where he promised to introduce a woman who was alleging sexual harassment by special counsel Robert Mueller. No woman materialized and instead, Wohl found himself referred to the FBI for investigation because it turned out he was behind a bogus “intelligence” company at the center of the scandal.
In late February 2019, Wohl did an interview with USA Today where he bragged about his social media influence and specifically talked about the fake social media accounts he created to promote lies and disinformation about Democratic politicians and progressive activists. The folks at Twitter didn’t take too kindly to his blatant violation of site rules, and they promptly banned him from the platform.
While Wohl appealed to conservative groups like CPAC to rally support to get himself reinstated at Twitter, one of those phony Wohl-linked Twitter accounts popped up on the radar of the Minneapolis Police Department after Wohl reported he’d received a death threat from the account. Wohl was filmed filing a police report related to the apparently bogus threat in a “documentary” he was making in an attempt to smear Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. Omar has been the target of several actions by Wohl and another Twitter-banned conservative activist, Laura Loomer. Not coincidentally, Loomer herself was banned Twitter for anti-Muslim slurs.
Minneapolis journalist Tony Webster noticed the alleged death threat Wohl recorded in the “documentary” came from one of the accounts that NBC identified as a phony Wohl account. See Webster’s comments and the clip below, then jump to see the reaction from the police.
According to Webster, they have all of the evidence inventoried.
Minneapolis police told Webster they are reviewing the documents Wohl turned over to them to see if they can be released to the public. No word yet on whether Wohl is now under criminal investigation by the Minneapolis PD, but given the widespread media coverage, they are unlikely to brush it off—especially given the recent case of Jussie Smollett, who is currently facing 16 felony charges for allegedly lying to police about a fake hate crime. Furthermore, the man whose photo was used as the avatar on the fake Twitter account lives in the Minneapolis area.
Stay tuned.