The rightwing blog The Gateway Pundit pushed a single-sourced rumor from the anonymous Twitter account @Umpire43 that claimed one of Roy Moore’s accusers was offered $1,000 by The Washington Post to go public with her claims.
That rumor quickly made its way to InfoWars and the top of r/The_Donald, the most active pro-Trump community on the web. The pro-Trump cable station One America News Network even aired it, calling it a “report.”
But the source for that viral accusation is a serial fabulist who has been using the identity of a Navy serviceman who died in 2007, records show.
Umpire43, also known as Doug Lewis or DJ Lewis, has repeatedly invented stories in the past—particularly about his own background. Lewis said he was a 22-year veteran of the Navy, a pollster at Ipsos/Reuters, an expert on rigging voting machines, a source who was feet away from Reince Preibus whose family has connections in the Clinton campaign, a man who speaks six languages, a beleaguered soul who needed time off after 9/11 when he saw Muslims “dancing on rooftops,” the owner of a polling company who claimed Trump had a sustained lead in California, and an actual baseball umpire with 50 years experience. Oh, and he worked at the American consulate in Calgary, where he claimed to obtain proof of a forged birth certificate for Ted Cruz’s father,.
The Daily Beast spoke with each of the institutions and companies at which he claimed he was affiliated and employed. None of Umpire43’s employment or service claims are true, these organizations said.
Umpire43’s now-infamous allegation made the claim that “A family friend in Alabama just told my wife that a WAPO reporter named Beth offered her 1000$ to accuse Roy Moore” last week, was deleted with the rest of his account Tuesday morning.
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