On Tuesday night, BuzzFeed News published an explosive, yet completely unverified, dossier alleging that President-elect Donald Trump engaged in a whole host of, shall we say unusual, sexual activities in Moscow. Matt already wrote about the basics of the report and the blackmail threat, so I'm not going to delve into that.
What's worth talking about, however, are swirling claims on Reddit that 4chan users on the board /pol/ completely made the entire thing up. According to a variety of posts on the pro-Trump subreddit r/The_Donald, a user on /pol/, a 4chan board, made up the most salacious story in the report. He then mailed it to anti-Trump Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who then went to the CIA. The story was then included on the dossier published Tuesday by BuzzFeed News.
If this is true, this effectively means that 4chan trolled the U.S. intelligence system and the majority of the U.S. media with what's basically Donald Trump erotic fanfiction, which is terrifying.
While literally no aspect of anything that was reported tonight by both BuzzFeed News and 4chan has been confirmed or verified, it is an odd coincidence that a 4chan post from prior to the election seems to match up with what was released on Tuesday.
Additionally, WikiLeaks says that the report published by BuzzFeed is "not an intelligence report" and that it is not consistent with the style of other reports.
35 page PDF published by Buzzfeed on Trump is not an intelligence report. Style, facts & dates show no credibility.https://t.co/twa8pJMMtP
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 11, 2017
Wilson denied that his source was from /pol/.
You're wrong if you believe
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 11, 2017
1. What we had came from /pol.
2. That I was Buzzfeed's source.
Try again, boys.
As for Trump? He says it's all fake news.
FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017
Guess we'll have to wait and see if 4chan pulled off what is possibly the greatest troll game in internet history.