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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJacob Wohl Staged Fake FBI Raid on Business Partner, Actor Hired for Production Says
A Virginia man who responded to a Craigslist ad seeking actors to play FBI agents quickly discovered hed been roped into yet another Wohl/Burkman hoaxLachlan Markay
Will Sommer
Adam Rawnsley
Updated Sep. 14, 2020 2:29PM ET
A supposed FBI raid of a home of an infamous Republican dirty trickster appears to have been a ruseone that began falling apart even as its perpetrators managed to dupe a major national newspaper.
On Monday, a Virginia man who responded to a Craigslist ad seeking actors to play FBI agents for a television pilot came forward to say that hed been roped into the latest hoax orchestrated by bumbling right-wing smear merchants Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl.
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Tommy Abraham told The Daily Beast in an interview on Monday that the Craigslist ad offered $400 cash payments to white male actors who agreed to don FBI badges and windbreakers and film a series of scenes at Burkmans home in Arlington, Virginia. In the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, Abraham said that he and a handful of others who responded to the ad converged on Burkmans home and were filmed acting out an FBI raid there. Abraham supplied documentary evidence to back up his assertions, including emails from an address bearing the name of a company Wohl once ran.
By Monday afternoon, news of the fake raid had already been reported as genuine by The Washington Post, and Burkman was insinuating that high-level government officials were retaliating against him for his efforts to root out corruption in Washington. A person going by the name Bev Donahue sent a series of photos and video clips of the raid to reporters, and shared them on an eponymous twitter account created in August. But theres evidence that Donahue is just a pseudonym for Wohl. That Twitter account is associated with an email address beginning with ja and a cell phone number that, like Wohls, ends with the digits 91.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jacob-wohl-staged-fake-fbi-raid-on-business-partner-actor-hired-for-production-says
tblue37
(65,381 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)And gosh it was all staged. I would think the F.B.I may have something to say about that.
tblue37
(65,381 posts)Lochloosa
(16,065 posts)fleur-de-lisa
(14,624 posts)If they don't get attention, they will manuracture some crisis to ensure its delivery.
Maru Kitteh
(28,340 posts)Lithos
(26,403 posts)One which is generally enforced. Should be interesting.
GopherGal
(2,008 posts)if the supposed "target" of the fake FBI raid was in on the hoax, has a crime been committed?
If their impersonation of federal agents served to elicit the compliance of a non-cognizant victim, that would be a crime, but if the person to whose home access was obtained knew they weren't real Feds, maybe it was just legally permissible theater?
not_the_one
(2,227 posts)It is all in the name of art... Right.
Your lack of concern is duly noted.
GopherGal
(2,008 posts)Not at all saying that would justify it. And certainly not saying it was "art".
Whatever the motive (and the only ones I can think of are attention seeking and legal defense fundraising), I think it's a given that these are despicable people and actions.
I am trying to reverse engineer the logic that might lead Wohl and cronies to think they might get away with something like this. Trying to figure out when it crosses the line from obnoxious "punk"ing into fraud/felony.
But you're right that I'm giving them too much credit.
Midnight Writer
(21,768 posts)They love their ratfuckers.
Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)pandr32
(11,586 posts)I certainly hope it is and there will be charges.
tblue37
(65,381 posts)pandr32
(11,586 posts)Siwsan
(26,263 posts)Liquid and otherwise.
Lochloosa
(16,065 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)The media are going to give you one more chance before they give you one more chance just before they give you one more chance to come up with some actual news instead of yet another lighter-than-air hoax that nevertheless collapses under its own weight before you're even done talking.
Why does any news outlet give this charlatan the time of day?
demtenjeep
(31,997 posts)what is their big idea behind this?
were their pants unzipped again?