Clinton Body Count
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The Clinton Body Count is a discredited conspiracy theory asserting that former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton have had their political opponents assassinated, totalling as many as 50 or more.[1][2][3] Many parts of it have been advanced by Newsmax publisher Christopher Ruddy, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and others. Such accusations have been around at least since the 1990s, when a film called The Clinton Chronicles, produced by Larry Nichols and promoted by Rev. Jerry Falwell, accused Bill Clinton of multiple crimes including murder.[4][5]
This conspiracy theory has been discredited by the Lakeland Ledger, the Chicago Tribune, Snopes and others, who point to detailed death records, the unusually large circle of associates that a president is likely to have, and the fact that many of the people listed had been misidentified, or were still alive. Others had no known link to the Clintons.[6][7]
Alleged victims
C. Victor Raiser II
C. Victor Raiser II was National Finance Co-chairman for Bill Clinton. He died in a plane crash along with his son and three others on July 30, 1992, during a fishing trip. Conspiracy theorists believe the crash to have been deliberately caused, however the National Transportation Safety Board ruled it as an accident, stating:[6][8][9]
The pilot's delayed decision in reversing course and his failure to maintain airspeed during the maneuver. factors related to the accident were: mountainous terrain and a low ceiling.
Mary Mohane
Mary Mohane was a White House intern who, in the early summer of 1997, was gunned down inside a Starbucks in the Georgetown suburb of Washington, D.C. The robber entered the store and shot Mohane after she attempted to take his gun. He then shot two Starbucks employees and fled. However, conspiracy theorists believe Mohane was killed on the orders of the Clintons.[6][10]
Vince Foster
Deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was found dead in Fort Marcy Park in Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., on July 20, 1993. An autopsy determined that he was shot in the mouth, and no other wounds were found on his body.[11] His death was ruled a suicide by five official investigations, but he remains a subject of conspiracy theories that he was actually murdered by the Clintons for knowing too much.[12]
Seth Rich
The unsolved 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee staff member Seth Rich prompted conspiracy theorists to speculate that Hillary Clinton arranged his death; the debunked theory was based on a Fox News report, later retracted, that Rich had been responsible for Wikileaks' release of DNC emails during the 2016 United States presidential campaign.[13][14] Various elements of this theory have been promoted by prominent right-wing figures including Alex Jones, Newt Gingrich, and Sean Hannity.[15][16]
Jeffrey Epstein
Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, being held on federal charges of child sex trafficking, was found dead in his cell at the high-security Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on August 10, 2019.[17] An official autopsy later declared the cause of death as a suicide by hanging.[18] His death led to conspiracy theories being relayed on social media, particularly relating to Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump. Hours after Epstein's death, Trump retweeted claims that Epstein's death was related to Clinton, including the hashtag #ClintonBodyCount.[19][20] Lynne Patton, a Trump appointee at HUD, said "Hillary'd!!" and used the hashtag #VinceFosterPartTwo in an Instagram post about Epstein's death.[21] Political commentator Dinesh D'Souza attempted to use the time he spent in a federal correctional center to lend authority to the conspiracy theory that the Clintons were responsible for Epstein's death.[22]
Christopher Sign
Reporter Christopher Sign broke the news of a meeting on June 27, 2016, on the Phoenix Sky Harbor tarmac between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The timing of the meeting happened during the 2016 presidential election when then-candidate Hillary Clinton was under scrutiny for how she handled certain emails during her tenure as U.S. Secretary of State.[23] Sign was found dead in his Alabama home on June 12, 2021. His death is being investigated as a suicide.[24] Several right-wing figures, including Lauren Boebert, Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk, as well as the pro-Trump cable news channel One America News Network, suggested that Sign had been murdered by the Clintons.[25]
Jovenel Moïse
Haitian president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7, 2021, when gunmen attacked his residence in Pèlerin 5, a district of Pétion-Ville.[26][27][28][29] Martine Moïse, the first lady of Haiti, was hospitalized for wounds sustained during the attack.[30][31][32] Some right-wing conspiracy theorists have claimed that the Clintons were involved in Moïse's death, pointing to political controversies regarding aid given to Haiti by the Clinton Foundation, such as "hurricane-proof" classroom trailers that were found to be structurally unsafe and laced with formaldehyde. Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, who claim that Donald Trump is secretly waging war against a cabal of child traffickers that includes the Clintons, heavily discussed the idea that they had a hand in the assassination. Discussion of the unfounded claim caused the term "Clintons" to become a top trend on Twitter.[33]
Others
Other persons linked to the Clinton Body Count include:
- Jim McDougal, a financial partner of the Clintons in the real estate venture that led to the Whitewater scandal. McDougal died of a heart attack at the Federal Correctional Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 8, 1998.[3]
- John F. Kennedy Jr., who was, according to polls, the most popular Democrat in New York. According to friends, Kennedy considered seeking the seat of retiring Sen. Daniel Moynihan in the 2000 United States Senate election in New York[34] but died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999. Hillary Clinton was elected to Moynihan's vacated seat on November 7, 2000.[35][36]
- Edward Eugene Willey, Jr., a Clinton fundraiser whose wife, Kathleen Willey, alleged on the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her on November 29, 1993. Kathleen also testified on the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit against Clinton. Edward was found dead in the Virginia woods, and his death was ruled a suicide.[37][38][39]
- Ron Brown, who served as the Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Brown had been under investigation by an independent counsel for the Commerce Department trade mission controversy and was a material witness, who had been noticed to testify, in Judicial Watch's lawsuit against the Clinton Commerce Department.[40][41][42] He and 34 others died in the 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash.[43][39]
- Jerry Parks, head of security for the Clinton headquarters during his presidential campaign in 1992,[44] was killed on September 26, 1993, as he left a Mexican restaurant at the edge of Little Rock, Arkansas, by a man in another car that shot him ten times using a 9mm handgun. Parks’ son, Gary, asserted that his father collected a secret file of Clinton's "peccadilloes", and that his father was using the file to try to blackmail the Clinton campaign.[45][46]
- Mark Middleton, an Arkansas business leader, mutual friend of Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein, and former finance director for Clinton's presidential campaign and later special assistant to Clinton, was found dead hanging from a tree thirty miles from his home with a shotgun wound in his chest, May 7, 2022. Middleton's family filed an injunction to prevent police photos of the scene from being released to the public, citing concerns that the images could encourage conspiracy theories. Judge Alice Gray will decide whether the photographs can be released.[47][48][49]
- Fabricated tweets stating "I have information that will lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton." were supposedly sent by figures such as celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain,[50][51] basketball player Kobe Bryant,[52] Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,[53][54] former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe[55][56] and Queen Elizabeth II[57] prior to their deaths.
References
- ^ Nelson, Lars-Erik (January 4, 1999). "Conspiracy Nuts Hit New Low With The Body Count". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- ^ Marcotte, Amanda (August 29, 2016). "The Clinton BS Files: "Lock her up" isn't really about emails – the right's been accusing the Clintons of murder for decades". Salon. Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
- ^ a b Matthews, Dylan (August 10, 2019). "The conspiracy theories about the Clintons and Jeffrey Epstein's death, explained". Vox.
- ^ Weiss, Philip (February 23, 1997). "Clinton Crazy". The New York Times Magazine. p. 35. Archived from the original on May 15, 2014.
- ^ "The People President Clinton Didn't Have to Pardon…Because They're All Dead". TruthOrFiction.com. March 17, 2015. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
- ^ a b c "Clinton Body Bags". Snopes. January 24, 1998. Archived from the original on January 30, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
- ^ Page, Clarence (January 11, 1998). "Ron Brown Murder Plot Has Too Many Holes". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on February 24, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
- ^ "Victor Raiser, 52, Financial Aide In Clinton Presidential Campaign". The New York Times. August 2, 1992. p. 46. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
- ^ "ANC92FA116". National Transportation Safety Board. September 6, 2003. Archived from the original on September 6, 2003. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
- ^ Franklin, Roger (June 29, 2000). "Murder to mistresses: Clinton cops the lot". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
- ^ Beyer, Dr. James C. "Report of Investigation by Medical Examiner, Vince Foster Autopsy Findings" (PDF). AutopsyFiles.org. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
- ^ Kessler, Glenn (May 25, 2016). "No, Donald Trump, there's nothing 'fishy' about Vince Foster's suicide". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
- ^ Folkenflik, David (August 1, 2017). "Behind Fox News' Baseless Seth Rich Story: The Untold Tale". Morning Edition. NPR. Archived from the original on May 27, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
- ^ Palma, Bethania (May 16, 2017). "Fact Check: Did DNC Staffer Seth Rich Send 'Thousands of E-Mails' to WikiLeaks Before He Was Murdered?". Snopes. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
- ^ Sullivan, Margaret (August 1, 2017). "You don't have to believe everything in that Seth Rich lawsuit. What's been confirmed is bad enough". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
- ^ Weigel, David (May 20, 2017). "The Seth Rich conspiracy shows how fake news still works". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
- ^ Rashbaum, William K.; Weiser, Benjamin; Gold, Michael (August 10, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein Dead in Suicide at Jail, Spurring Inquiries". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 19, 2020.
- ^ "Medical examiner rules Epstein death a suicide by hanging". Associated Press. August 22, 2020. Archived from the original on August 22, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ^ Weill, Kelly (August 10, 2019). "Conspiracy Theories Erupt After Jeffrey Epstein's Death". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on July 7, 2020.
- ^ Timm, Jane C.; Johnstone, Liz (August 10, 2019). "Trump retweets Epstein conspiracy theory, claiming Clinton connection". NBC News. Archived from the original on February 5, 2020.
- ^ Stockler, Asher (August 10, 2019). "Top HUD Official Promotes Clinton Conspiracy Theory in Wake of Epstein's Apparent Suicide". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 11, 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
- ^ Weber, Peter (August 12, 2019). "Dinesh D'Souza tried to use his time behind bars to bolster Epstein conspiracy theory, failed". The Week. Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
Over the weekend, D'Souza tried to leverage his eight months in a federal correctional center to lend authority to the bizarre, evidently Trump-endorsed conspiracy theory that the Clintons might be responsible for Jeffrey Epstein's suicide.
- ^ Ruelas, Richard (June 14, 2018). "Report details Sky Harbor meeting between Clinton and Lynch". The Republic. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ Alyssa Newcomb (January 11, 1998). "Christopher Sign, Alabama news anchor, dies at 45". Today.com.
- ^ Sommer, Will (June 18, 2021). "Right-Wing Ghouls Seize on Reporter Death as Proof the 'Clinton Body Count' Lives On". The Daily Beast. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
- ^ "Le président Jovenel Moïse assassiné chez lui par un commando armé". Le Nouvelliste. Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
- ^ "Haïti : le président Jovenel Moïse assassiné par un commando". Libération. Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
- ^ Armed Intruders Kill Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. MSNBC. July 7, 2021. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021.
- ^ Haiti President Jovenel Moïse assassinated. Associated Press. July 7, 2021. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021.
- ^ "Haïti : le président Jovenel Moïse assassiné". France 24. July 7, 2021. Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
- ^ "Haitian President Jovenel Moise assassinated overnight at private residence". France24. July 7, 2021. Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
- ^ Deutsche Welle (July 7, 2021). "Haitian President Jovenel Moise assassinated in his home". Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
- ^ Thalen, Mikael (July 7, 2021). "Conspiracy theorists are blaming the Clintons after Haitian president's assassination". The Daily Dot.
- ^ Siegel, Joel. "JFK JR. Mulled Run for Senate in 2000". nydailynews.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2021. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ O'Rourke, Ciara (November 8, 2019). "Another Clinton body count hoax — this one starring JFK Jr. — is wrong". PolitiFact. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
- ^ Moritz, John C. (October 21, 2020). "Fact Check: Hillary Clinton, JFK Jr. and the 2000 New York Senate race". USA Today. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
- ^ "Clinton Body Bags". Snopes. January 24, 1998. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
- ^ Buhler, Rich (March 17, 2015). "'Clinton Body Count' Rumors". Truth or Fiction?.
- ^ a b "Does Bill Clinton Run Murder Inc.?". Slate Magazine. February 19, 1999.
- ^ "AllPolitics – No Conclusions On Brown – Nov. 14, 1996". edition.cnn.com.
- ^ "Washingtonpost.com Special Report: Clinton Accused". The Washington Post.
- ^ "AllPolitics – Time This Week: November 11, 1996". edition.cnn.com.
- ^ "15 Hillary Clinton Conspiracy Theories, From Body Doubles to Murder". TheWrap. November 6, 2016.
- ^ "Hillary's Baggage: A Story From My Former Life as a Clinton-Hater". Observer. May 26, 2006.
- ^ Weiss, Philip (February 23, 1997). "Clinton Crazy". The New York Times.
- ^ "Can It Be Possible? Attack Videos Prove Politics Can Indeed Get Dirtier". Los Angeles Times. July 3, 1994.
- ^ "Central Arkansas Business Leader Mark Middleton Dies at 59". Arkansas Business. May 9, 2022.
- ^ "Judge will consider if photos can be shielded". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
- ^ Brantley, Max (June 8, 2022). "Family seeks to shield images of Mark Middleton's death in Perry County". Arkansas Times. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
- ^ King, Ryan (July 29, 2021). "FACT CHECK: Did Anthony Bourdain Send This Tweet Saying He Had Information That Would Lead To Hillary Clinton's Arrest?". Check Your Fact.
- ^ "Fact Check-Anthony Bourdain did not tweet that he has information that will lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton". Reuters. August 11, 2021.
- ^ O'Rourke, Clara (January 27, 2020). "No, Kobe Bryant didn't tweet about having dirt on Hillary Clinton before his helicopter crashed". PolitiFact.
- ^ Swenson, Ali (September 21, 2020). "Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not author a tweet about Hillary Clinton". Associated Press.
- ^ Busch, Katie (September 22, 2020). "Ginsburg Didn't Tweet About Hillary Clinton". FactCheck.org.
- ^ Tulp, Sophia (July 8, 2022). "Fabricated tweet circulates after Shinzo Abe assassination". Associated Press.
- ^ "Fact Check-Image of a tweet by Shinzo Abe about Hillary Clinton is fabricated". Reuters. July 9, 2022.
- ^ McCarthy, Bill (September 14, 2022). "Memes share fake Queen Elizabeth II quote about Hillary Clinton". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved September 29, 2022.