Lawyer's parody Twitter account calls for 'Pizzagate' probe; 'There are clues everywhere,' he says
A lawyer who says he is behind a Twitter account in the name of a fake congressman is calling for an investigation of bizarre claims about a pizzeria pedophilia ring—in his tweets and in a newspaper interview.
Lawyer Jeffrey Marty of Trinity, Florida, told the New York Times “there are clues everywhere” and the report about a pedophilia ring involving Hillary Clinton needs to be investigated, Law.com (sub. req.) reports. Hoax news reports about the ring, widely circulating online, apparently motivated a North Carolina man to travel on Sunday to the Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant, where he fired his AR-15 rifle but did not injure anyone.
Marty told the Times he did not agree with the gun incident, but he declined to say whether he believed the “Pizzagate” claims. “I just think you need to investigate,” he said. Several publications, including the New York Times, have confirmed that reports of the pizza pedophilia rings are false.
Marty’s account, @RepStevenSmith, is currently labeled a parody. He has 24,000 followers. According to Law.com, “The line between the parody character and Marty seems to have all but disappeared in the account’s more recent tweets.” Many tweets allege bias by the mainstream media and criticize its debunking of the pizza ring story.
There is no evidence that Marty encouraged violence, but Law.com raises questions about whether his fake Twitter account could nonetheless be an ethics violation. There could be ethics issues if he were found to spread false information or the account were linked to dangerous action, according to Florida lawyers who spoke with the publication.
One lawyer who commented was Andrew Berman of Florida. “You’re a lawyer 24 hours a day, and if you’re doing things that you reasonably know could cause harm to other people or disrupt business operations or cause people to do things that are reckless or harm others, you’re responsible for what you do,” he told Law.com.
Marty released a statement to Law.com saying he didn’t think he was misleading anyone by asking for investigation of a potential story.
