Trumpers Peddle Fake News to Smear Chief Justice John Roberts

Every where on social media, Trumpers have turned their ire on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. The social media circulated story that has Trumpers so riled up was repeated by Texas elector Matt Patrick in support of the inclusion of the word "cowardice" in a resolution criticizing the Supreme Court's dismissal of the Texas case.

"I wish I could give you a specific citation for this but I didn't make note of it because it was something that I read this morning and I did not know we were going to be presenting this amendment yet. But there's a report, available online. It was written by someone who's a current staffer for one of the Supreme Court justices. And I'll just describe the report to you what I read and you can make of it what you will."

Chief Justice John Roberts

“He said that the justices, as they always do, went into a closed room to discuss cases they're taking or to debate. There's no phones, no computers, no nothing, no one else is in the room except for the nine justices. It's typically very civil. They just debate what they're doing.

“But when the Texas case was brought up, he said he heard screaming through the walls as Justice Roberts and the other liberal justices were insisting that this case not be taken up. And the reason — the words that were heard through the wall when Justice Thomas and Justice Alito were citing Bush versus Gore — from John Roberts were ‘I don’t give a (brief pause to omit obscenity) about that case. I don't want to hear about it. At that time, we didn't have riots.’

“So what he was saying was that he was afraid of what would happen if they did the right thing,” Patrick told fellow electors. “And I'm sorry, but that is moral cowardice.”

The resolution passed overwhelming, but the "moral cowardice" language Patrick wanted was not  included.

The story was obviously fake. Due to the pandemic, the justices, most of whom are elderly and very susceptible to Covid-19, have not met together for nine months.  They were not in a closed, sealed room room shouting at each other.  Media Matters did the work and tracked down the origin of the silly hoax:

A hoax from a far-right message board about a rejected pro-Trump Supreme Court case went viral, drawing millions of views on social media and tricking a presidential elector in Texas and multiple right-wing media outlets and figures after a known white nationalist shared it.

...[A case] brought by Texas’ Republican attorney general, urged the Supreme Court to throw out the election results in four states that went to Biden. On December 11, the Supreme Court rejected the case.

That evening, a user on “/pol/,” a far-right message board on 4chan, posed as a “Supreme Court Clerk” and claimed they heard that the justices had been “arguing loudly behind closed doors” about the Texas case in a “closed and sealed room, as is standard.” The user claimed that during a “screaming” match, Chief Justice John Roberts told the other justices that hearing the Texas case would cause “riots” and that he would tell them “how to vote.” The post was clearly false, as the justices have not met in person for months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Although the Roberts' shouting story was obviously fake and quickly debunked, nonetheless it continues to be circulated via social media, including being amplified by prominent Trumpers such as Atlanta attorney Lin Wood.   Indeed it is a hard story for Trumpers to let go.  It fits the narrative they like  -  were it not for the intervention of "deep state" actors, people like Chief Justice Roberts, Trump would have won the Texas case and the election results favoring Biden overturned. 

Now photos are being circulated on the social media trying to link Chief Justice Roberts to the Jeffrey Epstein pedophilia scandal.  One is a picture of a flight log which lists a "John Roberts" as a passenger purportedly on a flight to Saint Thomas island where Epstein had a house.    Even if the photo is legitimate, the Chief Justice has a very common name, no doubt shared with thousands of other men.  

Then there is another photo of a man sitting on a couch with his arm around Ghislaine Maxwell, who is awaiting trial on charges that she procured underage women for her "boyfriend" Epstein. The man looks, at best, remotely like Roberts.  Even if it is Roberts, there is no way of knowing if the photo was altered or, if not, the circumstances behind the picture.   

The fact no mainstream conservative media outlets will touch the supposed links between Roberts and Epstein (and no "Gateway Pundit is not a legitimate news source) suggests there is nothing to it.  Yet that has not stopped Trumpers, such as Lin Wood, from disseminating the story to prove Chief Justice Roberts' "corruption."  

Wood also had another baseless Roberts' rumor that he posted on Twitter feed:

“In discussing @realDonaldTrump in phone conversation in 8/19, Justice John Roberts stated that he would make sure ‘the mother f#*ker would never be re-elected,” the tweet said. “Roberts engaged in phone conversations with Justice Stephen Breyer discussing how to work to get Trump voted out.”

https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1339659337208250369?s=20

Trumpers are trying everything they can, including lies, in an effort to force Chief Justice Roberts to resign.  Yeah, good luck with that one.  I'm going to bet on the guy who has lifetime tenure to win that one.

OOP's short takes:

• Earlier Secretary of State confirmed that the massive cyber attack was almost certainly done by Russia.  U.S. intelligence officials are also pointing their fingers at Russia.  Breaking news:  Donald Trump late this morning tweeted sent out a series of tweets deflecting blame from Russia and instead suggesting China did the hacking.  Oh, and he also claims China may have hacked the voting machines to give the election to Biden.
• Can we stop pretending that Vladimar Putin doesn't have something on Trump?  The President defends Russia at every turn.
• I don't expect the controversial pardons of Trump's family and friends will happen until after Christmas.  Perhaps after the January 5th Georgia run-off and the January 6th counting of electoral votes in Congress. But it will happen. Guaranteed.