Former President Donald Trump has responded to the growing focus on a trove of sensitive documents the FBI removed from his Mar-a-Lago home by posting conspiracy theories on his Truth Social account.
Mr Trump took to his Twitter clone social media platform — which has been barred from the Google Play store — on Tuesday morning, during which he posted references to QAnon and the Ray Epps conspiracy theory.
The former president "ReTruthed" — retweeted, in Twitter terms — a post by a person named "scottolsen" who claimed that neither the former president nor his supporters wanted to storm the Capitol on Januar 6 2021, but instead forwarded a completely debunked conspiracy theory that the FBI worked with antifa to spur the riot.
"There is overwhelming evidence that it was not the goal of Trump, not his supporters to storm the capital [sic]. The FBI colluded with antifa to make that happen," he wrote. "I don't blame you for not knowing where to find appropriate information, but as a good American, you owe yourself the critical thought to research this claim appropriately."
None of that is true.
Mr Trump also shared a post focused on the wife of Mr Epps — the man right-wing conspiracists believe was working with the FBI to incite the Capitol riot — which suggested she was the national director of sales and development at Dominion Enterprises. The post asserted that Ms Epps' company was a division of Dominion Voting, and insinuated it couldn't have been a coincidence.
Right-wing conspiracists also believe Dominion Voting somehow fixed election machines to steal the 2020 election from Mr Trump. There is no evidence to any of those claims, and Dominion has sued numerous individuals, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Rudy Giuliani and former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, in a multi-billion dollar lawsuit over their claims.
Mr Trump asked "is this really true?" in his post, boosting its reach to all of his Truth Social followers.
In reality, Mr Epps was a Trump supporter who was at the Capitol on January 6. In a video from the day prior Mr Epps was filmed firing up a crowd, calling on them to protest at the Capitol.
However, Mr Epps said he never entered the Capitol and left the grounds the day of the attack after he helped someone who had been pepper sprayed out of the crowd. He reported himself to the FBI once he knew the FBI was seeking him out, and has not been charged with any crimes related to the attack on the Capitol.
He has since gone into hiding after receiving death threats and having Trump supporters confront him at his previous home over the conspiracy theory.
