Joe Scarborough Lori Klausutis Murder Conspiracy Theory

About

Joe Scarborough Lori Klausutis Murder Conspiracy Theory refers to an unsubstantiated claim that former congressman and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was involved in the death of Lori Klausutis, who died at one of Scarborough's congressional offices, where she worked as an intern, in July 2001.

Origin

On July 19th, 2001, Lori Kalusutis, 28, was found in Scarborough's Fort Walton Beach, Florida office. Police found no evidence of foul play. An autopsy later found that Klausutis had an "undiagnosed heart-valve irregularity, which caused cardiac arrhythmia. Medical examiners believed this caused her to lose consciousness, fall and hit her head on the edge of a desk, killing Klausutis.^[1][2]

The earliest available mention of the conspiracy theory was published on the website allhatnocattle.net^[3] on July 8th, 2003, which reported with skepticism that the medical examiner was dismissed and posted a cartoon mimicking Scarborough's defense (shown below).

Spread

The following year, DailyKOS.com^[4] reported that Scarborough had threatened filmmaker Michael Moore with a lawsuit over Moore's commenting Lori Klausutis. They published a transcript of Scarborough's comments to an NBC reporter:

SCARBOROUGH: You going to talk to Michael?
GOLDBERG: When he has time for me.

SCARBOROUGH: When he has time for you, just tell him to stop going around calling me a murderer or I`m going to have to call my lawyers. Will you do that for me?

GOLDBERG: Well, I`m sure you can get to him yourself, Joe, but I appreciate you having me on. I really do.

President Donald Trump's Revival of Theory

On May 12th, 2020, President Donald Trump ^[5] tweeted "ColdCaseJoe!" in reference to the conspiracy theory (shown below, left). The post received more than 36,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in less than one month. That day, he tweeted,^[6] "When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!" The tweet received more than 109,000 likes and 36,000 retweets in less than one month (shown below, right).

On May 21st, 2020, Klausutis widower, Timothy J. Klausutis, Ph.D., sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking him to "intervene" in the situation.^[7] They wrote:

I am now angry as well as frustrated and grieved. I understand that Twitter's policies about content are designed to maintain the appearance that your hands are clean--you provide a platform and the rest is up to users. However, in certain past cases, Twitter has removed content and accounts that are inconsistent with your terms of service.

I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him--the memory of my dead wife–and perverted it for political gain.

Over the next month, President Trump continued to tweet about conspiracy theories. On May 23rd, he wrote,^[8] "A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!" The tweet received more than 101,000 likes and 40,000 retweets in less than one week (shown below, left).

On May 24th, 2020, President Donald Trump tweeted,^[9] "A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story!" The tweet received more than 70,000 likes and 29,000 retweets in one week (shown below, right).

On May 24th, 2020, The Washington Post^[10] published the medical examiner's report, which ruled the death an "accident."

Two days later, Trump, once again, mentioned the conspiracy theory in a press conference (video below).

President Trump is asked about tweets accusing Joe Scarborough of killing his intern.

"Very sad and very suspicious… I saw a clip with Joe and Imus where they were having fun at her expense and I thought it was totally inappropriate… I hope somebody gets to the bottom of it" pic.twitter.com/FoUY2vy1r8

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 26, 2020

On May 26th, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pointed to Scarborough's 2003 appearance on Don Imus' radio program in which Scarborough laughs at a joke made by Imus about the death of an intern.^[11] She said:

I would note that the president said this morning that this is not an original Trump thought, and it is not. It was Don Imus and Joe Scarborough that joked about killing an intern, joked and laughed about it.

Earlier that month, conservative news outlet The Daily Caller uploaded a video of the segment. It has received more than 87,000 views in one month (shown below).

Related Memes

JusticeForCarolyn

#JusticeForCarolyn is a hashtag created in retaliation to President Donald Trump's tweets, which pushed the conspiracy theory that TV host Joe Scarborough murdered his employee, Lori Klausutis. The hashtag created in May 2020, is based around a false claim that Trump murdered his personal assistant, Carolyn Gombell, because he had gotten her pregnant. The hashtag went trending soon after Twitter officials refused to take down Trump's tweets regarding Joe Scarborough after being requested to do so by Klausustis' widow.

Search Interest

External References