Jacob Wohl
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About
Jacob Wohl is a far-right activist, conspiracy theorist and blogger. He rose in prominence following the election of United States President Donald Trump following the frequent reposting of the I Just Left a Hipster Coffee Shop meme and a failed plot to frame Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating potential collusion between Trump and Russia.
History
Wohl came to prominence in 2016 as a young, 18-year-old investment fund found of NeX Capital Management and Montgomery Assets. During this time he founded "WohlGirls.com," which the Daily Beast[1] described as "a series of Craigslist ads solicited models to flatter his potential clients and a set of salacious websites registered to his name promoted models."
At this time, Wohl referred to himself as "Wohl of Wall Street," a parody of the 2014 film The Wolf of Wall Street, and, like in the film, was investigated by regulators. The National Futures Association looked into his companies, and according to a 2016 filing, a series of NeX videos were "unbalanced in their presentation of profit potential and risk of loss." According to the Daily Beast, "The NFA also cited a complaint from an investor, who claimed he wired Wohl $75,000, which Wohl claimed had grown to $89,500 in just months. But when the investor tried to withdraw his money, Wohl allegedly sent back a meager $44,000, blaming the difference on losses."
Wohl and his company NeX were found to have violated securities laws, and the Arizona Corporation Commission issued a cease and desist against him. That year, he was forced to pay $32,000 in restitution to investors. He has since been barred for life from futures trading.[2]
Surefire Intelligence Robert Mueller Smear Plot
On October 30th, 2018, Wohl tweeted suggesting major allegations were about to drop against Special Counsel Robert Mueller (shown below).[3]
That day, several reporters revealed that on October 17th, they received an email with an "urgent tip" from a woman named "Lorraine" saying she had been offered money to accuse Robert Mueller of sexual misconduct.[1]
Speaking to Hill Reporter,[4][5] conservative lobbyist Jack Burkman linked his information to Surefire Intelligence, saying the company was run by Jacob Wohl. Wohl denied his involvement with Surefire Intelligence, but Hill Reporter verified that Wohl's email was listed SOA: RNAME record. Wohl is also a contributor to Gateway Pundit.
According to Hill Reporter's research, Surefire Intelligence was incorporated on October 9th, 2018, and its listed phone numbers "come up empty" and its addresses "have no real presence." Twitter user Aric Toler[6] looked up Surefire Intelligence employees on LinkedIn and discovered that the photos used for the accounts were easily reverse-searched and that one of the "employees" of the company used a photo of actor Christoph Waltz (shown below).
NBC News[7] investigated the story and discovered that when calling Surefire Intelligence, they were redirected to another number, which turned out to be the number of Jacob Wohl's mother. Additionally, Jane Meyer of the New Yorker pointed out that the Linkedin profile for Surefire Intelligence Managing Partner Matthew Cohen appeared to be a photoshopped image of Wohl (shown below).
On November 1st, Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman appeared before reporters to announce their allegations against Robert Mueller. They were scheduled to appear with the woman supposedly accusing Mueller, fashion designer Carolyne Cass, but the woman never appeared.[8] The men said the woman "panicked" and decided not to show and instead presented a signed affidavit that claimed Mueller raped her on August 2nd, 2010. No other evidence was given, and they stated that the Washington Post story from August 2nd, 2010 that placed Mueller at jury duty was leaked by his team. Notably, in the affidavit, Cass' name was spelled "Carolyn" without an "e." After insisting this was the correct way to spell her name, Burkman conceded to reporters that it was spelled with an "e" and quipped "Even the Declaration of Independence had misspellings."
The pair, who had previously said they had seven women accusing Mueller, later conceded this was not the case. They could not answer questions about Mueller's security detail during the supposed day of the assault, how Wohl knew Cass, or about the allegations that the women involved had reported that they had been offered money to make false allegations against Mueller. After the conference, Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft stated the site had suspended its relationship with Wohl. At one point, Burkman stated that Wohl was "a child prodigy that has eclipsed Mozart."
Jacob Wohl vs. Chrissy Teigen
On October 30th, reacting to Jacob Wohl's name trending, model Chrissy Teigen tweeted,[9] "can someone break down with jacob wohl did in one tweet. like a cliffs note please – my timeline is a mess I don’t have the energy." The tweet received more than 800 retweets and 21,000 likes in three days.
Two days later, Wohl responded to the post by tweeting[10] at Teigen, "I became more famous than you. That’s what happened." Additionally, Wohl included a Google Trends breakdown of the search interest. The post received more than 100 retweets and 1,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left). Teigen responded,[11] "This is literally just a graph proving people had to google your dumbass to figure out who you are." The tweet received more than 33,000 retweets and 319,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).
Accusers' Response
On February 26th, 2019, USA Today[19] published a profile on Wohl that included a statement from Carolyne Cass, the accuser in the Mueller allegations. In the article, she claimed that she met Wohl on Craigslist, and he proceeded to trick her into convincing her that he was an investigator named Matthew Cohen.
Cass went on to say that the document accusing Mueller was made up by Wohl.
That day, Daily Beast[20] writer Will Sommer tweeted the excerpt from the article with the caption "Remember Jacob Wohl's disastrous press conference smearing Robert Mueller? His Mueller accuser now says Jacob tricked her and made it all up." The post recived more than 1,400 retweets and 3,100 comments in 24 hours (shown below).
Kamala Harris Birtherism Controversy
Similar to the attacks made upon former President Barack Obama, following her announcement to run for president of the United States some accused Senator Kamala Harris of being disqualified from the office of president because of unsubstantiated attacks on her place of birth. Wohl tweeted Kamala Harris is NOT eligible to be President. Her father arrived from Jamaica in 1961--mother from India arrived in 1960. Neither parent was a legal resident for 5 years prior to Harris’s birth, a requirement for naturalization. Kamala was raised in Canada." The tweet received more than 5,000 retweets, 8,000 likes and 9,300 comments, making it the recipient of a Twitter ratio, a mark that the tweet was largely disliked.[17]
This comment was quickly refuted. Twitter[12] user @aalali44 tweeted, "Ah, that was quick. Birtherism redux has arrived. Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California. She is a natural born citizen and thus eligible to run for President of the United States. Period." The tweet received more than 275 retweets and 895 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).
However, despite the charges being unsubstantiated, CNN's Chris Cuomo said in a since-deleted tweeted,[18] "And hopefully there will be no games where the issue keeps changing for righty accusers…and…the legit info abt Harris comes out to deal with the allegation ASAP. The longer there is no proof either way, the deeper the effect."
Many online mocked and criticized Cuomo for validating the claims. Twitter[13] user @gilbertjasono tweeted, "RIGHT-WING NUTJOB: Kamala Harris was born in the ocean. I read it on the Deep Web. She has gills CHRIS CUOMO: It is now up to Kamala Harris to rebut this potentially damning claim." The tweet received more than 600 retweets and 4,400 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).
Twitter Suspension
On February 26th, 2019, USA Today[19] published a profile on Wohl. In the article, Wohl bragged about plans for the 2020 presidential election, specifically to drive left-wing voters via a variety of social media accounts. They write:
He says he plans to create “enormous left-wing online properties” – such as deceptive Facebook and Twitter accounts – "and use those to steer the left-wing votes in the primaries to what we feel are weaker candidates compared with Trump.” It’s a plot similar to what Mueller has charged in indictments that the Russians crafted in an effort to boost the 2016 campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein and hobble Hillary Clinton.
That day, Twitter banned Wohl for creating fake accounts. They said,[21] "The account was suspended for multiple violations of the Twitter Rules, specifically creating and operating fake accounts."
Many on the site mocked Wohl for the suspension, calling it unexpected. Twitter[22] user @nathanTbernard tweeted, "Jacob Wohl openly admits he runs Twitter botnets to USA Today, is suspended hours later. Really makes you think." The tweet received more than 200 retweet and 650 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left). Actor Devon Sawa tweeted,[23] "Somebody got themselves in a Wohl lot of trouble!!!" The tweet received more than 15 retweets and 175 likes in 24 hours (shown below, center).
HuffPost reporter Ashley Feinberg tweeted,[24] "it's fucked up that you can just refer to jacob wohl now and people will know who you're talking about." The tweet received more than 60 retweets and 1,500 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).
Others mocked Wohl using the I Just Left a Hipster Coffee Shop meme, a format he unintentionally created. For example, Twitter[25] user @pattymo tweeted, "I’m in a hipster coffee shop and a group of liberals just asked the barista to play 'Candle In The Wind' on the sound system." The post received more than 250 retweets and 2,000 likes in one hour (shown below).
Protest Hoax
On May 7th, 2019, Jack Burkman, Wohl's frequent colleague, tweeted,[25] "Hundreds of leftist protestors are set to descen on our Wednesday Press conference We WILL NOT surrender to the mob! We’ve called in extra security to guard our safety and that of our partners in the media." The tweet also linked to an EventBrite page that advertised the protest (shown below).
However, many noted that the contact information for the event linked about to Wohl. Mediaite[26] writes, "After registering, attendees were initially told to direct any questions to Wohlthinktank@gmail.com, an address the 21 year-old Twitter exile previously listed on a petition he launched against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) earlier this year."
EventBrite could not confirm who created the event, but did state that the event "was published in the last 24 hours and the account has no prior activity on Eventbrite."
Eventbrite’s Director of Communications Amanda Livingood said, "We can confirm that the activity associated with this account constituted a violation of our policy around inauthentic content. As such, the event has been removed and the account terminated."
The following day, the press conference was held on Jack Burkman's driveway. Held in response to the reports that Burkman and Wohl had staged a sexual misconduct smear campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. The Daily Beast's Will Sommer tweeted photographs of the event (examples below).[27]
Criticism
Many have criticized Wohl both for his ineffective methods of political sabotage, as well as his history of fraud. In 2018, Splinter News reported that Wohl's website, The Washington Reporter, plagiarized its ethics policy from ProPublica.[14] When the website launched, Slugefeed[15] called him a "disgraced teen." Other outlets, such as NBC have called him a "far-right conspiracy theorist" with a "history of schemes."[16]
Related Memes
I Just Left a Hipster Coffee Shop
I Just Left a Hipster Coffee Shop is a phrasal template based on a tweet stating that coffee shops that would typically be frequented by liberals have become meeting places for young conservatives. Following the tweet, people ended the phrase "I just left a hipster coffee shop" with absurd punchlines.
Search Interest
External References
[1] The Daily Beast – Jacob Wohl, Teen Hedge Funder Turned Pro-Trump Media Star, Was Accused of Cheating Clients
[2] Wikipedia – Jacob Wohl
[3] Twitter – @JacobAWohl's Tweet
[5] Hill Reporter – Special Counsel Alerts FBI Of Scheme To Pay Women To Accuse Mueller Of Sexual Assault
[6] Twitter – Aric Toler's Thread
[7] NBC News – Mueller refers sex misconduct scheme targeting him to FBI for investigation
[8] Daily Beast – Mueller Smear Pushed by Pro-Trump Activists Falls Apart At Press Conference
[9] Twitter – @chrissyteigen's Tweet
[10] Twitter – @chrissyteigen's Tweet
[11] Twitter – @JacobAWohl's Tweet
[12] Twitter – @aalali44's Tweet
[13] Twitter – @gilbertjasono's Tweet
[14] Splinter News – TFW Your Pro-Trump News Site's Ethics Policy Is Plagiarized
[15] Sudgefeed – Disgraced Teen Hedge Fund Manager Jacob Wohl Has Started His Own Alt-News Site
[16] NBC – Jacob Wohl, 20, far-right conspiracy theorist, gets a moment in spotlight with Mueller plot
[17] Twitter – @JacobAWohl's Tweet
[18] HuffPost – Chris Cuomo Blames Kamala Harris For Not Addressing Racist ‘Birther’ Hoax
[19] USA Today – This 21-year-old tweeted lies about Robert Mueller and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Now, he’s eyeing the 2020 election
[20] Twitter – @willsommer's Tweet
[21] The Daily Beast – Jacob Wohl Permanently Banned by Twitter for Fake Accounts
[22] Twitter – @nathanTbernard's Tweet
[23] Twitter – @DevonESawa's Tweet
[24] Twitter – @ashleyfeinberg's Tweet
[25] Twitter – @Jack_Burkman's Tweet
[26] Mediaite – Anti-Jacob Wohl Protest Tied to Jacob Wohl’s Email Address
[27] Twitter – @willsommer's Tweet
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