President Trump on Saturday repeated his conspiracy theory hinting that Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough is responsible for the death o...
President Trump on Saturday repeated his conspiracy theory hinting that Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough is responsible for the death of a young woman who worked for him when he was in Congress.
‘A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly?’ Trump tweeted on Saturday.
‘Big topic of discussion in Florida... and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings).
‘Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!’
President Trump (seen left at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, on Saturday) repeated a conspiracy theory accusing MSNBC host Joe Scarborough (right) of killing his former congressional aide in 2001
‘A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly?’ Trump tweeted on Saturday. ‘Big topic of discussion in Florida ... and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!’
This is the fourth time this month that Trump has repeated the conspiracy theory involving Scarborough (seen right with wife and Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski). Earlier this week, Brzezinski hit out at Trump, calling him 'sick,' and demanded that Twitter remove him
It is the fourth time this month that the president has accused Scarborough of killing 28-year-old Lori Klausutis.
Klausutis interned for Scarborough at his congressional office in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Lori Klausutis (pictured) interned for Scarborough's congressional office in Florida. She died in 2001 at the office after falling and hitting her head. Doctors ruled her death an accident as a result of an undiagnosed heart arrhythmia
Before becoming a cable news host, Scarborough was a Republican House member who represented Florida’s 1st congressional district.
She died in 2001 at the office after falling and hitting her head. Doctors ruled her death an accident as a result of an undiagnosed heart arrhythmia.
But a conspiracy theory that she had been romantically involved with Scarborough and that her death was not an accident has swirled and been fanned repeatedly in recent weeks by Trump.
Scarborough was not at the office at the time of Klausutis' death and the The Washington Post gave the claim four Pinocchios, its worst rating.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted: 'Guys like low ratings psycho Joe Scarborough are allowed to walk the streets? Open cold case!'
Trump mentioned Scarborough in a comparison to his disgraced long term fixer Roger Stone.
Last Tuesday - even though Trump often asserts that he doesn't watch Morning Joe, or MSNBC in general - it took only 20 minutes from Scarborough attacking him for him to launched a Twitter assault against Scarborough, calling him a murderer.
'When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida,' Trump questioned. '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!'
He had tweeted in similar terms a week earlier, prompting the broadcaster to suggest he needed to 'take a rest.'
Trump's tweets about Scarborough angered his wife and on-air co-host, Mika Brzezinski, who tore into the president on the air at the end of their show on Wednesday.
'Donald, you’re a sick person,' Brzezinski said. 'You’re really a cruel, sick, disgusting person.
'And you can keep tweeting about Joe, but you’re just hurting other people, and of course you’re just hurting yourself.'
Brzezinski demanded that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey take action and remove Trump from the platform.
'Twitter, you shouldn’t be allowing this, and you should be taking these tweets down, and you should be ashamed of yourself,' she said.
'You’ll be hearing from me, on this, because this is BS.'
Trump compared Scarborough to his longtime friend and adviser, Roger Stone (right), who was convicted and sentenced to prison. Stone's appearance on the Fox Business Network earlier this week prompted Trump to repeat the conspiracy theory about Scarborough
Brzezinski also hit out at Trump for repeating the conspiracy theory and reminding the Klausutis family of their loved one's death.
'To put this family through this, to put her husband through this, to do this just ’cause you’re mad at Joe, because Joe got you again today,' Brzezinski said.
'Because he speaks the truth, and he speaks plainly about your lack of interest, and empathy in others, and your lack of ability to handle this massive human catastrophe, the fact that you have made it worse and you make it worse every day.'
After Wednesday's MSNBC broadcast, Brzezinski revealed on Twitter that she and Dorsey would have a conversation.
She tweeted that she was going to have a call with Dorsey and Twitter's general counsel Sean Edgett.
Previous attack: Last week Trump tweeted 'ColdCaseJoe!' in response to an article detailing the MSNBC host's apology after he tweeted an altered video of Vice President Mike Pence and got into a Twitter spat with Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz
'I will be reaching out to head of twitter about their policies being violated every day by President Trump,' she wrote. In another, she wrote: '.@twitter need to know why trump is not banned?'
She later tweeted that Dorsey and the company's general counsel would be speaking to her. Dorsey has never previously engaged publicly with calls for Trump to be banned from the platform.
Twitter's treatment of Trump has become a lightning rod for criticism of the platform and a dilemma for Dorsey and its executives.
A series of tweets which would appear to be in breach of policies against fake news, insults and harassment have been the subject of complaints.
But Twitter introduced a 'public interest exemption' which applies to political leaders and allows their tweets to go beyond its policies.
It has also introduced restrictions on misleadingly edited material, with a Trump tweet falling foul of it last month - to the fury of his supporters.
The comparison to Stone on Wednesday came apparently unprompted by the duo.
Trump tweeted out a compilation of comments Stone made on host Lou Dobbs' TV show on the Fox Business Network where Stone compared himself to fired Gen. Mike Flynn and said he was 'set up' by prosecutors.
'Roger Stone has been treated very unfairly. How about that jury Forewoman, does anybody think that was fair. DISGRACEFUL! Stay tuned,' Trump wrote, including the Twitter handle of @FoxNews.
Trump tweeted: 'I said NO to a deal, Lou. If I would be willing to re-remember......they would recommend no jail time, & I said NO. This President needs to be re-elected, Lou. One of the greatest Presidents in my lifetime. I would never give false testimony against him.' Roger Stone @LouDobbs.'
Trump concluded his tweet with a reference to his earlier debunked claim that former GOP Rep. Scarborough, an MSNBC host and fierce Trump critic, had murdered his former aide.
It was an apparent attempt to suggest different standards of justice for his friends and his enemies - although the death dates back to 2001, when Scarborough was a Republican congressman.
Stone's lawyers tried to have the verdict tossed out and accused the jury forewoman of bias.
However US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in April that although the forewoman had made social media postings critical of Trump and had once run for Congress as a Democrat, the claim that she could not be impartial about Stone 'is not supported by any facts or data and it is contrary to controlling legal precedent.'
Trump has complained that his associates, like Stone (seen above on January 29), have been treated unfairly by the criminal justice system. Stone was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes uncovered during the Mueller investigation
Stone's case is one of a pair of high-profile prosecutions where federal prosecutors made a turnaround. Stone accuses prosecutors of having a 'political vendetta' against him.
Prosecutor John Kravis quit the case after Bill Barr's Justice Department overruled prosecutors who recommend Stone get a sentence of up to 9 years.
'In both cases, the department undercut the work of career employees to protect an ally of the president, an abdication of the commitment to equal justice under the law,' he wrote in an op-ed.
The comments closely track what Stone told Dobbs, with a change in order and some words.
Stone told Dobbs special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors approached him and asked 'if Stone would be willing to re-remember the contents of some 36 phone calls I had with candidate Trump' and 'admit they were about Russia and WikiLeaks.'
'And I said no,' Stone said, calling Trump 'the greatest president in my lifetime.'
Another clue to Trump's possible intentions came when Trump ally Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, who spent time with Trump at Camp David this weekend, tweeted Tuesday: 'Roger Stone should not spend one day in jail.'
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