Right-wing hoaxers tried to drum up fake sexual assault allegations against Pete Buttigieg: report

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, notorious right-wing operatives known for their shameful and pathetic tactics, apparently tried to elicit fake accusations of sexual assault against Mayor Pete Buttigieg as he rises in the polls of the Democratic primary, according to a new report from the Daily Beast.

The report found evidence that Burkman and Wohl approached young Republican men and instructed them to claim Buttigieg had assaulted them.

The pair tried to spread a similar smear last year about Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which resulted in their utter humiliation.

Two men spoke to the Daily Beast about being approached for the hoax. One recorded the conversation with Burkman and Wohl, who had reportedly used false identities, advising him to make up a story about an assault. T Daily Beast consulted with an audio expert who confirmed that one of the voices on the recording was very likely to be Wohl's. This source told the Daily Beast he did not agree to go along with the scheme.

Another man, Hunter Kelly, was also apparently roped into the plan. On Monday, an essay making an allegation against Buttigieg was published on Medium under Hunter Kelly's name. When the reporters contacted the person they believed to be Kelly, though, he denied having made the report; he also sent the reporters a selfie, and it matched the appearance of the person in a photo attached to the Medium post. Kelly later posted on his Facebook saying he was never sexually assaulted, he didn't approve the Medium post, and he is working on a statement about the matter.

Kelly also told the far-right site Big League Politics, which initially promoted the hoax Medium post, that it was a "set-up" by Wohl.