After Cernovich claimed credit for bringing down Conyers, the longest-serving member of the House, he predicted bringing down an even bigger Democrat.
On Monday, Cernovich tweeted a screenshot of Johnson’s statement on Facebook (“Currently reading the sexual harassment settlement documents of a major Democratic US Senator”) and added: “Spoke with Chuck Johnson on the phone, he told me he as the whole case file.”
When a journalist criticized Cernovich’s sourcing on Twitter, Cernovich replied that the media was “already doing damage control! It doesn’t matter. I already have legal documents, exact dates, same as with Conyers.”
Cernovich quickly backtracked once it was reported Schumer’s office had gone to police on Tuesday. (Under D.C. law, forging a document filed in a public office is punishable by up to 10 years in jail or a $25,000 fine.)
“There’s language that looks like it came from some of the Conyers stuff, like it might have been copied from there,” Cernovich said during a Tuesday evening broadcast on Periscope. Cernovich now said he thought the document was a hoax, but it “still could be confirmed.”
Reached by The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Cernovich said he was the victim of a “sophisticated forgery” and provided the supposed “number of the hoaxer,” which was disconnected.
Johnson, for his part, wouldn't directly answer questions about the forgery.
“There are no reporters at The Daily Beast but I will give you a quote,” Johnson told The Daily Beast over email Wednesday. “‘I enthusiastically look forward to an investigation.’”
Johnson referred The Daily Beast to a Facebook post he recently wrote, which read:
“I was sent a very sophisticated complaint that claimed Senator Chuck Schumer had sexually harassed a subordinate and paid her off. After communicating with the source through encrypted email and texts the source went dark. I sent the document to multiple journalists, lawyers, and members of Congress, all of whom agreed it should be investigated. I am offering $10k for the identity of the persons responsible and would be happy to cooperate with any investigators.”
Cernovich claims he is trying to find the hoaxer.
“This is the journalist process CNN doesn’t go through,” Cernovich said on Periscope on Tuesday. “CNN, they go ‘oh shyt, Don Jr. got an email about Wikileaks before anybody else? Boom boom boom front page news.’ But me, I go oh, wait, hold on a minute, let’s chill.”
In fact, Schumer’s office said, CNN and other outlets including the
Washington Post, BuzzFeed,
The New Yorker, and ABC News all received the document on Tuesday, around the same time as Cernovich and Johnson. None of those outlets posted in advance about being in possession of documents that would “end the career of a U.S. Senator” though.
“Whoever did this -- I don’t know if it was a deep state operation, a Soros thing, or if it was just a prankster,” Cernovich said on Periscope, “but somebody’s in a lot of trouble for forging documents.”