- From WIKIPEDIA:
"The Pizzagate conspiracy theory has been widely discredited and debunked. It has been judged to be false after detailed investigation by the fact-checking website
Snopes.comand
The New York Times,
[47][61][62] and numerous news organizations have debunked it as a
conspiracy theory, including the
New York Observer,
[63] The Washington Post,
[64] The Independent in London,
[65] The Huffington Post,
[66] The Washington Times,
[67] the
Los Angeles Times,
[68] Fox News,
[69] CNN,
[70] and the
Miami Herald.
[5]The
Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia characterized the matter as "fictitious".
[5]
Much of the purported evidence cited by the conspiracy theory's proponents had been taken from entirely different sources and made to appear as if they supported the conspiracy.
[4] Images of children of family and friends of the pizzeria's staff were taken from
social media sites such as
Instagram and claimed to be photos of victims.
[61] The Charlotte Observer noted the diverse group of sources that had debunked the conspiracy theory, pointing out this included the
Fox News Channel in addition to
The New York Times.
[41]
On December 10, 2016,
The New York Times published an article that analyzed the claims that the theory proposed.
[2] They emphasized that:
- Theorists linked the conspiracy to Comet Ping Pong through similarities between company logos and symbols related to Satanism and pedophilia. However, The Times noted that similarities were also found in the logos of a number of unrelated companies, such as AOL, Time Warner, and MSN.[2]
- Theorists claimed an underground network beneath Comet Ping Pong; however, the restaurant actually has no basement, and the picture used to support this claim was taken from another facility.[2]
- Theorists claimed to have a picture of restaurant owner Alefantis wearing a T-shirt endorsing pedophilia. However, the image was of another person, and the shirt, which read "J' ❤ L'Enfant," was actually a reference to the L'Enfant Cafe-Bar in DC, whose owner was pictured in the image, and which itself is named after Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of much of the layout of Washington, D.C.[2]
- Theorists claimed John and Tony Podesta kidnapped Madeleine McCann using police sketches that were, in fact, two sketches of the same suspect taken from the descriptions of two eyewitnesses.[2]
No alleged victims have come forward and no physical evidence has been found.
[71]"
What basement, DA?