Ted Lieu, fake news machine

Years ago, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) demanded that “Facebook should do more internally to regulate fake news and point out fake news.” Recently, Lieu finally made a case for such private censorship — with some fake news of his own.

Lieu is known for sensational claims like claiming that “Trump is broke.” In an age of rage, Lieu knows that you must go louder and bigger to be heard above the mob. Facts are now passé.

At a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Jeffrey Epstein files, Lieu went full conspiracy theorist, winning the race to the bottom with his colleagues in making outrageous, unsupported claims.

He suggested that Trump not only abused a minor, but that she was later murdered to keep her from speaking. What Lieu omitted was that his blockbuster disclosure was based on the unverified account of an anonymous man who worked as a limo driver in 1995.

The bizarre account claimed the driver picked up Trump and overheard him on the phone with someone called “Jeffrey” and made references to “abusing some girl.”

Driver Dan Ferree has self-identified as the source referenced by Lieu.

Ferree reportedly has posted hundreds of politically anti-Trump and extreme memes to his Facebook account, including a recent image of Trump in what appears to be a casket. He has also reportedly claimed that he was stalked by Trump associates.

In a defamation case, Ferree would be difficult to pass off as a credible source for a publication. The use of such sources is a familiar tactic in Washington.

During the Chandra Levy scandal, politicians and pundits piled on Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif.) as the presumptive murderer of the congressional intern. The source cited by Vanity Fair’s Dominick Dunne turned out to be a “horse whisperer” in Dubai who said that he had heard Condit arranged for her murder. (Condit was later cleared in the case.)

Ferree is only marginally better than a horse whisperer as a source of Lieu’s. Ferree told the FBI that he met a young girl who told him she had been raped by Trump and Epstein at a “fancy hotel.” He claimed that the young girl was later found with her head “blown off.” He said that, while the officers at the scene thought it was murder, the coroner later ruled it a suicide. There was no proof of such a case.

It appears that Lieu knew or suspected that the source of the allegation was unhinged or unreliable, because he later reposted only two of the three pages of the statement to the FBI. The third page included other bizarre claims about the Oklahoma City bombing and an allegedly drunk Hillary Clinton.

Lieu’s intentional omission of the third page of the allegation puts this disinformation effort in a particularly menacing light. This was not some hair-triggered posting that failed to research the underlying story. This was a knowing effort to repost the sensational allegation while removing the part of the document that undermined the credibility of the source.

What is striking is how so many politicians supporting the crackdown on disinformation on the right are purveyors of such disinformation.

From the Russian conspiracy hoax to the flogging of migrants by Border Patrol agents, members and the media have regularly spread false accounts with impunity. It is not considered disinformation if it appears on BlueSky or MS NOW.

As an impeachment manager, Lieu condemned Trump over his “exhortations [and] the President’s sustained disinformation. We’ve seen a president stoking fears amidst these crises.” He demanded that Trump be removed from office based on that allegation of disinformation and inflammatory rhetoric.

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Lieu knew that in our post-truth political environment, it really does not matter if an allegation is untrue. He is feeding a rage addiction among voters who ache for a steady stream of such outrageous claims.

He is part of a trend that I have called the “new Jacobins” in Rage and the Republic: establishment figures who are pandering to the mob in seeking to ride the wave of rage back into power.

It was not long ago that Democrats and the media tore into members who suggested that the Clintons had been involved in the suicide of key aide Vince Foster. The difference is that there was an actual body in that case.

Lieu shows little concern over spreading a conspiracy theory based on an unestablished death raised by a driver who coupled his allegations with other wild claims.

It has long been accepted that “politics ain’t beanbag,” but Lieu shows that it’s now simply bonkers.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the author of the New York Times bestselling “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”