The QAnon-supporting attorney Lin Wood has posted a bizarre social media story claiming that he saw Donald Trump "hanging out and working" in the Oval Office this week and suggesting that President Joe Biden is dead.
In a series of posts and photos on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where he has more than 844,000 followers, Wood claimed he went looking for Biden, whom he dubbed "Joey 'Bribes' Bandito," at the White House.
"Wow. I thought I might find Joey in the China room making an illegal deal for himself. But nope. No Joey," Wood wrote on Wednesday.
"Got a bit lonely waiting in this room for Joey so my Executive Assistant stopped by to keep me company. Still no Joey in the house," Wood continued. "My incredibly efficient Executive Assistant agreed to wait here in case Joey shows. I left to search other areas of the house for him.
"Not sure if I can find Joey in the house so I thought I would check outside," Wood wrote, alongside photos of the White House gardens.
Thirty minutes into his Telegram tall tale, Wood uploaded an old picture of himself and Trump in the Oval Office—and suggested the image was from the present day and Trump was still president.
"I was right. No Joey in the Oval Office. But I did run into our President of the United States. President Trump is hanging out and working in the office in which we re-elected him to serve in a historic landslide victory on November 3, 2020," Wood wrote.
The attorney, who is planning to run against Drew McKissick to become the next Republican Party chairman in South Carolina, then shared a post from another popular QAnon Telegram account called GhostEzra.
GhostEzra, who has more than 313,000 followers on the app, is known to promote a number of unhinged conspiracy theories too extreme even for other prominent QAnon figures. These include claiming that Biden is dead and has been replaced by a body double or an actor wearing a mask.
Wood went on: "I was going to swing by Castle Rock Studio to search for Joey but GhostEzra suggested I head to this location. Is Ghost trying to tell me something???" He then shared a post GhostEzra had sent him: a photo of a graveyard with the message, "Hey Lin, check over here."
Responding to a request for comment from Newsweek over the posts, Wood said: "I have a sense of humor. Do you?"
When asked whether it was appropriate for a potential candidate for the GOP South Carolina Chair to make jokes about the President being dead and promoting QAnon conspiracy theories, Wood added: "I am not aware of any rule that forbids a candidate for office from having a sense of humor while exercising his or her right of free speech."
Wood, alongside fellow QAnon-supporting lawyer Sidney Powell, spent weeks attempting to overturn the presidential election result with their much derided and eventually thrown out "kraken" lawsuits.
The attorney is also a prominent and influential advocate of the radical QAnon conspiracy theory, which considers Trump a savior-like figure who will somehow return as president and continue his secret battle against high-profile satanic pedophiles and the "deep state."
Wood has openly shown support for QAnon in public appearances in recent weeks, including making a "Q" gesture with his fingers and saying the movement's best-known slogan "Where we go one we go all."
He has also frequently spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about the election result, COVID-19 vaccines and pedophile rings.
This article has been updated with comment from Wood.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
