January 05, 2018
Did you know that the Pizzagate conspiracy, which posits that Hillary Clinton and the rest of the elite of the Democratic Party are conspiring to traffic children and molest them in a Washington, D.C., pizzeria, has now ensnared Penn alum John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen?
Adherents of the conspiracy theory, about which local gadfly Howard Caplan screamed at Clinton during her appearance last month at the Academy of Music, have long argued that the massive child molestation cabal also extends to all levels of the entertainment industry. Now, a journalist by the name of Liz Crokin (Chicago Tribune, Us Weekly, Marie Claire) has seized on some social posts by Legend and Teigen, both of whom have massive social media followings, to allege that they’re involved, too.
Crokin’s Twitter feed consists mostly of accusing different people of being pedophiles, while also flogging other debunked conspiracy theories (such as the Seth Rich one), occasionally interrupted by effusive praise of President Donald Trump.
The alleged evidence against Legend and Teigen? Teigen reportedly once tweeted a pizza emoji, and the couple apparently dressed their 1-year-old daughter in Halloween costumes of esoteric significance to the conspiracy theorists. Also, Legend and Teigen were once photographed at a movie premiere with Harvey Weinstein.
Alright. I debated saying something about this but I’m pretty disturbed over here. The fact that there are people with these...thoughts...is really scary. pic.twitter.com/9OtWKHxUgR
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 30, 2017
YOU POSTED MY DAUGHTER AND HAVE 50,000 PEOPLE ACCUSING ME OF BEING IN A PEDO RING. I don’t care HOW you backtrack or WHAT you deleted. I have it ALL. I’m the last person you are fucking with. You are DONE with me and my family. You are going to court.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 31, 2017
It’s pretty nutty stuff. The origins of “Pizzagate” entail a group of Democratic advisers, in emails leaked via Wikileaks, referred to “hot dogs,” “cheese” and “pizza” – which was interpreted by the conspirators as code for “boy, girl and little girl.” And just as John Podesta and friends were actually talking about pizza and other food, Chrissy Teigen used a pizza emoji because…she likes pizza.
As for Weinstein, before he was exposed as a serial sex abuser, a lot of people got their pictures taken with him at public functions, including this guy:
La sensual mexicana que Donald Trump ni Harvey Weinstein pudo tener | La Opinión https://t.co/etOeSo26sE pic.twitter.com/QZfa1ktGj1
— La Opinión (@LaOpinionLA) December 18, 2017
At any rate, Legend and Teigen have fought back, with Teigen denouncing Crokin and others making such accusations, while Twitter acted with uncharacteristic speed in taking away Crokin’s verification checkmark. Meanwhile, Legend explicitly threatened to sue:
You need to take my family’s name out of your mouth before you get sued. https://t.co/bPTwiBAs97
— John Legend (@johnlegend) December 31, 2017
If you’re a public figure and you’ve been accused of a terrible crime, with a picture of your young child included, is it best to ignore it, or to threaten legal action? It’s certainly could be hard not to blame Legend and Teigen for opting for the latter.
