The FBI’s Washington field office says it did not raid the home of Arlington conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman, despite a Washington Post story that apparently took Burkman’s word that his home had been tossed by federal agents.
“The FBI Washington Field Office was not present at the specified location for law enforcement activity,” a spokesman tells Washingtonian. Earlier Monday, the FBI said it “cannot confirm or provide additional information.”
A Washington Post spokesperson tells Washingtonian:
“The Post earlier today published an erroneous story about a purported FBI raid on the home of conservative operative Jack Burkman. The FBI has since said that the raid did not take place. Our story was published because we failed to obtain appropriate confirmation.”
The article, originally titled “FBI raids home of conservative conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman,” underwent quite an evolution Monday afternoon. A later version was titled “Conservative conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman claims FBI raided home,” and the current version says “FBI says no raid was conducted at home of conservative conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman.”
Here are some screenshots of the Washington Post's apparently now-debunked Jack Burkman story pic.twitter.com/fI7F7RaGts
— Andrew Beaujon (@abeaujon) September 14, 2020
The Daily Beast reports Burkman and associate Jacob Wohl hired actors to simulate a raid. Wohl told Washingtonian in an email that the agency “took all of Jack’s files, computers and phones.”
Burkman and Wohl have a long history of media stunts, but one of Burkman’s craziest stories actually checked out: He was shot in the rear end by a man he hired to help him “investigate” Seth Rich’s murder, in a Rosslyn parking garage.
A thread of photos purports to show the raid, though it comes from a Twitter account that does not appear to have tweeted anything other than these photos of what it says were the incident.
This was the scene outside the home of conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman this morning pic.twitter.com/jNvdHMtz90
— Bev (@BevDonahue) September 14, 2020
Wohl tells Washingtonian he didn’t arrive at Burkman’s house until the FBI was leaving, “because I was asleep.” Burkman has not yet replied to Washingtonian‘s request for comment.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
