How a bogus claim about an elderly protester who was violently attacked by the police made it from the right-wing fever swamp to the president's Twitter feed

• President Donald Trump made headlines this week after tweeting out a baseless conspiracy theory accusing an elderly man who was assaulted by police last week of being an "ANTIFA provocateur."
• Trump picked up the theory from the far-right One America News Network (OANN), which in turn appears to have come across the theory on a right-wing blog called The Conservative Treehouse whose writers are all anonymous.
• The OANN reporter who broadcast the conspiracy on Tuesday morning previously worked for Russia's main state-run media outfit, Sputnik, and has a history of weaving Kremlin propaganda into his reporting.
• Trump has a long history of dredging up information from the darkest corners of the internet and broadcasting it to his 82 million Twitter followers.
• He often frames the allegations as him merely asking questions.
• This tactic allows him to escape accountability while whipping his followers into a conspiratorial frenzy, according one expert in disinformation and the psychology behind fake news.

President Donald Trump made headlines on Tuesday after tweeting out a baseless conspiracy theory accusing an elderly man who was shoved to the ground by police officers during a protest last week of being an "ANTIFA provocateur." The president suggested the 75-year-old man, Martin Gugino, of trying to interfere with police equipment.

"Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur," the president tweeted. "75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?"

The network Trump mentioned in his tweet, One America News Network (OANN), is a far-right news channel that has become the president's favorite in recent months as it promotes his unfounded claims about the novel coronavirus, the Russia probe, and most recently, the nationwide protests against police brutality following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd.

But as Trump's tweet showed, the channel goes both ways. In this case, the Gugino allegation caught Trump's eye after OANN aired the conspiracy during a Tuesday morning broadcast. The network, in turn, appears to have picked up the thread from an anonymous right-wing blog called The Conservative Treehouse.

A quick scan of the website indicates that it's run by a "Rag Tag Bunch of Conservative Misfits." The blog post airing the conspiracy theory about Gugino describes him as being a "professional agitator" who was "attempting to capture the radio communications signature of Buffalo police officers."

Gugino is not a "professional agitator." He is a lifetime peace activist who's taken part in protests against military drones, climate change, nuclear weapons, and police brutality, according to The New York Times, which spoke to several of Gugino's friends and associates.

The Conservative Treehouse cited a "more clear video" of the moments before Gugino was assaulted by officers as proof that he was trying to interfere with police communications. OANN used similar language when it aired the conspiracy theory, saying a "newly released video" had emerged showing Gugino using "a police tracker on his phone."

The video is not new. It is a slow motion version of the original footage of the incident that was posted last week by WBFO, an NPR affiliate. It does not show Gugino using a "police tracker on his phone."

NBC News pointed out that OANN reporter Kristian Rouz — who previously worked for Russia's official propaganda outlet, Sputnik — said it was an "old trick used by antifa" but did not cite any other examples.

As The Daily Beast reported last year, Rouz's work for OANN includes promoting a conspiracy theory that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is secretly funding antifa through her political action committee and that she gave antifa provocateurs money that "went toward things like bricks, hammers, bats, and chains."

Rouz has also trained his sights on the billionaire philanthropist and right-wing bete noire George Soros, accusing Soros of working with Nazis during World War II, The Daily Beast reported. And he's woven a significant amount of Kremlin-linked propaganda into his reporting on issues Russia has a stake in, like the Syrian civil war, Brexit, and the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Last month, according to NBC News, Rouz shifted his focus to the novel coronavirus pandemic and suggested the outbreak was the result of a deep state plot masterminded by Soros, the Clintons, Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and China to impose "population control."

Trump's willingness and enthusiasm to traffic in conspiracy theories originating in the darkest corners of the internet isn't a new phenomenon.

In many of these cases, the president frames his musings — which are broadcast to his 82 million Twitter followers — as him merely posing questions.

Last month, Trump rekindled his long-running feud with Joe Scarborough, a co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and former Florida congressman, by accusing Scarborough of murdering a former staffer, Lori Klausutis, in 2001.

"When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida," Trump tweeted on May 12. "Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn't it obvious? What's happening now? A total nut job!"

(There is no evidence that Scarborough murdered Klausutis, or was involved with her death in any way. He was 800 miles away at the time and the police ruled her death an accident.)

In his Tuesday tweet as well, Trump ended his allegation against Gugino by saying, "Could be a set up?"

"This gives him a cop-out," Lisa Fazio, an assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University, told Business Insider in an email. "He didn't say it was true. But for the listener, it likely doesn't make a difference. They're now aware of this conspiracy theory and may believe it's true."

"By phrasing it as a question he's able to gain the same benefits as if he'd stated it as fact (followers now doubt [Gugino's] intention), but with none of the downside (people calling him out for making false statements)," Fazio said.