QAnon influencer who accused Democrats of pedophilia was himself convicted of abusing 8-year-old boy in 1999
- A clip shows a QAnon influencer being confronted over a past child-abuse conviction.
- David Todeschini has pushed baseless claims that top Democrats are secret pedophiles.
A filmmaker confronted QAnon influencer David Todeschini about a past child abuse conviction in clips from a new HBO Max documentary.
In the clips posted on Twitter, journalist Andrew Callaghan shows pictures of public figures including Oprah Winfrey and President Joe Biden to Todeschini who baselessly claims they are "pedophiles."
The belief that elite Hollywood figures and Democrats covertly run child abuse rings is one of the core claims of QAnon, the sprawling online conspiracy theory movement that Todeschini has promoted.
Soon after, Callaghan tells Todeschini that he "needs to talk" to him about something.
"On May 19, 1999, you were convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree and sodomy in the second degree of an eight-year-old boy in New Jersey," Callaghan says.
He continued: "So, according to this paper, you are a registered sex offender and a convicted pedophile."
Todeschini then claims the conviction was "false."
"I know, I've seen the paper. I pled because I knew – I did what Michael Flynn did. I knew I couldn't win," Todeschini responds, referring to former Donald Trump advisor Flynn's 2017 guilty plea in the Mueller probe.
"Do you feel like maybe you're projecting by …" said Callaghan, before Todeschini jumps back in to say: "No, I'm not projecting."
Todeschini's criminal conviction was first reported in October 2021, by Right Wing Watch, which found that Todeschini was promoting QAnon conspiracy under the name David Trent.
It found that Todeschini is registered to the New York sex offender registry, which says that he is at "high risk of repeat offense and a threat to public safety exists," following his 1999 conviction for child abuse.
"This Place Rules" explores the undercurrents that resulted in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and is being streamed on HBO Max.