Photo: Instagram
He tweeted a baseless conspiracy theory. Trump retweeted it.
By Rebekah Kuschmider — Written on Aug 13, 2019
Donald Trump has an affinity for social media and especially loves to amplify his supporters using the social media site. This weekend, he gave a massive boost to conservative comic and commentator Terrence K. Williams when he retweeted one of the comic's tweets suggesting that Bill and Hillary Clinton somehow murdered Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan prison.
Epstein, who has been held without bail on charges of sex trafficking and child porn since July, died in his cell over the weekend. While the investigation has turned up nothing that indicated that his death was anything other than a jailhouse suicide, conspiracy theorists online, including Williams and Trump, have been working to convince people that there was something more nefarious going on.
Who is Terrence K. Williams? Read on for all the details.
1. Grew up in foster care
Williams comes from a chaotic background. His mother had substance abuse issues and Williams was one of nine children in his family. His mother eventually lost all the kids and Williams was in foster care until he was adopted as a teen. He worked to build a comedy career and found fame after publishing a series of Facebook videos that went viral. His bio on his official website says: "While in search for his true calling, Terrence’s frustration with the state of our country led him to post videos on social media about the hottest controversies in America. After a long day at work, he decided to push the “public” button, and the next day his normal two views turned into over 42 million. Since then, Terrence has dedicated his platform and comedic career to improving the lives of underprivileged children everywhere. Above all, Terrence wants to share his story in [sic] effort to teach and inspire kids that they can be more than their circumstances." He has worked with charitable organizations to help support kids in foster care.
Williams performs for kids in foster care.
2. Controversy on social media
Despite the good work Williams may be doing with kids in foster care, his social media presence is more controversy-laden. According to The Heavy, his YouTube channel, where he posts humorous rants on current events, was demonetized over "offensive content." In 2018, his Facebook account was suspended for a time after he posted screenshots of hate mail he received without blurring out the names of senders. Facebook took action because the social media site does not permit users to “bully private individuals or harass anyone on Facebook.” Williams has a significant following, so when he posted the usernames of people sending him private messages his fans took that as a license to go harass the people from the screenshots.
3. Death of Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein was a billionaire who claimed to have been a financial advisor to numerous influential people over the years. According to Vox, he developed a reputation for throwing parties for rich and powerful people that included teenage girls who were allegedly recruited to provide massages and sexual favors for his friends — dozens of women have told investigators about being recruited and paid for such services and some report recruiting other girls on Epstein's behalf. Before he entered politics, Donald Trump claimed to be good friends with Epstein, saying in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Recently a video has emerged of an event Epstein hosted at Mar-A-Lago, where he and Trump partied with professional cheerleaders.
Epstein was indicted on sex assault charges in 2007 but was granted an unprecedented plea deal that allowed him to serve only 13 months in jail, where he was housed in a cell with an unlocked door and allowed to leave the facility daily to go to his office. That deal was later criticized as illegal because his victims were not notified about the process. In 2019, he was arrested on charges of sex trafficking and detained without bail at a federal prison in Manhattan. He was found injured on his floor shortly after he was arrested and the media reported at the time that it may have been a suicide attempt. A second suicide attempt weeks later was successful and on August 10, he was found dead in his cell.
Trump and Epstein were friends.
4. Conspiracy theories online
As soon as news broke of Epstein's death, internet commenters began suggesting that there was more to it than a simple jailhouse suicide. One of the most popular variants on the paranoid fantasies that surrounded the event was the idea that Trump or other powerful people potentially implicated in Epstein's crimes had him killed. The other version of that conspiracy theory was that the Clintons had him killed. (There is evidence that Bill Clinton and Epstein knew one another and Clinton visited Epstein's private island.) While there is absolutely no evidence to prove either of these theories, internet commenters were quick to share them all over social media. Vanity Fair reports that Williams posted a video about the subject, saying that there was no way a prisoner on suicide watch could have killed himself the way Epstein did. Then the Trump-supporting Williams promoted the video on Twitter along with allegations about the Clintons being behind the death. The tweet read “Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right! How does that happen” #JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead. I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this!”
5. Trump signal boost
Trump, a well-known Twitter enthusiast, was following the commentary online in the aftermath of Epstein's death. Instead of addressing the problems within federal prison facilities supervised by his own Department of Justice, Trump joined in circulating conspiracy theories, including retweeting Williams' video. Williams, who has met Trump at least once and claims to have been retweeted by him in the past according to The Heavy, was delighted, saying on Facebook: “PRESIDENT TRUMP RETWEETED ME A SECOND TIME!!!!!!”
6. More facts emerging
While the internet seethed with unfounded rumors about Epstein's death, the facility where he was held and the Justice Department started doing a more valid investigation and discovered that it was entirely possible for Esptein to kill himself in his cell, without any outside assistance. While he had briefly been on suicide watch after his first attempt, the New York Times reports that he was taken off in the days before his death. He was supposed to be housed with a cellmate and had been for some period of time, but the cellmate was moved for unspecified reasons, leaving Epstein alone in a cell. Moreover, ABC News notes that investigators discovered that the guards assigned to Epstein's unit were overworked, putting in excessive overtime and did not follow procedures for monitoring prisoners. All of this left a completely explainable window of opportunity for Epstein to kill himself.
7. Doubling down
Despite the revelations of facts about the circumstances of Epstein's suicide, Williams is continuing to peddle nonsense about a Clinton murder cabal that killed him. Last night he posted a video on the topic and tweeted it out. So far, Trump hasn't retweeted, though he has been online from golf resort he owns in Bedminster, New Jersey where he is spending the week.
Williams isn't letting facts get in the way of spreading rumors.
Attorney General William Barr has announced an investigation into the facility where Epstein died. Williams hasn't commented on that development.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.