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The steps the far-right is taking in response to the loss of the election by Donald Trump—who lost the popular vote in both 2016 and 2020—continues into pure delusion.
Attorney and conspiracy theorist Lin Wood posted a series of pictures of himself in the White House along with some extraordinary claims.
Wood, a man who has filed frivolous lawsuits in an attempt to prevent the certification of the 2020 U.S. Election, claimed to his followers on the right-wing social media platform Telegram that former President Trump was actually in the Oval Office.
This perpetuates the QAnon conspiracy theory that President Joe Biden actually lost the election and Trump is really the President.
Wood made a name for himself with high profile libel cases such as representing Richard Jewell, a security guard falsely implicated in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing. Wood also represented the parents of JonBenét Ramsey in defamation suits against news outlets.
In the series of Telegram photos, Wood shares photos of the White House, a few even with him in the picture. As he does, he narrates a little story.
He said things like:
"I waited in this room for several minutes but still no Joey."
"Not sure if I can find Joey in the house so I thought I would check outside."
This was implying President Biden was not in the building.
He then claimed to check the Oval Office to be sure Biden was not there.
Instead, he said:
"I was right. No Joey in the Oval Office. But I did run into our President of the United States."
Looking at the photos, it does appear Wood was at the White House, and that is a photo of him with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
So what's going on?
The easy answer that many QAnon conspiracy theorists are missing is these are genuine photos of Wood at the White House, but not recent ones.
They're from March 2020.
This was a simple truth that shouldn't have needed spreading. The White House is not a casual show up whenever you want and wander around type of location.
While Wood's false messages and old photos didn't fool most people, there is a significant population of Trump supporters that believes one way or another the former President is working to save America.
These beliefs stemmed from cryptic messages by an anonymous poster on a message board that promoted White supremacy and neo-Nazis. It's these messages that formed the QAnon conspiracy into what it is today, though it by no means exists in a vacuum.
A theory that's been very popular is the idea President Biden didn't actually swear into office on January 20, and instead Trump has still been the "real" President. Some versions of the theory claim Biden is actually in a fake White House, or is secretly dead, acting as a figure head to trick the "deep state" whole Trump exposes the baby eating Satanist lizard people.
Or some version of that. Literally.
While the conspiracy has been around since 2017-2018, Wood's high-profile involvement didn't make media news until last year.
It very quickly devolved into pure delusion.
While Wood's antics are their own kind of dangerous, there are other more high profile QAnon conspiracists in Washington holding seats in Congress.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has vocally supported QAnon, along with a few other wild theories, like the antisemitic "Jewish Space Laser" wildfire theory.