– (Gustavo Rodrigues/)
1. In March 2016, WikiLeaks, famous for leaking secret US government documents, revealed private emails from John Podesta, head of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the presidential elections of that year, held in November. At first, the messages had nothing wrong with them, but the repetition of words like «pizza» and «cheese» (cheese) caught the attention of users on anonymous discussion boards such as 4Chan and Reddit
two. Forum members decided to conduct an independent investigation and discovered that the term “cheese pizza” was code for “child pornography” because of the coincidence of initials between the four words. Analysis of the emails would also make it clear that the word pizza, when used alone, referred to «girl» while the code for «boy» was hot-dog. Already «sauce» (sauce) meant orgy
– (Gustavo Rodrigues/)
3. The abuses would take place in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington. Well-known lobbyist in the US capital, Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary’s campaign coordinator, was a client of the place and introduced the owner of the establishment, James Alefantis, to the Democrat bosses. Hacked emails show that Alefantis and John Podesta hosted a fundraising dinner for Clinton’s campaign together in April 2016
– (Gustavo Rodrigues/)
4. Comet Ping Pong would have several signs that it was not just an innocent restaurant. In addition to a logo with satanic references, the pizzeria had a painting on one of the walls with people holding heads, including children’s – the work was authored by Arrington de Dionyso, a visual artist whose work often depicts naked people, sex and violence. The menu even came with a symbol similar to the one used by pedophiles to show their sexual preferences on the deep web without attracting attention.
– (Gustavo Rodrigues/)
5. Alefantis also had a peculiar Instagram, with several photos of children in unusual situations, such as with their arms pinned to a table, inside a basket, holding money… other suspicious images: an image of a doll for sale and a drawing of a couple having sex on top of a piece of pizza. And worse: the businessman published a photo in which he appears wearing a T-shirt that reads “J¿ <3 L¿Enfants” (“I love children”, in French)
– (Gustavo Rodrigues/)
6. An Instagram image especially caught the attention of virtual investigators, as it showed a tunnel with iron plate walls and a floor stained with a blood-like substance. At the back, there was a door of the same material. In the caption, the entrepreneur commented: «Oh, yeah, that looks like fun.» His followers wrote things like «#killroom», «Just clean up after you’re done». It would be in this place that abuses against minors would occur
– (Gustavo Rodrigues/)
7. Sites such as Infowars, Planet Free Will and The Vigilant Citizen started to report the story, which also gained momentum thanks to social networks. Even Michael Flynn, a retired general appointed to be President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, helped propagate what would happen at Comet Ping Pong on his Twitter.
– (Gustavo Rodrigues/)
8. On November 21, 2016, rapper Kanye West would have threatened to expose Pizzagate when he was rescued during a nervous breakdown, but would have been immediately erased by paramedics with anesthesia, according to witnesses. His wife, Kim Kardashian, is friends with Marina Abramovich, an artist whose e-mails exchanged with Podesta talked about a ritual called “Spirit Cooking”. When she performed this performance in 1996, she painted the statue of a child with pig’s blood.
On the other hand…
There is no evidence of a pedophile dungeon under the pizzeria
- Pizzagate took such proportions in the USA that it was investigated by the police of the District of Columbia, where the capital, Washington, is located, but none of the allegations were proven. The FBI did not even get involved in the case due to lack of concrete evidence.
- The allegation that rapes of minors would take place in the basement of the pizzeria is false: a reporter from The New York Times went to the place and verified that there is no underground room in the property.
- The case, by the way, is currently seen there as an example of the danger that internet conspiracy theories can bring to the real world. The thing is, on December 4, 2016, a man named Edgar Welch went with three guns to Comet Ping Pong willing to investigate the sexual exploitation network on his own. He even fired three shots that, luckily, didn’t hit anyone, before realizing that there was nothing wrong there. welch was arrested
- It was also discovered that the Pizzagate rumors were spread by far-right websites and supporters of Donald Trump, willing to do anything to harm Hillary Clinton in one of the tightest elections in American history – it is worth mentioning, however, that it never became proven any direct involvement of the current president in the case
- The photo of the sinister iron door is, according to Alefantis, just a joke with a refrigerator in a restaurant in which he considered joining as a partner.
- There is nothing to prove that Kanye West actually threatened to reveal Pizzagate to the world. The rapper never mentioned the affair publicly.
- Michael Flynn deleted tweets that made any mention of Pizzagate. His son, who insisted on the veracity of the case, ended up fired from the transition team of the Trump administration
SOURCES Folha de S.Paulo, Time, The New York Times, Alltime Conspiracies YouTube channel, Washington Post, VEJA, Vice, Medium.com, Reddit, 4Chan, forum.antinovaordemmundial.com