Surprise! Burkman's witness didn't show

D.C. lobbyist and conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman was joined at a press conference by Jacob Wohl, a 20-year-old blogger for the right-wing, facts-optional website Gateway Pundit, to allege that special counsel Robert Mueller had raped a woman in 2010.

Documents distributed to a couple dozen reporters in attendance named a woman who allegedly claims she was raped “on or about August 2, 2010,” at the St. Regis hotel in New York City. There were a few problems. The woman—identified in the documents as Carolyne Cass—had flown from Los Angeles to Washington to attend the press conference but then became too scared to do so and boarded a flight to another city, according to Wohl. [...] No media outlet was able to reach Cass by the time this story went to press, and Wohl declined to confirm her phone number. Burkman insisted Cass would speak publicly at a “future date very soon.”

  Weekly Standard

Sure, sure.

Nevertheless, even in the absence of the alleged victim, Wohl and Burkman persisted with their press conference. The date given in the Wohl documents—“on or about August 2, 2010”—was also problematic. As the Washington Post reported on August 3, 2010:

Robert Mueller [was spotted] dutifully doing his jury duty in D.C. Superior Court on Monday.

[...]

“Was [Mueller] only at jury duty?” Wohl asked at the press conference. “Sometimes people go to jury duty, but they’re also somewhere else.” Wohl and Burkman pointed out that Mueller, according to an August 6, 2010, press release on the FBI’s website, had spoken at a cybersecurity conference in New York, which lasted from August 2 to August 5. The press release didn’t specify the date of Mueller’s speech. He delivered it on August 5.

[...]

Wohl copped to being behind Surefire Intelligence. He said he never contacted Taub or a “Lorraine Parsons.” He had lied about Surefire two days earlier because his investigation was “still in flux.” The totality of that investigation, according to documents provided to reporters on November 1, was the alleged statement of Carolyne Cass, which had been published by Gateway Pundit on October 30 but then quickly taken down. (In a note that replaced the documents, Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft announced that he would be investigating Wohl. Later in the week, Hoft would write: “The Gateway Pundit suspended our relationship with Jacob. We need to collect more information on this explosive situation. We are not afraid to take chances as you well know but we want to also be careful and accurate.”)

At the press conference, Burkman denied that he “or Jacob or others paid or attempted to pay some woman for coming forward. None of this is true.” But back in May, Burkman held another press conference at the same Holiday Inn. “URGENT MEDIA ALERT: Jack Burkman joins Larry Klayman to offer major reward for information regarding Mueller during joint press conference,” read the press release.

[...]

Before the November 1 press conference, I asked Burkman about his May 11 offer of a reward “for evidence of bias or wrongdoing on behalf of Robert Mueller.”

“Well, actually it was from within the FBI—we were looking for whistleblowers within the FBI. That has nothing to do with this. And we never got any whistleblowers,” Burkman said.

What a surprise.

When I asked him if it would be wrong to offer a woman money to discuss allegations of wrongdoing against Mueller, Burkman said: “I don’t know about the legalisms of it. I think it’d be morally wrong. You’d probably violate your bar oath. And we never did, I would think.”

Burkman has had an especially interesting evolution during Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency. In July 2016, shortly before the Republican convention, Burkman sent out a press release announcing that he would be raising $1 million for a “last ditch anti-Trump effort” to “cause a coup at the convention.” It failed. Burkman then escalated his anti-Trump efforts, announcing by press release on July 28, 2016, that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was compromised by his close ties to Vladimir Putin—and had probably compromised Trump, too.

[...]

Less than a year into the Trump administration, Burkman flipped. In December 2017, he announced that he’d be raising money for the “Defending American Legal Rights Fund,” a legal defense fund he’d set up.

[...]

The first fundraiser, again held at the Rosslyn Holiday Inn, on December 19, 2017, would benefit Manafort’s chief deputy, Rick Gates.

If he really wanted to help, he'd be holding these events at Trump properties.

Wohl claims Cass first contacted Surefire Intelligence about an “estate matter” involving a “dishonest accountant” in February 2018. So I asked him at the press conference how Cass contacted Surefire when Surefire didn’t have a website at the time. “She found me over the Internet,” Wohl replied. “It was either Angie’s List or Craigslist.”

Wohl says that Cass contacted him again around October 1, after seeing for the first time a photo of Mueller, who was named special counsel in May 2017. Why hadn’t Cass previously seen a photo of one of the most famous men in the news in the previous 15 months? According to Wohl, she’s not political and doesn’t watch the news. “She doesn’t even own a TV,” he told me after the press conference.

As of press time, Wohl hadn’t yet provided TWS with any evidence he had taken out a Craigslist or Angie’s List ad in early 2018.

[...]

Just before the press conference ended, one attendee asked Burkman and Wohl: “Are you both prepared for federal prison?”

“Ah, no, we are not,” Burkman replied.

Since you've just been turned in by Mueller's team to the FBI for investigation, you might want to get that way. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.