- Justice Department releases 3 million Epstein documents
- Files contain nearly 900 references to "pizza"
- Online searches for "Pizzagate" spike after release
- Documents show 2011 meeting between Epstein and 4chan founder
The recent leaking of federal records concerning the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has rekindled debate about the so-called Pizzagate conspiracy theory that was long ago disproven, with observers noting that Federal records contain hundreds of mentions of the term pizza. About three million more records related to the network of Epstein were recently published by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to contemporary social media tallies, the term pizza was included in the trove over 900 times, though a small number of references were subsequently deleted or censored. The term frequency has given rise to a new wave of speculation on platforms such as X, Tik Tok and Reddit.
The trend of individual Google search results on the topic of Pizzagate surged over the weekend, as publicly available trends data shows, and short-form videos where such references are mentioned have been hotly engaged with. Pizzagate has been widely recognised since the 2016 presidential campaign.
The theory made allegations against top Democratic officials falsely claiming there was a child trafficking ring operating out of a Washington, D.C., restaurant. The allegations were fairly discredited and in December 2016 a man with a rifle walked into Comet Ping Ping and fired at the restaurant. Nobody was hurt and the police could not discover any remnant of the conspiracy.
Document Details and Web Response
These new releases include emails over the period prior to the Pizzagate storey being published online and those that happened afterwards. Part of the references are found in informal situations, in reference to food or social schedules. The phrases that are mentioned in the online posts have subject lines such as the one that states that "your pizza tastes so good, YUMMY YUMMY!" and about coming together and enjoying pizza and grape soda.
The records fail to back up the fact that the references are associated with delinquency. Nevertheless, the amount of mentions has now led to renewed efforts on the part of some users to trace lines between Epstein communication and conspiracy assertions of the past. Older speculation about 4chan and Reddit has returned on online forums.
Founder of 4chan Christopher Poole, who was mentioned in emails in the files released in 2015, says he attended a 2011 meeting with Epstein. No evidence in the materials has proven that Poole participated in criminal activities or that Epstein had an effect on online message boards related to subsequent conspiracy theories.
Likewise, there has been fresh interest in a correctional plan in 2016 suggesting that a Reddit account under the pseudonym u/MaxwellHill was Ghislaine Maxwell. The theory has not been proven.
Background and Current Research
In 2019, Epstein died in federal custody as he awaited his trial on sex trafficking charges. In 2021, an associate of him: Ghislaine Maxwell, was guilty of charges of recruiting and grooming under-aged girls, in federal court. The files released include other wider disclosure initiatives including court proceedings and investigative records.
According to legal commentators, big piles of documents may include vast quantities of routine mailings, not to be read out of context. The government has on several occasions claimed that earlier Pizzagate conspiracy theories were groundless. The theory does not hold any evidence as the restaurant has no basement in the center of the claims, and the law enforcement authorities did not find any.
Although the emergence of repeated words in the Epstein files has sparked renewed debate on the internet, no official results have been found to connect the references with the conspiracy story that spread in 2016. Inquiries over the workings of Epstein have looked at reported criminals and affiliated parties, as opposed to online rumor circles.
Even the new focus brings out the impact of mass documents release that might overlap with already existing stories in digital communities despite lack of available facts that may join the stories with proved offender behaviors.
