The Daily Caller hired a Pizzagate and Seth Rich conspiracy theorist

The Daily Caller has hired Stephanie Hamill, who pushed the false Pizzagate child trafficking conspiracy theory and suggested that the Clintons murdered several of their supposed political adversaries, including Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.

Hamill recently began working for the conservative website as a host and video columnist. She was previously a producer and on-air personality for the pro-Trump One America News Network.

The Daily Caller also employed Martina Markota, who had previously made a now-inaccessible video pushing the Pizzagate conspiracy theory (Markota has since left the site, according to her Twitter biography). Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, infamously danced with Markota and others in a Daily Caller-produced video about net neutrality in December 2017.

Pizzagate

Pizzagate is the conspiracy theory that prominent political figures trafficked children through a Washington, D.C., restaurant. Hamill has specifically seized on smears that John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman, used pizza-related coded language in emails to engage in child trafficking.

During a June 2017 video, Hamill said that WikiLeaks' release of Podesta's hacked emails “exposed John Podesta’s pizza obsession” and used air quotes for “pizza.”

Hamill appeared on MSNBC in January and was criticized by fellow guest Peter Emerson for pushing the Pizzagate conspiracy theory in 2016. Hamill replied: “If you actually watch the videos, you would see that I was questioning some of the language that was used in the emails by John Podesta. I said nothing about the pizza shop, so don’t start right now. And that's absurd.” The pizza shop Hamill referenced is Washington, D.C, restaurant Comet Ping Pong, the site of a December 2016 incident in which a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist entered the restaurant and fired an assault weapon. While Hamill denied mentioning “the pizza shop,” her prior remarks still show that she clearly pushed the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.

Seth Rich and the “Clinton Body Count”

Hamill has repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories suggesting that the Clintons murdered supposed political opponents, including Seth Rich.

She has used the hashtags “#ClintonBodyCount” and “#SethRichCoverUp” when tweeting about Rich’s murder.

She has also referred to the “Clinton Body Count” when discussing the deaths of other people. 

In June 2016, Hamill tweeted about the death of former U.N. official John Ashe:

And in July 2016, Hamill tweeted about the suicide of Republican donor Peter Smith:

In August 2016, Hamill hosted a One America News segment about “mysterious deaths with ties to the Democrat National Committee” and discussed the passings of Rich, process server Shawn Lucas, Ashe, and anti-Semitic writer Victor Thorn. Later during the segment, Hamill said: “Obviously, I don’t want to accuse the Clintons of these deaths but again this is something that needs to be investigated. But there’s a lot of people that have been tracking people that had connections to the Clintons since the ‘90s that had mysteriously died. They call it the Clinton body count.” (The original August 2016 segment appears to have been removed from YouTube but was reposted online by another account.)

In a June 2017 video, Hamill speculated about whether Podesta is connected to the murder of Seth Rich based on a “chilling ... email” he wrote about people who leak information. She also aired a viral and false graphic suggesting that the Clintons and the Democratic National Committee murdered Rich, Lucas, Ashe, and Thorn.

Hamill then stated: “Could you imagine if President Donald Trump’s political adversaries just started dropping dead? I think there would be some outrage. The idea of political murders happening in this great country is frightening and I hope it’s not true. But there’s just too much here to be ignored. This reminds me of the Pablo Escobar era in Colombia.”

During a January 2018 appearance on MSNBC’s AM Joy, Hamill pushed the false conspiracy theory that the Clintons may have murdered former Haitian government official Klaus Eberwein. While claiming that the Clintons have been getting rich off of Haitians through the Clinton Foundation, Hamill stated: “You can ask all the Haitian-Americans that have been protesting against the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation for years. You can also ask Klaus Eberwein, the former Haitian government official that has all the dirt on the Clinton Foundation. Oh, wait, actually you can’t ask him because he mysteriously committed suicide the day before he was supposed to testify." Host Joy Reid cut off Hamill for her fringe remarks and criticized her for “rolling out crazy conspiracy theories.”