In yet another sign of an apparently fracturing QAnon movement, extremist attorney and QAnon conspiracy acolyte Lin Wood is now claiming that the “Stop the Steal” campaign complaining of vote fraud in the presidential election is a concoction of the “Deep State.”
“After doing the research and connecting the dots, I have reached the conclusion that the Stop the Steal organization is a Deep State organization to raise money for purposes other than to FIX 2020. … WATCH OUT for anyone affiliated with Stop the Steal. Every lie will be revealed,” Wood wrote on the right-wing social media platform Telegram Friday, Rolling Stone and Newsweek reported.
Wood has been one of the biggest proponents of the baseless claim that the presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump.
The bizarre new development follows attacks on Wood the last few days by teenage gunman Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted last week of killing two unarmed men and wounding another, who was armed, at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. Wood was Rittenhouse’s first attorney.
Rittenhouse has accused Wood of mishandling $2 million that the attorney raised for his bail, forcing him to stay in jail for 87 days, and “using” him “for a cause.”
He also called Wood “insane ... He thinks he’s God and he just says all these weird things,” said Rittenhouse.
While many on social media rushed to Wood’s defense, other right-wingers attacked him — or ghosted him — including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — who called him “horrible” — former Trump aide and far-right radio host Sebastian Gorka, lawyer Sidney Powell and even extremist felon and one-time Donald Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whom Wood had asked for help.
Wood asked on Telegram Saturday for a meeting with some of his new critics for a face-to-face meeting so that “we can amicably discuss the ‘war’ between us and search for a peaceful resolution.”
He acknowledged a serious “division,” which “presents a challenging situation in a critical time in our history.”
Rittenhouse is now demanding that the money Wood raised for his bail be used to pay off his current attorneys.
Wood, who has discounted Rittenhouse’s complaints, said he is “open” to using funds to help pay Rittenhouse’s defense bills. But Wood also claimed that his organization spent $2.7 million on Rittenhouse’s defense before the teen signed on with new attorneys.
While QAnon followers have adopted Rittenhouse as one of their own, he has attempted to distance himself from conspiracy theory movements. He claimed in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that he supports the Black Lives Matter movement, even though he was photographed in January flashing the OK white power sign in a bar with a group of Proud Boys.
Rittenhouse said in an interview on the cable channel NewsNation on Tuesday that he and his mother fired Wood last December because “he was going on with all this QAnon and election fraud stuff, and just stuff we don’t agree with.”
