Who is True Pundit?

His Twitter account bio has read for quite some time: “Gerald Loeb Award Recipient, 2-Time Pulitzer Prize Inv. Reporting Nom, George Polk Political Reporting Nom.” (‘Nom’ refers to ‘nominee’.)

On Jan 17, 2017, he tweeted that he had earned a “coveted George Polk Award nomination” for his October 2016 article about Hillary Clinton asking about drone-striking Julian Assange.

Here is the TruePundit.com article linked from that tweet. One paragraph from that article:

Known simply as the ‘Polk Awards,’ nominations are extremely rare and thought-to-be extinct for conservative media outlets. “We might be the first conservative news site to be nominated and it was a surprise when many on the committee recommended our reporting for nomination. It’s an honor to be included in the same journalistic conversation as George Polk. We commend the Polk’s recognition of a conservative player in the awards process which truly proves that great reporting transcends political lines,” True Pundit said in a released statement.

Contacting the Polk Award organization, they had this to say:

“We do not announce finalists and, hence, do not have a list of official ‘nominations,’ like the Academy Awards. There are simply two categories and steps in our awards process: submissions and winners. Anyone—any individual, news organization, etc.—can submit. We normally get close to 500 submissions a year. From that pool we select about 14 awards. I can confirm that True Pundit did submit in 2016, and the story was not deemed worthy of a Polk Award.”

That’s just TP’s most recent claim involving the Polk Award. In early 2016, he claimed at least two times on Twitter that he had actually won a Polk in the distant past, not just been nominated for it:

Despite this previous claim of having won a Polk, his bio now reads only “Polk Award Nom.” After those two early tweets, he stopped claiming that he’d once won a Polk.

On April 2, 2017, he tweeted a picture of his alleged Loeb journalism award. According to a tweet response, the design of the award changes every year and that was the 1992 design. (It has not been verified that 1992 is the only year with that award design.)

It’s obviously unlikely that someone trying so hard to remain anonymous would give such an easily-researchable clue about his identity, and this makes this claim (and all claims) True Pundit makes about himself unlikely to be reliable information. Regarding the Loeb award pic, there might be several explanations: maybe he knew someone who won the award and who passed away; maybe he knew the people who ran the trophy/award-making shop that created those awards; maybe he had his own replica made.

For reasons stated I think it’s unlikely that True Pundit has actually won a Loeb, but here are the 1992 Loeb Award winners (taken from here):

Large newspaper: Gerard O’Neill, Dick Lehr, Bruce Mohl, Brian Mooney, and Karen Douglas, Boston Globe

Medium newspaper: John Fauber and Jack Norman, Milwaukee Journal

Small newspaper: Emory Thomas and M. Rex Smith, Atlanta Business Chronicle

Magazine: Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, Time; Richard Behar, Time

Commentary: Warren T. Brookes (posthumously), Detroit News

Deadline or beat writing: Alan S. Murray, Wall Street Journal

Here is a tweet from May 20, 2016, where he describes being a reporter at the Flight 800 crash site:

In an August 2017 “Crowdsource The Truth” podcast, at the 41:00 minute mark, True Pundit talks about the Flight 800 situation for a while. The surrounding conversation is about his experience as an FBI agent, and True Pundit gives no indication during the talk that he has switched from talking about being an FBI agent to talking about being a reporter. He also gives his opinion on Kallstrom, the FBI lead on the Flight 800 case, while implying that he knows about how the Flight 800 situation was “a problem” in that truth about the case was covered up (there are several Flight 800 conspiracy theories).

He also gives a completely different version of events. Here’s an approximate transcription of a portion of the podcast:

"Flight 800 was a problem, from a lot of instances. Don’t want to get into it too much. It’s a problem. There’s a documentary about it that seemed to capture the mood pretty well. It was a problem from the get-go ‘cause too many people who lived locally had seen too many things. As well as a NY air pilot was flying like a practice sortie with another pilot from reserves at the time, and he gave early testimony to a couple media who were onsite at 6am in the morning, East Moriches, was still daylight, these folks were on the Dunes at 6am at sunlight and he was there and he gave some testimony that he had seen. He had flown a lot in Vietnam, a lot of combat missions. They put this guy away so fast, no one ever heard from him ever again. I don’t even know what happened to the guy. Buddy of mine gave me a tape, had him on tape talking about it. They put this guy away so fast you couldn’t find him. That’s where the problem started. The guy should never have been on the beach. He was trying to do what he thought was right. And it goes downhill from there. Lot of people in [indistinct] and Smithtown saying they’d seen something. Calling in Coast Guard, they took all those tapes and tossed em."

To sum up the differences: in his May 2016 tweet, he says he was a reporter covering the crash and that he interviewed a witness on the beach. Later, in August 2017, he seems to imply he was working that case with the FBI and that he received that same audio recording from someone else.

@thomas1774paine tweeted several times about the Flight 800 crash:

Based on the level of detail and apparent emotion he has around this event, I think it's at least possible he was actually present after the Flight 800 crash, perhaps as a local cop, a news photographer, or a paramedic. Perhaps related, he has also claimed: to have been in Oklahoma City after the McVeigh bombing; to have worked at NYC Ground Zero after 9-11; to have gone to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy to bring supplies. These are probably lies, but are worth mentioning.

A small number of True Pundit's articles contain enough reality that, in my opinion, they probably come from either online rumors that seem somewhat legitimate or actual anonymous tips sent to True Pundit after he received a large following. His most well-known "success," which his supporters often point to as evidence of his legitimacy, involves an article of his being discussed by the FBI's McCabe and Comey. But obviously when you put out a lot of stories based on rumor and innuendo, you will eventually produce some content with some connection to reality. (Indeed, this is a conscious strategy on the part of fake news creators.)

Many of his original articles are just outlandish and silly, and have never been corroborated by legitimate news sources. A case in point: his article alleging Hillary Clinton was being investigated for many crimes. This and similar outlandish anti-Hillary Clinton articles came out shortly before the November 2016 elections.

Here is a compilation of most of his original content (i.e., the articles that are not just reposts of other sites’ content) up until March 18, 2018.

Here are some articles referencing True Pundit:

• @thomas1774paine's Twitter account doxes multiple Colorado GOP officials, which leads to them receiving threats
• Sept 2016 Fox News article about TP’s claim Clinton wore earbud
• NY Mag article about his ‘Clinton wears earpiece’ story
• Media bias/fact check of TP
• A series of tweets by Seth Abramson about TP (note: I think Abramson is a conspiracy theorist and in his excitement about Russian conspiracies he gives TP way too much credit for being more than a somewhat skilled liar)
• Kos Media article about TP's 'Clinton considered drone-striking Assange' story
• Article about Michael Flynn RTing TP story about Hillary Clinton and pedophilia
• InfoWars story about Hillary Clinton and pedophilia, money laundering, based on TP articles
• TheHill.com article about idea that TP article might have influenced FBI to re-open Clinton case before election
• Politico article about perceived influence of TP's work
• Media Matters article about TP’s role in demonizing Parkland high schoolers
• USA Today: TP and its role in being used by Russian disinformation attempts
• Buzzfeed article about TP’s role in the PizzaGate conspiracy theory

Where does True Pundit get his ideas for his original content? My own belief is that most of his ideas come from far-rightwing websites, forums, and article comments, some of these being quite obscure and far from mainstream. He will see an idea that could conceivably have some truth to it, or else be ambiguous and unprovable. Then he’ll add some anonymous sources to the piece to make it seem more newsworthy. After publication, if that same story later gets attention from another news outlet or personality, regardless of whether the site/person is respected or if the story is substantiated, he will brag that he was the first to publish the story.

His tweeting style is abrasive and cocky. He likes to insult people. He likes to brag about his follower count, and his journalistic skills and pedigree. Even before he started his propaganda attempts, his tweets about hockey had a similar tone. In his "exclusive" articles, his "anonymous sources" often sound similar to his own speaking style: sarcastic, aggressive. A couple examples:

• From piece No indictment: Feds Give Hillary Free Pass to Election: “When Comey said he was going to interview Hillary personally, we cracked up,” a federal source said.
• From piece White House Official: FBI Director Wray is Acting “Like a Little Bitch”: “We had a good meeting here early in the week with [Christopher] Wray,” the White House official said. “But in the last 24 hours he is behaving like a little bitch.”

His mid-2017 book “Trumped Up: The Ultimate Guide to the Deep State's Evidence of President Trump's Russia Collusion” is supporting evidence for him not having special knowledge or experience. Read my Amazon review of it here. Long story short: despite claiming to contain serious content, the book is 80% blacked out news articles, in a strange attempt at humor, and 20% more attempts at humor using an imaginary Russian character who mocks critical press about Trump. Here’s an article on his site in which he claims that FBI and Intel sources contributed to the book, which, considering how devoid the book is of serious content, is laughable.

This is admittedly a fairly small illogical discrepancy in the scheme of things, but is still a supporting piece of evidence showing that it's very unlikely True Pundit has legitimate sources of information.

On October 26, 2017, True Pundit put out a piece titled FBI Agents: Jesus Campos Gunshot Story Doesn’t Add Up; MGM Bullies Manipulating Las Vegas Investigation, which included quotes from purported FBI agents who mocked the official story that an MGM security officer, Campos, had been shot. This was one of several articles he’d published recently on the shooting that included quotes from several anonymous sources, including one with an anonymous DA insider who said that evidence of a second shooter had been covered up.

On October 28th, 2017, after all three of the articles mentioned/linked above had already been published, True Pundit did a live-stream audio interview on the Crowdsource The Truth podcast about the Paddock shooting. During the long interview, which was mostly about the Las Vegas shooting, he gave only his own thoughts on the case, with no references to the supposed insider sources he used for his articles. (At 57:30 of the video, you can hear him give his thoughts on the Campos gunshot wound.)

Using simple logic, it's safe to say that if True Pundit had insider information that he had used in those several exclusive articles, including reports of a second shooter, it would be extremely unlikely that he would not mention those sources in a podcast dedicated entirely to that subject.

Again, this is a small thing compared to some of True Pundit's other obvious lies, but it's just more evidence making it quite evident he does not have special information. And it's part of a pattern. In his several appearances on Crowdsource The Truth, he hardly ever talks about the inside information stemming from his "sources." The main reason should be obvious: he's not comfortable trying to improvise those type of lies.

Thanks to @C_David_K for sharing his find of TP’s early tweets.

@thomas1774paine’s Twitter account, which was created in March 2011, used to have the handle @hockeyintel (showing a longtime interest in “intel”). He changed his handle to @thomas1774paine around March 15, 2015. His early @hockeyintel tweets were mainly about hockey, giving his thoughts/analysis on hockey games and players, including his opinions about youth hockey (though not entirely clear, his tweets seem to suggest he had a child who played hockey). His tweets were the same style as later TP tweets: abrasive, very confident, and often attempting to be funny.

A caveat: it’s possible this early persona is fake; just a distracting backstory that someone created to give a sense of realism to the account if they needed to use it for deceptive purposes later. One piece of evidence that supports this: him leaving the early hockey-related tweets undeleted, which seems a pretty unlikely mistake for him to make, when he had already deleted many other similar tweets (although this connection was still discoverable without his tweets). Another piece of supporting evidence: based on searching for responses to @hockeyintel, there weren’t that many responses, implying that he was actually quite inactive (and not just that he later deleted most tweets).

On the other hand, these early hockey tweets strike me as genuinely interested and passionate, more so than would be necessary or expected if it were just a fake backstory. Also: considering all the possible backstories, there doesn’t seem to be much benefit to deceptively creating a lot of hockey content. If his aim was to deceive, why not choose something focused on journalism or government/intel work? Also, he did delete many of his early tweets, which makes it more likely he was worried about the content. For the last few reasons, I think it’s likely that these early tweets represent the genuine thoughts of the real TP.

In this Google doc I’ve placed all the early tweets still available from @hockeyintel, and also replies from others to @hockeyintel. You’ll see there are a few potential clues in there, like people who might potentially know who he is. One potential area to investigate would be asking some of those people if they have an idea of who @hockeyintel was.

The @hockeyintel Twitter account is currently active; it was re-activated in February 2018. When you change your handle on Twitter, the handle becomes publicly available again, and possible for someone else to acquire.

Along with the Twitter account being reactivated, the website www.hockeyintellect.com (registered February 2 2018, hosted with Endurance International Group) started up. Interestingly, @C_David_K was investigating the TP @hockeyintel past at that same time. Only a day after the new @hockeyintel started tweeting, @C_David_K put out his tweet thread  about the connection.

The website www.hockeyintellect.com seems to be run by a young man named Ged McGauley. I have talked to this person and another person in his family and believe there is not a connection here to True Pundit. I believe it is a coincidence (albeit a large one) that the new @hockeyintel Twitter and associated website were activated at the same time as @C_David_K was making public the connection between True Pundit and the old @hockeyintel Twitter account. I could be wrong but that is what I believe after looking into this connection. One of the main reasons for this belief is the ease with which the connection was found between the new @hockeyintel activity and the old True Pundit account; it would be unusual and out-of-character for True Pundit to make that connection so open and easy to find.

(I was a bit conflicted whether it was appropriate to mention the name of the person running the @hockeyintel Twitter and website, but decided it was in his best interest to mention the connection because other people investigating True Pundit would likely also soon make that connection.)

Other hockey-related clues:

• True Pundit has used the site www.hockeytv.com, as evidenced by an early tweet where he told them about technical problems.
• An early Twitter profile image True Pundit used was the logo of the Johnstown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team from Johnstown, PA.

Using simple logic, if "Thomas Payne" had ever worked in the FBI or done any intelligence work, or had been an award-winning journalist, it is highly unlikely he would feel confident he could remain anonymous while putting out audio recordings of his voice. Considering the high-profile nature of the lies and fake news he's spread, with an employment history like he claims, it would be likely someone in those lines of work would recognize his voice. (One interview was not only just audio, but had his silhouette profile on video.)

Because any reasonable person aiming for anonymity would be concerned about being identified by his voice in combination with other clues, it’s my theory that True Pundit lives in a rural area, and hasn’t worked or associated with many other people in his life.

Here is a Google doc with links to his audio/video appearances as of early 2018, with rough transcriptions of most of the footage featuring him. Here are links to his audio appearances on the conspiracy podcast show Crowdsource The Truth:

• August 9, 2017, talking about Huma Abedin server, spy ring:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC1RJVOlSfk
• November 24, 2017, with Robyn Gritz, talking about FBI and other things:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8NEo0Nw86w
• Oct 28, 2017, talking about the Las Vegas Shooting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDhIPh9UTaY
• November 3 2017, a Facebook video talking about terrorism and uranium: https://www.facebook.com/1331354320209243/videos/1740957569248914
• January 7 2018, talking with Robyn Gritz about the “mounting pressure on the Clintons”
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnUfQkdqWPs
• March 28, 2018, talking about a fake/imitation Thomas Paine, talking about desire to remain anonymous:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaVv7_ZFNcs
• June 23, 2018, talking about OIG report on Trump/Russia FBI investigation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTDa7w4koko

He has used these email addresses:

• truepundit@gmail.com
• intel@truepundit.com
• ne***********@gmail.com (11 unknown characters)
• jac*********@gmail.com (9 unknown characters)

Phone: A phone number that ends in '98'.

On June 23 2018, the podcast Crowdsource The Truth live-streamed a show with True Pundit (audio only, as usual), and there was a moment where the host apparently almost revealed TP’s phone number. The first seven digits (in my opinion) are 610-883-1 (some people have told me that the first 8 seems indistinct). 610 is a Philadelphia area code. You can hear this potential slip-up at 24:40 of this podcast episode. (Thanks to @nofakepatriots for telling me about this on Twitter.)

It should be noted that this is possibly purposeful disinformation. Supporting evidence for this:

• TP and that podcast host are friendly. TP has been on this podcast multiple times. They share similar worldviews. Jason Goodman expresses respect and admiration for True Pundit.
• Jason Goodman, the host, emphasizes his mistake by saying, "Sorry, we almost revealed Thomas's phone number there." In my opinion, it’s unlikely that he would verbally emphasize his mistake. Most people in this spot would verbally minimize it and not want to draw further attention to it.
• It’s unlikely the podcast host would leave this episode online if he had in fact revealed something important about True Pundit.

But even if this number were a number TP uses, it's probable he uses an anonymous phone (or phones) to conduct his business. It's possible to choose a Skype phone number with a specific area code. For these reasons, even if it were a genuine flub, I don’t think it would help much to know this number. (I have combined this phone number snippet with the ‘98’ final digits mentioned above, but have not found anything interesting, but it's possible there's something there.)

It’s possible the Reddit account NoBrakesBitches is a True Pundit-controlled account. This account posted a lot of True Pundit content and, to make a long story short, had some similarities in posting. The account reads as less educated than True Pundit, but that makes sense as that would be one way True Pundit would try to obfuscate that they were the same person.

On March 6 2018, TP stated on his website that he was suing Twitter for censoring conservatives. He shared a picture of the legal notice he’d sent to Twitter.

Based on his desire to remain anonymous, I thought this was very likely to be a lie and just an attempt at publicity (like the time he offered $1 million for Hillary Clinton’s medical records). I did not think he’d ever risk exposure like that. (In my understanding, pre-trial discovery can run the risk of identifying the beneficial owners of an anonymous corporation, if it can be shown to pertain to the case.)

While I still think it’s unlikely this lawsuit will ever actually proceed, apparently there is a law firm that has confirmed that they sent the letter. The firm is Dhillon Law Group, whose principal is Harmeet Dhillon (twitter: @pnjaban). Dhillon confirmed she had written the legal letter, as mentioned in this tweet thread by @c_david_k. Besides being a lawyer, Dhillon is also a former vice-chairman of the California Republican party, and has appeared on Fox News several times, often repeating viewpoints supportive of Trump. She is also known for representing James Damore, who sued Google after he claimed he was inappropriated fired in retaliation for his conservative views.

Dhillon is one of the few people who have admitted to having a connection with TP (the other being the CrowdSource The Truth podcast people).

The only known contributor to the True Pundit website besides True Pundit is Rahul D. Manchanda (his Twitter, his website), a New York lawyer who used to appear on Fox News shows and other cable TV shows. Here you can see some of the articles he's written for True Pundit.

I talked to Manchanda on Twitter and he confirmed he wrote those articles. Here you can see some of his responses, in which he threatens me with vague legal action and acts in an unlawyerly manner.

Here is a NY Post article (NY Post is admittedly a tabloid publication) about Manchanda being arrested for alleged assault.

Manchanda also apparently declared bankruptcy in 2014, which may help explain some of his apparently erratic behavior (like deciding to contribute to a known fake news site).

This connection is interesting for being the only known case of someone else contributing to the True Pundit website.

True Pundit’s goal is to remain anonymous, and that makes it difficult to trust pretty much anything he says overtly.

Having said that, here is an assortment of things I believe have a good chance of being true about him based on reading a lot of his content.

• I believe he does or has lived somewhere in the Northeast, maybe New York, Pennsylvania, or New Jersey. I do not believe he currently lives in Philadelphia, as he wouldn’t want to give away that much information, but I believe there’s a good chance he has lived there before.
• If @thomas1744paine tweets from 2013 are genuine (and not deceptive), he is a hockey fan and has a child (or more than one) who have played youth or junior hockey. For more info, see the hockey section.
• I think there’s a good chance he has worked in law enforcement or in private security, if only for a short time. He speaks fairly knowledgeably and easily about law enforcement and policing concepts in his interviews. While that could possibly come from consuming a lot of police/spy books and movies, he strikes me as showing enough comfort that he’s potentially worked in that industry. Also, he has occasionally expressed respect for “street cops” and the NYPD, while also being extremely anti-FBI, and these things fit the stereotypical profile of a local or regional cop.
• He has a disdain for most mainstream conservatives. He seems to be especially disdainful of Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
• He has often expressed disdain for religion.
• He claims to have been in a fraternity.
• He has a habit of randomly putting nouns in title case (examples: “Reach out to this Ass Hat,” and “Collection of Relics, Hobos, and Never-Weres.”)

Website: Truepundit.com. Details: Registered March 13, 2016. Technologies/platforms used: Cloudflare hosting and privacy protection; WordPress; New Relic monitoring software. Ad network: RevContent (despite RevContent claiming they do not allow fake news sites to use their network).

Twitter accounts: Account @true_pundit. Details: created March 15, 2015, first known tweet June 6, 2016. It is a spin-off of his first personal Twitter account @thomas1774paine. Account: @thomas1774paine (used to be @hockeyintel). Details: created March 31, 2011. Started as fairly standard personal account, with a lot of interest in hockey, then in March 2016 made attempt to become news outlet.

Facebook: TruePunditNews, Thomas1774Paine

Business info: True Pundit Media LLC was registered in Delaware January 4th, 2017. He used an corporation-registration company American Incorporators, which acts as an agent for companies so that the owners can remain anonymous. The Delaware file number is 6271516. Delaware is the most popular place to register anonymous corporations because their laws are the most corporate-friendly in the United States.

Youtube: True Pundit. Details: Besides his own Youtube channel, he has done audio interviews several times on a rightwing conspiracy theory Youtube channel called Crowdsource The Truth, hosted by a person named Jason Goodman. For more on those videos and for transcriptions of some of them, see Audio recordings.

Book: "Trumped Up". Details: Published July 2017 using Amazon CreateSpace. Read my Amazon review of it here. This book in itself is good evidence of how unsophisticated and unserious True Pundit is. Billing itself deceptively as “explosive” and “investigative expose,” it is instead a largely-blacked-out book that consists almost entirely of childish attempts at humor.

Skype: intel_191 (display name: Tom Paine)

Monetization platforms: Paypal; Patreon; Indiegogo; BuyNowPlus

Merchandise store: TruePunditshop.com

Disqus: truepundit-com

Instagram: @True_pundit (only four posts from 2016)

Daily Motion:TruePundit (only 1 video)

Other registered sites. Details: Cruzbart.com: offline now, bought site in early 2016 as a joke to imply that Breitbart was biased towards Ted Cruz. The site redirected to Breitbart.com.