The two men who attempted to smear Special Counsel Robert Mueller with fabricated accusations of sexual misconduct held a press conference Thursday and put their complete incompetence on full display.
Mueller has asked the FBI to investigate the effort from publicity-hungry Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman and pro-Trump Twitter personality Jacob Wohl, which has been dogged by accusations that they offered women money to accuse Mueller of sexual misconduct.
But the prospect of an FBI investigation was the least of Wohl and Burkman problems on Thursday.
Throughout their 45-minute press conference, the two men repeatedly contradicted themselves and each other, giving cryptic non-answers that convinced approximately zero people in attendance that their allegations were anywhere close to the truth.
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After initially promising that the accuser,a fashion designer named Carolyne Cass, would appear alongside them, Burkman and Wohl appeared to changed their minds by the time reporters assembled inside the dimly lit Holiday Inn in Rossyln, Virginia.
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Without an in-person accuser, Wohl and Burkman instead offered a signed affidavit from her that claimed Mueller raped her in a New York hotel room on August 2, 2010.
No other evidence was given, aside from a print out Wohl had distributed that noted Mueller had been in New York on August 5, 2010 — left unsaid: that was three days after the alleged attack.
Additionally, they accused Mueller’s team of “leaking” a Washington Post story that undermined their tale. The report showed Mueller was in Washington on August 2 serving a jury duty summons.
Despite their claim of an exhaustive investigation of the allegations, Wohl and Burkman failed to know how to spell the accuser’s name.
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Other allegations the duo had made earlier fell apart as well. Burkman had previously claimed that he had seven women willing to accuse Mueller. Wohl eventually conceded that they did not have seven women with accusations against Mueller.
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Wohl and Burkman were reluctant to explain how Wohl, who claimed he first worked with Cass on an unrelated estate issue, was first in contact with their accuser. They also failed to explain where Mueller’s FBI security detail was when he was supposedly assaulting a woman.
And Wohl was cryptic about other details, too — he repeatedly declined to say whether or not he has a private investigator license. Eventually, Wohl said he sometimes works with licensed private investigators. Wohl’s name isn’t in a database of licensed private investigators maintained by the state of California, where Wohl lives.
The two men even declined to say how they knew each other.
When Wohl and Burkman opened the floor to questions, the assembled reporters were unrestrained.
Wohl was asked about his political bias, specifically for his tweets attacking Mueller, including one where he wrote the special counsel should be sent to Guantanamo Bay. Wohl said his personal opinion had no effect on his professional handling of the investigation.
Other reporters questioned 20-year-old Wohl's experience in the intelligence gathering business and why he had lied to reporters days earlier when he denied having any part in the investigation. Burkman responded, calling Wohl "a child prodigy who has eclipsed Mozart."
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When reporters laughed at Wohl's suggestion that "sometimes people go to jury duty, but they're also somewhere else," Wohl admonished the audience. "It's not funny. It's not a laughing matter," he said.
As the hour they had booked was almost up, Burkman announced he would take one more question. Someone from the back shouted, "Are you both prepared for federal prison?"
"No we are not," Burkman answered.
Read the full account: Mueller Smear Pushed by Pro-Trump Activists Falls Apart At Press Conference (Daily Beast)
Alleged victim is a no-show for news conference claiming Mueller 'sex assaults' (NBC News)