Misinformation Swirls After Attempted Assassination

A shooter attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in the western Pennsylvania town of Butler on July 13. Former President Donald Trump is assisted offstage after shots were fired during a campaign rally on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania. Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear, and three rally attendees were shot — Corey Comperatore, 50, died, and David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were injured. Secret Service agents killed the suspect at the scene, and the FBI later identified him as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Investigators said that it appears Crooks acted alone. But conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media began clouding coverage of the incident almost immediately after it happened. These are some of the claims we’ve addressed: Viral online posts& made the unfounded claim that a woman at the rally& acted “suspicious,” suggesting that she& might have been involved in a plot to assassinate Trump,& and that a QAnon-related character may have also been involved. But the FBI has said that the “investigation to date indicates the shooter acted alone.”See “Posts Baselessly Suggest Others Were Involved in Trump’s...