No Really, Why Isn’t Jacob Wohl in Prison?

Jacob Wohl is back in headlines after staging a fake FBI raid on the home of his partner in inept crime, Jack Burkman.

According to the Daily Beast, Wohl and Burkman used Craigslist to hire actors (and exclusively white male actors, oddly) to play FBI agents in what the actors were told was a TV pilot for a “police drama.” In reality, the men, who were paid $400 each, were filmed acting out a raid on Burkman’s home in the early, pre-dawn hours of Monday morning. A person going by “Bev Donahue” sent photos and video of the event to reporters and also posted them to a now-suspended Twitter account that was created in August using a phone number and email address that appear to likely belong to Wohl.

In their rush to cover the story, the Washington Post fell for the ruse and wrote it up as being genuine, a mistake they’ve since called “an embarrassment.”

It is surprising that such a major, reputable outlet would fall for a Wohl/Burkman scam since everything they do is a scam. It’s literally the only thing Wohl is famous for. His entire Wikipedia page is a list of his various grifts and conspiracy theories.

Here are just a few of the things these two have done or been accused of doing recently:

—He filed a false police report accusing supporters of Rep. Ilhan Omar of making “terroristic threats” against him.

—He started a voter suppression robocall scheme designed to scare Detroit voters away from using mail-in ballots.

—He manufactured fake sexual assault allegations against Pete Buttigieg.

—He manufactured fake assault allegations against Robert Mueller.

—He manufactured fake assault allegations against Dr. Anthony Fauci.

—And my personal favorite: He got a 25-year-old Marine vet to accuse “cougar” Elizabeth Warren of engaging in a (consensual) violent BDSM sexual relationship with him.

So yes, I’m surprised that the Washington Post fell for this fake FBI raid. But honestly, I’m even more surprised that these two haven’t yet been subjected to an actual FBI raid. Seriously, how are they not in prison with all of their defamatory press conferences and false reports? Is he just not important enough for anyone to actually make the effort to go after him? I would like to understand!

(via The Daily Beast, image: YouTube/text added)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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