President Donald Trump’s lawyer forwarded an email that invoked Civil War propaganda and falsely claimed that groups like Black Lives Matter had been infiltrated by terrorists, the New York Times reports.
John Dowd, a member of Trump’s team of lawyers hired to represent him in the investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia, reportedly forwarded the email to conservative journalists, government officials, and friends.
The email’s subject line was: “The Information that Validates President Trump on Charlottesville.”
Here’s what you need to know:
- Um, What?: The email says there is “literally no difference” between Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, and George Washington, the country’s first president who led American troops in the Revolutionary War against the British government.
- Origins of the email: The author of the email, Jerome Almon, is a far-right conspiracy theory peddler, the Times reports. He has pushed a conspiracy theory that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been infiltrated by Islamic terrorists.
- More conspiracy theories: The email also said that Black Lives Matter is being directed by terrorists. There is no evidence this is factual.
- Echoes of the past: The idea that Lee and Washington are similar echoes secession calls, according to Judith Giesberg, a Villanova University historian and editor of the Journal of the Civil War Era. “The first states to secede drew a straight line back to the Revolution,” she told the Times. “They said they were the inheritors of this revolutionary tradition that traces back to Washington.”
- Dowd wasn’t happy: Dowd gave a very brief statement to the Times for its story about his email. “You’re sticking your nose in my personal email?” he said. “People send me things. I forward them.”
You can read the full Times report here.