On Monday both RedState and I were tagged in a tweet thread by Jack Burkman, a lobbyist/podcast host based in Washington, D.C., claiming that a “senior House Republican” had sent the site “a salacious photo of Adam Schiff and Ed Buck” and expressing confidence that the site would “do the right thing.” For those who aren’t aware, Buck is a major Democrat donor (and friend of Hillary Clinton, Ted Lieu, and Adam Schiff) who preys on gay homeless men. Buck “hires” the men for “party and play” activities in which he force feeds them meth, binds them, sometimes tortures them with hand tools, and basically rapes them. Two men died of overdoses in his West Hollywood apartment and a third man nearly died before the Los Angeles DA’s office finally arrested the monster.

Upon reading Burkman’s tweet thread I was surprised because neither I or the anyone at the site had received such a transmission.

https://twitter.com/Jack_Burkman/status/1219302451414614016

https://twitter.com/Jack_Burkman/status/1219439391162146816

Late Monday, Burkman posted a tweet saying they were waiting for RedState to publish “uncensored photos.”

While we all wait for Red State, who enjoys better 1A legal protections than us, to publish the uncensored photos (as they did in the Katie Hill matter) here are are some previews.

I had planned to ignore the tweets, but after seeing that tweet I direct messaged Burkman, gave him my phone number, and asked him to call me so I could ask him what he was talking about. (I had never met or corresponded with Burkman or Wohl before that time.) A short while later, Burkman and Jacob Wohl called, as they documented in this tweet Tuesday night.

https://twitter.com/Jack_Burkman/status/1219779931577573376

I explained to them that neither myself nor any of our writers had received such a photo, so I was confused about these tweets. When I asked what the photo depicted, I was told that it showed Schiff sprawled on a ratty couch in Ed Buck’s West Hollywood drug den/torture chamber, with Ed Buck nearby, and with a skinny younger black man who was wearing only a thong. I was told that all three of the men looked like they were on drugs, and that what looked like drug paraphernalia was on a table in the photo. The photo was allegedly part of the evidence seized from Buck’s apartment during an FBI raid (Buck is currently in federal custody awaiting trial on charges he provided methamphetamine leading to the death of Gemmel Moore). I was told how the photo had come into the possession of the unnamed “senior House Republican” (an explanation Burkman has published on Twitter as well).

Hearing this, I replied that if such photos were sent to us we would have to have them digitally analyzed and I’d have to be able to independently verify with my law enforcement sources in the Buck investigation that the photo was legit. Then there would be internal discussions about if and when we would publish it. If we as an editorial team decided to promote a story in advance of publication, that promotion would occur on the site and on our official social media accounts.

In my mind, the issue was finished at that time since no one at the site had such photos and, clearly, we couldn’t publish what we didn’t have. I haven’t been in communication with Wohl or Burkman since that time.

Now, I would not be at all surprised if such a photo existed. It’s well known that Schiff and Buck are friends, and there are rumors in California political circles about the nature of the relationship between Buck and Schiff. Ed Buck is an extremely evil man (on a Jeffrey Epstein level), and if Adam Schiff has been involved in Buck’s criminal, inhumane activities that information should be brought forward and Schiff should be held to account.

Since I don’t know Burkman or Wohl other than through this episode, I’m not assigning any malicious intent behind them dragging me and RedState into whatever is happening here. Whether they intended to or not, though, their tweets imply that both I and the site are involved in some opposition research conspiracy with them and the NRCC. Journalists on the left could use these tweets to allege that I and/or the site are engaged in a blackmail/extortion scheme against Adam Schiff. That response wouldn’t be without precedent; in October and November 2019 I was falsely accused of blackmailing Katie Hill by numerous left-wing writers and major publications on the basis of tweets made by people I’ve never met. I was even falsely accused of participating in an opposition research conspiracy with the man who had me blackballed in California politics (as retribution for reporting misconduct by a GOP officeholder) simply because the man tweeted and wrote Facebook posts saying he’d received hundreds of photos of Hill.

In closing, I will reiterate: No one at RedState has received any photos of Adam Schiff at Ed Buck’s drug den and we are not in contact with Jacob Wohl or Jack Burkman about any such photos.