motherjones--2020-10-29--The Crazy Last Days of Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon

Rudy Giuliani , Steve Bannon , and the entire Trumpland dirty-tricks squad seem desperate .
With days remaining until Election Day , they are running out of a time to orchestrate an October surprise to help their dear leader win reelection .
In recent days , their Fox-enabled efforts have demonstrated how far they are willing to go with their skullduggery .
Yet the world may be witnessing the death throes of Trump ’ s most extreme enablers , protectors , and schemers—and it is ugly .
At 12:49 a.m. on Tuesday , Giuliani , once known as America ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden is a pedophile , an unfounded and ridiculous claim that has spread among QAnon conspiracy devotees .
The tweet is no longer available on Twitter .
But this is the depth to which Giuliani has sunk in his role as a bottom-feeder searching for any dirt he can use to smear Biden on behalf of his client , Donald Trump .
Last year , Giuliani managed to help get Trump impeached through his efforts to dig up bogus stories about Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine .
But that epic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hell-bent on tarring Biden with a Ukraine scandal , and went so far as to collaborate with Andrii Derkach , a pro-Russian Ukrainian legislator who the Treasury Department in September described as “ an active Russian agent for over a decade.
” Pause for a moment to ponder this : The president ’ s personal lawyer was working with a Russian agent ( who the US government accused of cooking up anti-Biden disinformation ) to attack the president ’ s political opponent .
Even in the bizarro Trump world , this should have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was just Rudy being Rudy .
And Fox News and OAN gave him plenty of airtime to peddle what may well have been Russian disinformation .
Giuliani , who has pocketed large fees in recent years as a roving international security consultant , ignored the obvious signs that he had become a useful idiot for Vladimir Putin ’ s newest pro-Trump attack on a US election .
US intelligence agencies even reportedly warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Neither did Trump .
Giuliani eventually publicly distanced himself from Derkach , but he moved on to disseminating emails and documents supposedly found on a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden at a computer repair shop in Delaware .
This chapter has been shrouded by questions .
How did Giuliani come to possess this material after it was handed over to the FBI ?
Has the information been confirmed ?
Was this somehow connected to the Kremlin plot against Biden ?
Giuliani was obviously trying to replicate the glory days of 2016—when the presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s secret assault on the contest ) was thrown into a tizzy by the last-minute disclosure of a revived FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton following the discovery of her emails on the laptop of disgraced politician Anthony Weiner ( whose then-wife , Huma Abedin , was a top Clinton aide ) .
And Giuliani may have played a sneaky role in that game-changing episode .
So four years later , here we were again .
A laptop .
Emails .
The FBI .
And , yes , apparently sex stuff .
( Weiner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sexting with a minor .
Hunter Biden ’ s laptop supposedly had a sex tape on it . )
But Giuliani bungled the operation .
( Let ’ s put aside the inconvenient fact that the new Hunter Biden material contains no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden . )
Giuliani handed off the laptop information to Rupert Murdoch ’ s New York Post—because he believed other media outlets wouldn ’ t take the bait—and the Post rushed out an article co-written by a former producer for Sean Hannity ’ s show that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not picked up by other media outlets , aside from the usual right-wing outfits .
( The tabloid suggested that Joe Biden had a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to protect Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy company he worked for—though this Fox-favorite conspiracy theory has been disproven . )
Moreover , as the New York Times recounted , Giuliani ’ s move complicated another scheme by other Trump allies , including a White House lawyer , to feed the Wall Street Journal ( also owned by Murdoch ) a separate story promoted by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden was part of Hunter ’ s unsuccessful effort to form an investment venture with a Chinese energy company in 2017 .
Hunter Biden ’ s emails were involved in this tale , as well .
Giuliani ’ s sloppy attempt to turn the Hunter Biden laptop into 2020 ’ s October surprise muddied up the waters for those Trumpers pushing the Biden-China conspiracy theory .
And though the Journal ‘ s opinion section has been beating the Hunter Biden drum ferociously , its news section ended up reporting that there was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ role in Hunter ’ s Chinese venture .
Oops .
Meanwhile , to give the Giuliani caper an even more absurd cast , the news emerged that Giuliani had been punked by Sacha Baron Cohen for his new Borat movie—which hardly helped Giuliani on the credulity front .
But the former federal prosecutor was not cowed by any of this .
He continued to hurl unsupported allegations about Joe and Hunter Biden on Twitter and to peddle muck to right-leaning publications .
Repeatedly , he claimed he had the goods .
But nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away .
Giuliani appears frustrated by his inability to concoct a Biden scandal that works .
On Tuesday , he exploded during a Fox Business appearance , when the host pressed him on the shady origins of the derogatory information he claims to have on Hunter Biden .
The next night , Giuliani posted a 32-minute-long YouTube video in which he presented a series of unproven or discredited accusations against Biden : The former veep pocketed millions by forcing the firing of that Ukrainian prosecutor ; he was involved in Russian money-laundering ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But Giuliani zeroed in on the China stuff , claiming that Joe Biden was the kingpin behind Hunter ’ s ( unsuccessful ) deal there .
Giuliani excoriated the New York Times , the Washington Post , and other mainstream media for not reporting this .
He called Joe Biden a “ crook ” and noted darkly that “ a lot of the people the Bidens did business with ” have “ disappeared.
” In this time-is-running-out frenzy , Giuliani had reached the point of putting out a DIY video intimating the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Also on Wednesday night , Fox host Tucker Carlson joined the Frustrated October Surprise Club , when he declared on air that “ confidential ” Hunter Biden documents that one of his producers had shipped through an express-mail service had mysteriously disappeared . )
Throughout this stretch , Bannon , a former top White House strategist for Trump who was indicted on fraud charges in August , has been a co-pilot on Giuliani ’ s crusade .
Trump ’ s campaign manager in 2016 , Bannon , too , was trying to recapture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The New York Post reported that Bannon , who now hosts a radio show and a podcast , was the fellow who first tipped off the tabloid in September that Giuliani had material supposedly from Hunter Biden ’ s laptop .
But Bannon has been up to much more than connecting the Post with Giuliani .
After Trump booted him from the White House in 2017 , he found a new patron : Guo Wengui , a mysterious Chinese dissident reputed to be a billionaire .
Guo has lived in the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where he faces charges for various financial crimes related to his former real estate business .
Guo claims these charges are false and politically motivated .
( He has also been accused of rape in a civil lawsuit ; Guo denies this allegation , contending it was engineered by the Chinese regime he has opposed . )
Guo has fashioned himself a vocal critic of corruption in the Chinese Communist Party and has hooked up with Bannon to bash the Chinese regime .
In June , the duo announced the “ Federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vaguely defined initiative to “ overthrow the Chinese government.
” Their attacks on Beijing include funding a researcher , Li-Meng Yan , who has issued papers making the widely rejected claim that the coronavirus was potentially manufactured in a Chinese lab .
Guo is also a member of Mar-a-Lago , Trump ’ s private club .
Much of Bannon ’ s work for Guo is related to media companies Guo has launched .
A one-year contract between Guo and Bannon inked in 2018 reportedly paid the former Breitbart executive $ 1 million to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ media personalities ” and advise the company on “ industry standards.
” Bannon is also listed as director of GTV Media , a media company launched in April by Guo .
Bannon ’ s new partner has been part of the Hunter Biden smear machine .
Weeks before the New York Post began publishing stories about the supposed contents of Hunter Biden ’ s hard drive , a YouTube channel and Twitter account linked to Guo and Bannon began touting coming revelations of “ videos and dossiers of Hunter Biden ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Communist Party , ” the Daily Beast reported .
And on Saturday , a digital media platform that is a subsidiary of GTV Media posted several videos supposedly showing Hunter Biden engaged in sex acts and using drugs .
Pause again : A foreign businessman is in league with Trump ’ s former chief strategist as part of this final , sleazy , get-Biden blitz .
Yet this salacious effort to harm Joe Biden in the campaign ’ s dwindling days by highlighting his son ’ s well-known personal struggles seems to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coverage beyond the alleys of the right wing .
Not surprisingly , Giuliani has his own relationship with Guo .
On October 11—three days before the first New York Post story ran—a pro-Guo Twitter account posted four pictures of Guo and Giuliani , smoking cigars and apparently drinking wine , with their arms wrapped around each other .
Giuliani and an attorney for Guo declined to explain the reason for the meeting .

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Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, and the entire Trumpland dirty-tricks squad seem desperate. With days remaining until Election Day, they are running out of a time to orchestrate an October surprise to help their dear leader win reelection. In recent days, their Fox-enabled efforts have demonstrated how far they are willing to go with their skullduggery. Yet the world may be witnessing the death throes of Trump’s most extreme enablers, protectors, and schemers—and it is ugly.
At 12:49 a.m. on Tuesday, Giuliani, once known as America’s Mayor, retweeted a suggestion that Joe Biden is a pedophile, an unfounded and ridiculous claim that has spread among QAnon conspiracy devotees. The tweet is no longer available on Twitter. But this is the depth to which Giuliani has sunk in his role as a bottom-feeder searching for any dirt he can use to smear Biden on behalf of his client, Donald Trump.
Last year, Giuliani managed to help get Trump impeached through his efforts to dig up bogus stories about Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine. But that epic failure barely slowed Giuliani. He remained hell-bent on tarring Biden with a Ukraine scandal, and went so far as to collaborate with Andrii Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian legislator who the Treasury Department in September described as “an active Russian agent for over a decade.” Pause for a moment to ponder this: The president’s personal lawyer was working with a Russian agent (who the US government accused of cooking up anti-Biden disinformation) to attack the president’s political opponent. Even in the bizarro Trump world, this should have been widely seen as scandalous.
But it was just Rudy being Rudy. And Fox News and OAN gave him plenty of airtime to peddle what may well have been Russian disinformation. Giuliani, who has pocketed large fees in recent years as a roving international security consultant, ignored the obvious signs that he had become a useful idiot for Vladimir Putin’s newest pro-Trump attack on a US election. US intelligence agencies even reportedly warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence. He didn’t give a damn. Neither did Trump.
Giuliani eventually publicly distanced himself from Derkach, but he moved on to disseminating emails and documents supposedly found on a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden at a computer repair shop in Delaware. This chapter has been shrouded by questions. How did Giuliani come to possess this material after it was handed over to the FBI? Has the information been confirmed? Was this somehow connected to the Kremlin plot against Biden?
Giuliani was obviously trying to replicate the glory days of 2016—when the presidential race (already influenced by Putin’s secret assault on the contest) was thrown into a tizzy by the last-minute disclosure of a revived FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton following the discovery of her emails on the laptop of disgraced politician Anthony Weiner (whose then-wife, Huma Abedin, was a top Clinton aide). And Giuliani may have played a sneaky role in that game-changing episode. So four years later, here we were again. A laptop. Emails. The FBI. And, yes, apparently sex stuff. (Weiner eventually served 18 months in prison for sexting with a minor. Hunter Biden’s laptop supposedly had a sex tape on it.)
But Giuliani bungled the operation. (Let’s put aside the inconvenient fact that the new Hunter Biden material contains no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden.) Giuliani handed off the laptop information to Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post—because he believed other media outlets wouldn’t take the bait—and the Post rushed out an article co-written by a former producer for Sean Hannity’s show that was widely derided and, consequently, not picked up by other media outlets, aside from the usual right-wing outfits. (The tabloid suggested that Joe Biden had a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to protect Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy company he worked for—though this Fox-favorite conspiracy theory has been disproven.)
Moreover, as the New York Times recounted, Giuliani’s move complicated another scheme by other Trump allies, including a White House lawyer, to feed the Wall Street Journal (also owned by Murdoch) a separate story promoted by a former business associate of Hunter who claimed Joe Biden was part of Hunter’s unsuccessful effort to form an investment venture with a Chinese energy company in 2017. Hunter Biden’s emails were involved in this tale, as well.
Giuliani’s sloppy attempt to turn the Hunter Biden laptop into 2020’s October surprise muddied up the waters for those Trumpers pushing the Biden-China conspiracy theory. And though the Journal‘s opinion section has been beating the Hunter Biden drum ferociously, its news section ended up reporting that there was no evidence that Joe Biden had any role in Hunter’s Chinese venture. Oops.
Meanwhile, to give the Giuliani caper an even more absurd cast, the news emerged that Giuliani had been punked by Sacha Baron Cohen for his new Borat movie—which hardly helped Giuliani on the credulity front. But the former federal prosecutor was not cowed by any of this. He continued to hurl unsupported allegations about Joe and Hunter Biden on Twitter and to peddle muck to right-leaning publications. Repeatedly, he claimed he had the goods. But nothing was sticking, and October was slipping away.
Giuliani appears frustrated by his inability to concoct a Biden scandal that works. On Tuesday, he exploded during a Fox Business appearance, when the host pressed him on the shady origins of the derogatory information he claims to have on Hunter Biden. The next night, Giuliani posted a 32-minute-long YouTube video in which he presented a series of unproven or discredited accusations against Biden: The former veep pocketed millions by forcing the firing of that Ukrainian prosecutor; he was involved in Russian money-laundering; he had a dirty deal in Kazakhstan. But Giuliani zeroed in on the China stuff, claiming that Joe Biden was the kingpin behind Hunter’s (unsuccessful) deal there. Giuliani excoriated the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other mainstream media for not reporting this. He called Joe Biden a “crook” and noted darkly that “a lot of the people the Bidens did business with” have “disappeared.” In this time-is-running-out frenzy, Giuliani had reached the point of putting out a DIY video intimating the Bidens knock off business associates. (Also on Wednesday night, Fox host Tucker Carlson joined the Frustrated October Surprise Club, when he declared on air that “confidential” Hunter Biden documents that one of his producers had shipped through an express-mail service had mysteriously disappeared.)
Throughout this stretch, Bannon, a former top White House strategist for Trump who was indicted on fraud charges in August, has been a co-pilot on Giuliani’s crusade. Trump’s campaign manager in 2016, Bannon, too, was trying to recapture that old magic from last time.
The New York Post reported that Bannon, who now hosts a radio show and a podcast, was the fellow who first tipped off the tabloid in September that Giuliani had material supposedly from Hunter Biden’s laptop. But Bannon has been up to much more than connecting the Post with Giuliani. After Trump booted him from the White House in 2017, he found a new patron: Guo Wengui, a mysterious Chinese dissident reputed to be a billionaire. Guo has lived in the United States since 2014, when he fled China, where he faces charges for various financial crimes related to his former real estate business. Guo claims these charges are false and politically motivated. (He has also been accused of rape in a civil lawsuit; Guo denies this allegation, contending it was engineered by the Chinese regime he has opposed.) Guo has fashioned himself a vocal critic of corruption in the Chinese Communist Party and has hooked up with Bannon to bash the Chinese regime. In June, the duo announced the “Federal State of New China,” a vaguely defined initiative to “overthrow the Chinese government.” Their attacks on Beijing include funding a researcher, Li-Meng Yan, who has issued papers making the widely rejected claim that the coronavirus was potentially manufactured in a Chinese lab. Guo is also a member of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club.
Much of Bannon’s work for Guo is related to media companies Guo has launched. A one-year contract between Guo and Bannon inked in 2018 reportedly paid the former Breitbart executive $1 million to introduce Guo’s media company to “media personalities” and advise the company on “industry standards.” Bannon is also listed as director of GTV Media, a media company launched in April by Guo.
Bannon’s new partner has been part of the Hunter Biden smear machine. Weeks before the New York Post began publishing stories about the supposed contents of Hunter Biden’s hard drive, a YouTube channel and Twitter account linked to Guo and Bannon began touting coming revelations of “videos and dossiers of Hunter Biden’s” supposed “connections with the Chinese Communist Party,” the Daily Beast reported. And on Saturday, a digital media platform that is a subsidiary of GTV Media posted several videos supposedly showing Hunter Biden engaged in sex acts and using drugs.
Pause again: A foreign businessman is in league with Trump’s former chief strategist as part of this final, sleazy, get-Biden blitz. Yet this salacious effort to harm Joe Biden in the campaign’s dwindling days by highlighting his son’s well-known personal struggles seems to have fizzled. It has not received much coverage beyond the alleys of the right wing.
Not surprisingly, Giuliani has his own relationship with Guo. On October 11—three days before the first New York Post story ran—a pro-Guo Twitter account posted four pictures of Guo and Giuliani, smoking cigars and apparently drinking wine, with their arms wrapped around each other. Giuliani and an attorney for Guo declined to explain the reason for the meeting.


motherjones--2020-10-29--QAnon Is Supposed to Be All About Protecting Kids. Its Primary Enabler Appears to Have Hosted Child

QAnon Is Supposed to Be All About Protecting Kids. Its Primary Enabler Appears to Have Hosted Child Porn Domains.

One dark irony of QAnon has always been that the conspiracy theory , which holds that President Trump is waging a war on a cabal of elite liberal pedophiles , rose to prominence on 8chan , an imageboard where users swapped child pornography .
But that irony may have a darker , deeper layer : Mother Jones has uncovered that Jim Watkins , the owner of 8chan and its successor site , 8kun , controls a company that hosted scores of domains whose names suggest they are connected to child pornography .
While Mother Jones did not visit the domains @ @ @ @ @ @ @ child sex abuse material , internet registration and hosting data suggest at a minimum that Watkins profited from domains with names explicitly related to pedophilia—the very thing that QAnon followers say that they ’ re motivated to end .
The domains ’ names include terms such as “ preteen , ” “ schoolgirl , ” and “ child ” alongside graphic terms for genitalia and words like “ rape ” and “ love.
” It ’ s unclear what , if anything , is currently being served at the domains .
However , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from one by archive.org shows dozens of filenames and links containing highly suggestive terms , including “ xxxpreteen , ” “ children , ” and sexual references to girls aged 12 to 15 .
Some of the domains date back to the late 1990s and may no longer be active , while others currently resolve to IP addresses controlled by Watkins ’ company , N.T .
Technology , according to records compiled by Farsight Security , a cybersecurity company that archives historical routing data detailing relationships among domain names , IP addresses , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Watkins , who some experts believe has an active role in maintaining the QAnon account on 8kun , dismissed Mother Jones ’ questions about the domains as “ an attempt to smear [ his ] name and print something awful , ” offering varying explanations why they were on N.T .
Technology ’ s servers .
“ We ’ re not child pornographers , and we don ’ t host child pornography , and we don ’ t condone that , ” he insisted .
A group of anti-Q researchers that includes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activist hacker collective Anonymous , brought Watkins ’ connection to the domains to Mother Jones ’ attention .
Another researcher , who asked not to be named to avoid harassment from Watkins supporters , reviewed the historical domain and routing information at Mother Jones ’ request and agreed the records showed that N.T .
Technology “ hosted many domains with CP [ child pornography ] themed names over an extended period of time.
” Using a combination of open-source and commercially available data , the researcher confirmed that the domains pointed to IP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that the IP addresses were routed to the company ’ s network while the explicit domains were active .
One domain created in 1998 and hosted by N.T .
Technology , which bills itself as “ a powerhouse in the internet world , [ s ] upporting some of the largest sites on Earth , ” lists Watkins as its administrator and names a separate holding company he owns , Is It Wet Yet Inc. , as the administration organization .
According to historical domain and web archive records , the domain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ associated with dozens of subdomains—more specific and focused offshoots of the main domain—whose names combine terms like “ preteen , ” “ kidnap , ” and “ rape.
” They include a comprehensive system of subdomains referencing age ranges as young as 10 .
When asked about the specific domain , Watkins said “ I have really no idea about ” it .
Nevada records show N.T .
Technology was formed in 1998 .
Just last week , following a story from information security journalist Brian Krebs noting the company ’ s corporate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s records were updated , listing Watkins as both the company ’ s president and director .
Fredrick Brennan founded 8chan , but turned over control of the imageboard to Watkins in 2015 .
* They later had a public split over the site ’ s direction .
Brennan told Mother Jones that he would not be surprised if “ Jim was involved in pedophile sites going back that far given his attitude towards the problem on 8chan , ” explaining that Watkins “ would always find something more important to do ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to block child sexual abuse material from the board .
Watkins dismissed Brennan ’ s claims , saying that “ what we do with machine learning is private.
” Though press reports documenting 8chan ’ s notorious and toxic environment noted that child pornography continued to be found there , in a phone call , Watkins said that 8chan “ had a lot of problems ” with child sexual abuse content when he acquired the site , but claimed it was removed under him as “ it became one of the strictest websites @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company that hosted them , Watkins said he has no direct link to any of the domains , despite his companies ’ email and his name showing up on registrations for several of them .
“ There ’ s probably 30 or 40,000 domain names associated with my name .
Very few of them I have had anything to do with , ” he said .
Watkins speculated that he “ would have been arrested long ago , ” if he were involved in distributing child porn .
When asked about a particular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suggesting it hosted child sex abuse material , Watkins claimed he had deleted it “ 15 to 20 years ago ” when it came to his attention .
He said the domains with names suggestive of child pornography had no content when hosted by his company , but had been established for domain squatting , a practice where the domains ’ owners would profit once they found willing buyers for URLs referencing things like children ’ s underwear and the sexual abuse of minors .
In a subsequent conversation , he suggested the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ common turn-of- the-century search engine optimization tactic .
Watkins claimed not to know the domain whose metadata showed it hosting child sex abuse-related filenames and links , and said that if the domain actually hosted such material the domain itself would have been removed .
“ If there was ever a problem we removed and deleted and reported , ” he said .
Watkins said that he did not vet clients nor take action to determine whether they used his services to commit illegal acts unless it was brought to his attention : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ un-American thing I can imagine , sir .
That ’ s what the Soviets would be doing , or the communist Chinese .
And we don ’ t have Soviets anymore .
We defeated them.
” The now 56-year-old Watkins has a long connection to pornography stretching back to a site he founded in the mid 90s as the industry was transitioning online .
By 2001 , Watkins ’ s work as a US Army helicopter repairman took him to the Philippines , where he expanded from porn sites into web services , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obscenity laws , according to a 2016 Splinter story .
He has said he chose N.T .
Technology ’ s innocuous name to provide cover for credit card charges that might be questioned by his customers ’ wives .
The QAnon conspiracy theory began on 4chan , a site Watkins had no role in running , eventually migrating to 8chan in 2017 .
8chan was ultimately shut down in August of 2019 when its domain hosting and cybersecurity providers dropped it after several far-right shooters used the site to disseminate their manifestos .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ posting by restarting and rebranding the imageboard as 8Kun , vowing to moderate child porn and other illegal content more strictly .
QAnon ’ s sprawl and constant evolution can make it difficult to follow .
It started with a poster on 4chan who claimed to be a member of the federal government with high-level “ Q ” security clearance .
Posts from Q dropped cryptic breadcrumbs that purportedly shed light on a pedophile ring being run by liberal elites .
The conspiracy , which holds that Donald Trump is secretly battling this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deep state , ” has found ardent supporters among the president ’ s base .
Watkins ’ precise role in QAnon is murky .
At a minimum , he is widely recognized as having played an instrumental part in giving the movement a platform where it could flourish as he has publicly encouraged the conspiracy .
When he was subpoenaed to testify before Congress , he wore a “ Q ” pin .
Just weeks ago , he was a featured speaker at a QAnon conference in Phoenix .
In addition to running @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fact-checking site Logically.ai reported this month that Watkins appears to be playing a role in facilitating online QAnon community hubs elsewhere .
Brennan , 8chan ’ s original founder , has suggested Watkins ’ involvement goes deeper , positing he took advantage of his power as the owner of 8kun to essentially hijack the account that claims to be Q .
Other researchers and journalists have raised the possibility that Watkins has some involvement or knowledge of who runs the account .
Watkins has denied that claim , or having acted as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ direct relationship to the QAnon account , as an active supporter of Q and the movement ’ s host , Watkins is an inextricable sustainer of a conspiracy that has falsely branded political opponents and innocent bystanders as pedophiles—despite his own apparent role in profiting from words that appeal to the real thing .
Correction : This article originally misstated the year Brennan ceded control to Watkins .

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One dark irony of QAnon has always been that the conspiracy theory, which holds that President Trump is waging a war on a cabal of elite liberal pedophiles, rose to prominence on 8chan, an imageboard where users swapped child pornography.
But that irony may have a darker, deeper layer: Mother Jones has uncovered that Jim Watkins, the owner of 8chan and its successor site, 8kun, controls a company that hosted scores of domains whose names suggest they are connected to child pornography.
Watkins’ company hosted scores of domains apparently connected to child pornography.
While Mother Jones did not visit the domains because of strict laws related to viewing child sex abuse material, internet registration and hosting data suggest at a minimum that Watkins profited from domains with names explicitly related to pedophilia—the very thing that QAnon followers say that they’re motivated to end. The domains’ names include terms such as “preteen,” “schoolgirl,” and “child” alongside graphic terms for genitalia and words like “rape” and “love.” It’s unclear what, if anything, is currently being served at the domains. However, an analysis of metadata collected years ago from one by archive.org shows dozens of filenames and links containing highly suggestive terms, including “xxxpreteen,” “children,” and sexual references to girls aged 12 to 15.
Some of the domains date back to the late 1990s and may no longer be active, while others currently resolve to IP addresses controlled by Watkins’ company, N.T. Technology, according to records compiled by Farsight Security, a cybersecurity company that archives historical routing data detailing relationships among domain names, IP addresses, name servers, and other digital assets.
Watkins, who some experts believe has an active role in maintaining the QAnon account on 8kun, dismissed Mother Jones’ questions about the domains as “an attempt to smear [his] name and print something awful,” offering varying explanations why they were on N.T. Technology’s servers. “We’re not child pornographers, and we don’t host child pornography, and we don’t condone that,” he insisted.
A group of anti-Q researchers that includes Aubrey Cottle, a founder of the online collective Anonymous, brought Watkins’ connection to the domains to Mother Jones’ attention. Another researcher, who asked not to be named to avoid harassment from Watkins supporters, reviewed the historical domain and routing information at Mother Jones’ request and agreed the records showed that N.T. Technology “hosted many domains with CP [child pornography] themed names over an extended period of time.”
Using a combination of open-source and commercially available data, the researcher confirmed that the domains pointed to IP addresses registered to N.T. Technology, and that the IP addresses were routed to the company’s network while the explicit domains were active.
One domain created in 1998 and hosted by N.T. Technology, which bills itself as “a powerhouse in the internet world, [s]upporting some of the largest sites on Earth,” lists Watkins as its administrator and names a separate holding company he owns, Is It Wet Yet Inc., as the administration organization. According to historical domain and web archive records, the domain has, over the years, been associated with dozens of subdomains—more specific and focused offshoots of the main domain—whose names combine terms like “preteen,” “kidnap,” and “rape.” They include a comprehensive system of subdomains referencing age ranges as young as 10. When asked about the specific domain, Watkins said “I have really no idea about” it.
Nevada records show N.T. Technology was formed in 1998. Just last week, following a story from information security journalist Brian Krebs noting the company’s corporate registration had lapsed, the state’s records were updated, listing Watkins as both the company’s president and director.
Fredrick Brennan founded 8chan, but turned over control of the imageboard to Watkins in 2015.* They later had a public split over the site’s direction. Brennan told Mother Jones that he would not be surprised if “Jim was involved in pedophile sites going back that far given his attitude towards the problem on 8chan,” explaining that Watkins “would always find something more important to do” when Brennan proposed deploying machine learning tools to block child sexual abuse material from the board. Watkins dismissed Brennan’s claims, saying that “what we do with machine learning is private.”
Though press reports documenting 8chan’s notorious and toxic environment noted that child pornography continued to be found there, in a phone call, Watkins said that 8chan “had a lot of problems” with child sexual abuse content when he acquired the site, but claimed it was removed under him as “it became one of the strictest websites on the internet.”
Watkins is listed as administrator of a domain with subdomains named for terms including “preteen,” “kidnap,” and “rape.”
Beyond owning the company that hosted them, Watkins said he has no direct link to any of the domains, despite his companies’ email and his name showing up on registrations for several of them. “There’s probably 30 or 40,000 domain names associated with my name. Very few of them I have had anything to do with,” he said. Watkins speculated that he “would have been arrested long ago,” if he were involved in distributing child porn.
When asked about a particular domain in the batch with a name suggesting it hosted child sex abuse material, Watkins claimed he had deleted it “15 to 20 years ago” when it came to his attention. He said the domains with names suggestive of child pornography had no content when hosted by his company, but had been established for domain squatting, a practice where the domains’ owners would profit once they found willing buyers for URLs referencing things like children’s underwear and the sexual abuse of minors. In a subsequent conversation, he suggested the subdomains were created as part of a common turn-of- the-century search engine optimization tactic.
Watkins claimed not to know the domain whose metadata showed it hosting child sex abuse-related filenames and links, and said that if the domain actually hosted such material the domain itself would have been removed. “If there was ever a problem we removed and deleted and reported,” he said. Watkins said that he did not vet clients nor take action to determine whether they used his services to commit illegal acts unless it was brought to his attention: “It’s about the most un-American thing I can imagine, sir. That’s what the Soviets would be doing, or the communist Chinese. And we don’t have Soviets anymore. We defeated them.”
The now 56-year-old Watkins has a long connection to pornography stretching back to a site he founded in the mid 90s as the industry was transitioning online. By 2001, Watkins’s work as a US Army helicopter repairman took him to the Philippines, where he expanded from porn sites into web services, hosting adult sites targeting consumers evading Japanese obscenity laws, according to a 2016 Splinter story. He has said he chose N.T. Technology’s innocuous name to provide cover for credit card charges that might be questioned by his customers’ wives.
The QAnon conspiracy theory began on 4chan, a site Watkins had no role in running, eventually migrating to 8chan in 2017. 8chan was ultimately shut down in August of 2019 when its domain hosting and cybersecurity providers dropped it after several far-right shooters used the site to disseminate their manifestos. Watkins provided Q a place to continue posting by restarting and rebranding the imageboard as 8Kun, vowing to moderate child porn and other illegal content more strictly.
QAnon’s sprawl and constant evolution can make it difficult to follow. It started with a poster on 4chan who claimed to be a member of the federal government with high-level “Q” security clearance. Posts from Q dropped cryptic breadcrumbs that purportedly shed light on a pedophile ring being run by liberal elites. The conspiracy, which holds that Donald Trump is secretly battling this cabal despite opposition from the so-called “deep state,” has found ardent supporters among the president’s base.
A former associate of Watkins says he would not be surprised if “Jim was involved in pedophile sites going back that far.”
Watkins’ precise role in QAnon is murky. At a minimum, he is widely recognized as having played an instrumental part in giving the movement a platform where it could flourish as he has publicly encouraged the conspiracy. When he was subpoenaed to testify before Congress, he wore a “Q” pin. Just weeks ago, he was a featured speaker at a QAnon conference in Phoenix. In addition to running QAnon’s home on 8kun, the fact-checking site Logically.ai reported this month that Watkins appears to be playing a role in facilitating online QAnon community hubs elsewhere.
Brennan, 8chan’s original founder, has suggested Watkins’ involvement goes deeper, positing he took advantage of his power as the owner of 8kun to essentially hijack the account that claims to be Q. Other researchers and journalists have raised the possibility that Watkins has some involvement or knowledge of who runs the account. Watkins has denied that claim, or having acted as Q.
Even if he has no direct relationship to the QAnon account, as an active supporter of Q and the movement’s host, Watkins is an inextricable sustainer of a conspiracy that has falsely branded political opponents and innocent bystanders as pedophiles—despite his own apparent role in profiting from words that appeal to the real thing.
Correction: This article originally misstated the year Brennan ceded control to Watkins.