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Fact check

Is it true: Pizzagate?

Debunked99% confidence

No — this has been debunked.

Every specific claim has been investigated and refuted: Comet Ping Pong has no basement (a core claim required a basement torture chamber to exist); the "code words" pattern (cheese pizza = CP = child pornography) appears in no DOJ trafficking case; the restaurant has no connection to any trafficking network. The theory has directly motivated violence (Welch arrest 2016, arson 2019) and ongoing harassment of employees.

The claim

The false claim that a child sex-trafficking ring linked to Democratic Party officials operated out of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington DC, based on misreadings of John Podesta's hacked 2016 ema

Key evidence

Podesta emails use "pizza" frequently

Welch found no basement

Read the full evidence file

Conspirafy steelmans each claim, then follows the evidence. How we reach a verdict · Check another claim