Jacob Wohl, a conservative activist who infamously attempted to smear special counsel Robert Mueller with false sexual assault allegations before the 2018 midterm elections, was banned from Twitter on Tuesday for operating a ring of fake accounts.
Wohl operated @Women_4_Schultz, which posed as a supporter of former Starbucks CEO and presidential hopeful Howard Schultz. He also operated two other banned Twitter accounts, according to a source familiar with the accounts who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Wohl's "account was suspended for multiple violations of the Twitter rules, specifically creating and operating fake accounts," Twitter told NBC News in a statement.
Wohl became the center of controversy in October when he claimed an unaffiliated intelligence firm had proof that Mueller had sexually assaulted an unnamed woman. The phone number for the intelligence firm was registered to his mother. The intelligence firm’s document attempting to prove the allegations was riddled with inaccuracies, and Wohl never produced the accuser.
In a phone interview Tuesday evening, Wohl admitted to operating @Women_4_Schultz.
“This is par for the course. We were just talking about how this was probably going to happen,” he said.
Wohl initially said he did not create the @Woman_4_Schultz handle before backpedaling and claiming the account.
“Thank you for reminding me,” he said. “I tweeted at it to be goofy, but it’s not a fake account. I was tweeting about women’s issues that Schultz happens to be good on.”
Wohl was profiled in USA Today in an article published Tuesday morning, in which he said he planned to create fake Twitter and Facebook profiles in order to “steer the left-wing votes in the primaries to what we feel are weaker candidates compared with Trump.”
He said he didn’t see a problem with the strategy.
“It is not illegal, unethical, or untoward for Americans to steer an American election,” he said in the phone call with NBC News. “I’m an American.”
Wohl claimed without evidence that anti-Semitism was behind his suspension as retribution for his efforts in an “investigation” of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a Somali-American. Wohl is Jewish and called himself a “Zionist” on Twitter.
“In my entire adult life, I’ve had three Twitter accounts,” Wohl said, pointing to his main @JacobAWohl, an account for his private investigation company, and a third, unnamed account reserved for a think tank that he was planning to launch.
Women_4_Schultz tweeted mostly videos from Schultz, along with talking points Schultz sometimes did not share. The account had a minor viral moment Feb. 1 while echoing one of Wohl’s own false talking points about 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“Kamala Harris does not represent American Women. Unlike Howard Schultz (who is 100% self-made) she traded sexual favors for public office!” the Women_4_Schultz tweet read, which received hundreds of retweets and likes.
