Viral Claim That UnitedHealth CEO Would Testify Against Nancy Pelosi Is False

Have you seen claims that Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO who was changeable connected Dec. 4 successful New York, was killed due to the fact that helium was astir to attest against Rep. Nancy Pelosi for insider trading? It’s gone viral connected respective societal media platforms implicit the past week. But it’s not true.

The oldest illustration of this mendacious assertion that Gizmodo could find dates to the nighttime of Dec. 6, 2 days aft the shooting. The X relationship HustleBitch wrote “BREAKING: Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was acceptable to attest against Nancy Pelosi for insider trading.”

From that assertion astir 10:00 p.m. ET, different X accounts that went viral look to person made their posts astir it a mates of hours later. Politifact besides recovered the assertion being made connected Threads and Instagram, though those posts were made connected Dec. 7, the time aft the earliest tweets spreading the mendacious story, which were happening good earlier the apprehension of Luigi Mangione, who’s been charged with the execution and is presently warring extradition to New York from Pennsylvania.

But the assertion that Thompson was killed implicit this motive related to a sitting congresswoman isn’t true. There’s nary grounds Thompson was going to attest against Pelosi for insider trading oregon thing else. But, oddly enough, Thompson was himself accused of insider trading earlier helium was killed.

The Hollywood Firefighters Pension Fund filed a suit against Thompson and different executives astatine UnitedHealth back successful May. The suit alleges that the executives sold astir $120 cardinal worthy of UnitedHealth shares erstwhile they learned the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating the institution for anti-competitive practices. The banal went down lone aft it became publically known the DOJ had opened an investigation. The suit states Thompson sold astir $15 cardinal worthy of stock.

Pelosi and different members of Congress person so received scrutiny implicit their enactment trading stocks, and immoderate Democrats person called for a ban, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who wrote back successful 2021, “There is nary crushed members of Congress should clasp and commercialized idiosyncratic banal erstwhile we constitute large argumentation and person entree to delicate information.”

Some versions of the mendacious assertion connected societal media besides usage a video that purports to amusement Thompson talking astir Nancy Pelosi providing assistance to UnitedHealth. The lone problem, of course, is that the video doesn’t amusement the Thompson that was killed, arsenic anyone with eyes tin see.

Matt Wallace, a conspiracy theorist who often spreads disinformation connected X, helped dispersed the misidentified video on with respective others. Wallace besides made a video connected Rumble claiming that Nancy Pelosi brainwashed the shooter with techniques from MKUltra, the caput power experiments of the CIA from the 1960s. There were besides claims that the antheral who took a changeable astatine Donald Trump implicit the summertime successful Butler, Pennsylvania. The CIA told Gizmodo aft those claims went viral that immoderate claims astir MKUltra being progressive successful the assassination effort were, “utterly false, absurd, and damaging.”

Why are radical online spreading this mendacious communicative astir Pelosi? We tin lone presume they’re either actively oregon unintentionally spreading mendacious accusation that helps Trump. Many of the accounts that were sharing the mendacious assertion successful its earliest iteration look to person bios and images promoting the erstwhile and incoming president.

HustleBitch, the relationship that appears to person shared the assertion precise aboriginal (if not perchance the first), has a past of sharing lies connected the internet. That relationship was besides 1 of the archetypal to stock a assertion that a assemblage treble was really utilized for Trump’s sojourn to ticker a SpaceX motorboat with Elon Musk last month. But it’s not wide who’s really down the account.

All we cognize for definite is that there’s nary grounds that Thompson was killed due to the fact that helium was going to testify. And portion Mangione’s lawyer has said his lawsuit intends to plead not guilty, each the disposable grounds seems to suggest that helium whitethorn person been killed due to the fact that his institution makes billions of dollars successful profits portion denying life-saving aesculapian sum to Americans who are fed up with a breached healthcare system.