Trump attorney Lin Wood turns on ‘Audit Force’ — and suggests the leader secretly tortures children: report

Conspiracy theorists pushing Donald Trump's "Big Lie" of election fraud are feuding as they continue chasing their debunked conspiracy theory more than 500 days after the GOP nominee lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.

"A shady 'audit' of the 2020 presidential election has concluded early, with the company behind the recount handing over thousands of dollars and announcing a finding of 'no election fraud.' Now the company’s allies are accusing it of 'bailing' on the audit, and branding each other as liars and pedophiles," The Daily Beast reported Thursday.

"Despite voting overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2020, Otero County, New Mexico became a hub for conspiracy theorists who falsely claimed that election fraud had cost Trump his reelection. Otero County’s three commissioners (one of whom would later be convicted for his role in the Capitol riot), hired the company EchoMail to work on an 'audit' of the district’s 2020 election. That audit came under state and federal scrutiny after EchoMail’s CEO and allies were found to have promoted wild election conspiracy theories."

The firm was founded by Shiva Ayyadurai, who also played a role in the controversial audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. Ayyadurai also claims he invented email.

"New Mexico’s state auditor, Brian Colón, opened an investigation into whether the deal was in taxpayers’ best interests. He and other officials also set their eyes on one of EchoMail’s close allies: a conspiracy-peddling Telegram group called the New Mexico Audit Force (NMAF) that at times appeared to operate as an extension of EchoMail," The Beast reported. "Other Otero County residents pointed to violent rhetoric from NMAF members. One of the group’s leaders, David Clements, has repeatedly called for the deaths of people he believes engaged in 'treason.'"

In March, the Committee on Oversight and Reform opened an investigation into the Otero County audit. Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, also sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Kristen M. Clarke of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice calling on DOJ to "review potential ongoing civil rights violations."

The Beast noted there was also private money raised for the Otero audit, with L. Lin Wood claiming to have raised more than $50,000 for the effort.

"But Ayyadurai’s exit from Otero County appears to have driven a wedge into the lucrative partnership, with Wood accusing Clements of misrepresenting Ayyadurai’s work," The Beast reported. "Wood (who did not return a request for comment) announced that Clements and another ally, far-right podcaster Joe Oltmann, were leaving FightBack’s board. Wood also accused Clements of associating with freemasons (a grave sin in certain conspiratorial corners of the internet), and wrote a cryptic post urging followers to research the 'Red Shoe Club,' a reference to a bogus conspiracy theory that claims people who wear red shoes secretly torture children. Wood’s fans were quick to share a photograph of Clements wearing red shoes."

Read the full report.