Episode 1: “The Last Days of Seth Rich” - Rich’s friends and family remember the idealistic political staffer and the last few days of his life. The shooting of Seth Rich at 4:19 on Sunday morning, July 10, 2016, was viewed by Washington, D.C., police as the result of a botched robbery for good reason: There had been seven armed robberies in D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood in the six weeks prior to Rich’s death, a crime spree that the cops believed was linked to a gang of drug dealers in a nearby housing project. And yet, three days after his death, the first fake story appeared: a wild claim on an obscure website that the former DNC staffer was gunned down by a squad of assassins dispatched by Hillary Clinton. But as investigators soon discovered, there was much more to that phony report than anybody suspected.
Episode 2: “The Russia Connection” - Julian Assange fans the conspiracy flames, implying Rich could have been a source of the DNC leaked emails. Russia’s propaganda outlets and its notorious troll farm pump out the story, and “alt-right” websites latch onto it. Deborah Sines, the prosecutor in charge of the case, digs into where the conspiracy claims are coming from and makes a startling discovery: The original website report about Rich’s being assassinated by a Clinton hit squad was planted by the Russian SVR, the country’s version of the CIA, infecting social media with an operation that a former top CIA official calls a “100 percent continuation of active measures” — the term used to describe Soviet disinformation operations during the Cold War. Yahoo Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and CNN Contributor Bianna Golodryga then talk to Yahoo Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff about his new six-part podcast series on the 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Isikoff discusses why he delved into his case and what he discovered as he traced how the conspiracy theories about the Rich murder proliferated throughout social media, migrating from obscure websites to alt-right Internet celebrities and ultimately Fox News — with a helping hand from Russian intelligence and the Trump White House. In the first bonus episode, Isikoff talks about the background of Seth Rich, what he actually did for the Democratic National Committee and how Russia's intelligence service planted the original seeds of conspiracy about his death.
Episode 3: Fake News Theater - Publicity-hungry D.C. lobbyist Jack Burkman takes the unsolved murder on a wild spree, casting and filming a reenactment of the killing for his own promotional purposes. He does so as another bizarre conspiracy theory takes root — “Pizzagate,” the claim that the Clintons were linked to the sex trafficking of children in the basement of a popular D.C. pizza parlor. The episode explores the indispensable role of “super spreaders” who perpetuate conspiracy theories on social media. Later, Mr. Isikoff talks about the role of Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman in fanning the Seth Rich conspiracy flames, staging a filmed reenactment of Rich's murder that distorted reality and horrified the dead DNC staffer's family.
Episode 4: Fox News Fiction - Dallas money man Ed Butowsky decides to change the narrative of Russian meddling in the presidential election, working behind the scenes to get Fox News to go big on a story that Rich was the leaker to WikiLeaks. Isikoff then talks in greater detail about how the Seth Rich WikiLeaks story made its way all the way up the ladder at Fox News. From legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh to Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler, and even with the uncertainty of the story, it still hits the airwaves.
Episode 5: Fox News Fallout - Sean Hannity heads an extensive campaign on Fox News with an explosive story that quickly crumbles in the face of facts. Yahoo News Editor Dan Klaidman and CNN Contributor Bianna Golodryga discuss with Conspiracyland host Michael Isikoff about Sean Hannity and his role in peddling the Seth Rich conspiracy and what the consequences have been for Fox News once the story had been debunked.
Episode 6: Collateral Damage - Even after the discredited story is retracted, the internet, unwilling to let the story go, takes the case in an entirely new direction, targeting Rich’s brother Aaron as a co-conspirator. The D.C. police explain how the conspiracies are hampering the official investigation into the murder, and author Anna Merlan explains why we are living in a modern golden age for conspiracy theories. Yahoo editor Dan Klaidman, alongside CNN Contributor Bianna Golodryga, then discuss with Michael Isikoff the final installment of Conspiracyland's look into the unsolved murder of Seth Rich. They explore the political PURPOSE of conspiracy theories, the devastating human consequences, as well as their final thoughts on the case.
Season 2, Episodes 1, 2, & 3: A Death in Florida, Blood Feud & Twitter Dodge - These episodes explore the life of Lori Klausutis, a vivacious 28-year-old who worked in a tiny office in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., as the constituent service coordinator for then-congressman Joe Scarborough. A devout Catholic who wore a “Precious Little Feet” lapel pin, a symbol for the anti-abortion movement. Klausutis was a well-liked woman who served as president of the local Young Republicans club and sang in the church choir. The podcast, relying on detailed police reports and interviews with people directly involved in the case, describes how on the afternoon of July 19, 2001, Klausutis was feeling fidgety and ill moments before she collapsed from an undiagnosed heart condition. While the police found no sign of a struggle or foul play, her death soon spurred speculation and conspiracy theories — many of them pushed by left-wing bloggers who demanded that Scarborough be subjected to the same scrutiny as then-Democratic congressman Gary Condit, who had been having an affair with missing intern Chandra Levy. The rumors that his wife had also been having an affair with her boss infuriated T.J. Klausutis, who reveals Scarborough didn’t even recognize his wife when they encountered each other. “It’s complete nonsense,” he says. “It’s just disgusting.” Then they trace the conspiracy theories about Lori Klausutis as they evolved over the years, starting with liberal activists such as Markos Moulitsas, founder of the blog Daily Kos, who was once banned from MSNBC for pushing the media to investigate Joe Scarborough’s alleged role in Lori Klausutis’s death. The episode also explores the feud between President Trump and Scarborough. The two were once on friendly terms, with Trump appearing as a frequent guest on “Morning Joe.” “Conspiracyland” includes rare clips of their off-camera coziness during the 2016 campaign:
“You know you have me as almost a legendary figure,” Trump tells Scarborough and his MSNBC co-host, Mika Brezezinski. But after he became president, Scarborough and Trump had a falling-out during a lunch at the White House, resulting in Scarborough becoming a relentless critic and Trump reaching deep into the TV host’s past to get his revenge. Finally, there's look into how, President Trump started tweeting about Scarborough and Lori Klausutis, devotees of the QAnon conspiracy theory took up the cause and started spreading even more bizarre and nonsensical conspiracy theories claiming that Klausutis had been “suffocated” after she read secret documents about the 9/11 terror attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing. The episode also examines how Twitter has come under pressure over its handling of Trump’s tweets — an issue that the company was finally forced to address after T.J. Klausutis wrote a poignant letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, pleading with him to remove the president’s tweets about his wife from the company’s platform. And it includes an exclusive interview with Lt. Mark Hayse, the chief of investigations at the Fort Walton, Fla., Police Department, rejecting Trump’s call to reopen the case.
Season 2, Episode 1 Summary - NJ Congressman Tom Malinowski and National Correspondent for TIME Charlotte Alter join Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman for a special bonus episode of Skullduggery's "Conspiracyland." Malinowski reacts to the recent unfounded ad attack against him straight from the QAnon playbook. Then, Alter weighs in having just written an in-depth piece about the fringe supporter group and how it's slowly working its way into the mainstream.
Season 2, Episode #2 Summary - Zach Dorfman joins Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman on this special bonus episode of Conspiracyland presented by "Skullduggery." The group discusses Larry McDonald, a former member of the United States House of Representatives that represented Georgia's 7th congressional district. McDonald, who was killed on board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by Soviet interceptors, eerily anticipated conspiracies now held by the QAnon movement which is currently plaguing the American political dialogue. A conspiracy theorist himself, his life story is at times unbelievable - but true.
