President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday fired Michael Flynn Jr., a member of his transition team who has peddled fake news stories spreading right-wing conspiracy theories, including one that led toa violent incident at a Washington, D.C., restaurant earlier this week.Trump adviser Jason Miller told reporters on Tuesday morning that Flynn, the son of Trumps pick for national security adviser, is no longer involved with transition efforts, after reports revealed he was assisting with the team and that it had even requested a security clearancefor him.Trump transition officials later told the New York Times that the firing was related to Flynn promoting fake news stories, including a baseless conspiracy theory that leda gunman to attack Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.Armed with multiple weapons, the gunman stormed into the restaurant to self-investigate a right-wing conspiracy theory that claimed Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta ran a child sex trafficking ring in the back of the restaurant.There is no evidence of this theory, known as Pizzagate, but even after Sundays incident, Flynn continued to tweet about it.Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many "coincidences" tied to it. https://t.co/8HA9y30Yfp Michael G Flynn (@mflynnJR) December 5, 2016 Flynn is an adviser to his father, Gen. Mike Flynn, whom Trump has named national security adviser. Miller said on Tuesday that the younger Flynn had been assisting his father with some administration and scheduling duties early on in the transition process. Trump sources have also said that he attendeda ton of meetingswith his father and helped evaluate potential staffers.Trumps team sought to downplay the younger Flynns role in the transition after CNN discovered on Monday that he had an official .gov email address, indicating that he was working for the transition team.In an MSNBC interview on Tuesday morning,Vice President-elect Mike Pence claimed the younger Flynnhas no involvement in the transition whatsoever. Later in the day, Pencereluctantly confirmed to CNNs Jake Tapper that the transition team had requested a security clearance for him.Well, whatever the appropriate paperwork was to assist him in that regard, Jake, Im sure was taking place, Pence said. But thats no longer the case.Both Flynn and his father frequently share links and conspiracy theories from fake news sources, including allegations of Hillary Clintons sex crimes.Trump himself regularly promotes such stories to his millions of followers, according to an analysis of his tweets, and he based much of his campaign rhetoric on conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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