August 13, 2022

Brian Kilmeade Fesses Up to Posting Fake Image Smearing Judge Who Issued Trump Search Warrant

The doctored photo depicted Judge Bruce Reinhart getting a foot massage from Ghislaine Maxwell.

Richard Drew/AP

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In the fog of misinformation and conspiratorial pontification after the feds searched Mar-a-Lago, Fox News this week aired a particularly noxious image for its millions of viewers. That doctored photo—which showed Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and notorious pal of Jeffrey Epstein—giving a foot massage to the judge who approved the search warrant at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach residence—was broadcast Thursday on Tucker Carlson’s show, one of the most watched cable news programs in America.

Brian Kilmeade, who had been filling in for Carlson, told viewers: “So a picture of Bruce Reinhart. This is the judge in charge of the, as you know, the warrant. We’ll see if he’s going to release it next. He likes Oreos and whisky.” 

If that was an effort at parody, Kilmeade gave no indication of that. The sharing of the photo, which replaces Epstein for Reinhart, prompted immediate outrage, as well as warnings that the judge’s safety could be further jeopardized as violent threats against him continued to swell across the internet.

On Friday, Kilmeade offered this explanation for sharing the phony photo. But as far we can tell, such clarification has yet to air on Fox News.

The ongoing attacks against Reinhart, which have prompted Google searches for “Bruce Reinhart Epstein” to trend, come amid wider threats against those perceived as responsible for the investigation into whether Trump may have violated the Espionage Act and other laws. In his first and only statement since the FBI searched Trump’s golf club, Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday defended law enforcement officials against the torrent of attacks, adding that he would “not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked.”

“The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants,” Garland said.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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