“What your kind of people call ‘conspiracy theories,’ I simply call an amalgam of collective incentives hiding in plain sight.”

— Vivek Ramaswamy, quoted by the New York Times.

“Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones could exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy by late March or early April, his lawyer said on Wednesday after a judge decided families whom he owes $1.5 billion for lying about the 2012 school shooting can vote on competing plans to resolve their claims,” Reuters reports.

Mother Jones: “It claims that Jack Smith, the special counsel who is prosecuting Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for his alleged swiping of classified documents, was part of a multimillion dollar extortion scheme when he was the chief prosecutor investigating and prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo.”

“In the past two weeks, this unsubstantiated narrative has started popping up on fringe right-wing sites and social media posts. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser and QAnonish MAGA champion, has promoted this tale. These allegations appear to be in the early phase of the right-wing transmission belt that propels false stories and conspiracy theories from less prominent platforms to more established conservative media and toward the mainstream—often facilitated by Republican members of Congress.”

Elon Musk said his social media platform X will reinstate the account of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after a poll of the site’s users backed his return, The Guardian reports.

“Elon Musk voiced support Tuesday for Pizzagate, the long-debunked conspiracy theory that led a man to fire a rifle inside a Washington, D.C., restaurant in 2016,” the Washington Post reports.

“The far-right theory, a predecessor to QAnon, alleged that the Clintons and Democratic Party leaders ran a secret satanic child sex ring in a D.C. pizzeria known as Comet Ping Pong.”

Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo floated a conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama is calling the shots in the White House.

“Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo was once again just asking questions when she wondered aloud Monday whether the Chinese government intentionally released Covid-19 to get Donald Trump out of the White House,” the Daily Beast reports.

“Bartiromo’s outlandish theory, which suggests China unleashed a deadly coronavirus within its own borders in an effort to install Joe Biden as U.S. president, was somewhat endorsed by the GOP lawmaker who heads the House investigation into the origins of the virus.”

“Election fraud conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell is selling Wi-Fi monitoring devices that he says make elections more secure,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

“But Northern Kentucky elections officials warned Friday that using the devices at polls is illegal – and likely a felony.”

Podcaster Joe Rogan once again pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that the Januray 6 Capitol insurrection was a false flag operation orchestrated by the federal government, the Daily Beast reports.

Said Rogan: “The January 6 thing is bad, but also, the intelligence agencies were involved in provoking people into the Capitol Building. That’s a fact.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said it is “certainly possible” government agencies were involved in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Said Johnson: “I think it’s certainly possible, yeah. The American public deserves the truth, and we haven’t gotten it.”

He added: “There’s so many unanswered questions, so many witnesses that just died, so many leads that weren’t followed up on, so much evidence that obviously should have been collected that people have been prevented from collecting.”

Robert Kennedy Jr., the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, has backed a conspiracy theory that the CIA was involved in the killing of his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, arguing the evidence is “overwhelming,” The Hill reports.

Said Kennedy: “I think it’s beyond a reasonable doubt at this point.”

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has been ordered to shell out $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, CNN reports.

Washington Post: “The panel said Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert and 63-year-old Trump voter from Nevada, was entitled to the $5 million payout. Zeidman had examined Lindell’s data and concluded that it not only did not prove voter fraud, it had no connection to the 2020 election. He was the only expert who submitted a claim, arbitration records show.”

“The Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones, who faces more than $1.4 billion in legal damages for defaming the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, has devised a new way to taunt them: wriggling out of paying them the money they are owed,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Jones, who has an estimated net worth as high as $270 million, declared both business and personal bankruptcy last year as the families won historic verdicts in two lawsuits over his lies about the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.”