When Sean Hannity's Twitter account went offline for a few hours over the weekend (Hannity fans say the deep state did it), a woman named Dell Gilliam set up a parody account called @SeanHannity__ (note the underscores). Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks, thought the account belonged to Hannity and sent a direct message to the account offering some "new about Warner" (meaning Democratic senator Mark Warner, who is part of the Trump-Russia investigation.
From Daily Beast:
While Assange was not the only high-profile person duped by the account, his interactions with it were likely the most significant.
Citing mysterious sources and to-be-revealed bombshells, Hannity has been alleging he will unveil "the biggest scandal in American history" for weeks on his primetime Fox News show that has devolved into mostly a recitation of conspiracy theories about a "secret society" and the "deep state."
Both Hannity and Assange's WikiLeaks have pushed similar document drops and hashtag campaigns since before the 2016 election, most recently the push to release a confidential memo about government spying under the hashtag "#releasethememo." Last year, Hannity even invited Assange to guest host his radio program. Both participated in baseless speculation about the murder of former DNC staffer Seth Rich, which Hannity later dropped after advertisers dropped his program.
Dell's account now has 23.6k followers.
Images: Julian Assange by Cancillería del Ecuador – https://www.flickr.com/photos/dgcomsoc/14953880621/, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link. Sean Hannity by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
