Reuters Trawls Right-wing Comments Sections to Claim 'Trump Supporters' Want 'Riots' Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty

Reuters published a story on Friday claiming that supporters of former President Donald Trump are calling for “riots” and “violent retribution” after Thursday's verdict in New York convicting him on 34 counts in a trial seen as unfair.

The headline on the Reuters article is: “Trump supporters call for riots and violent retribution after verdict.” The only sources for that claim are random comments on the “Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit.”

Reuters reported:

After Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, his supporters responded with dozens of violent online posts, according to a Reuters review of comments on three Trump-aligned websites: the former president's own Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit.
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While the posts identified by Reuters all called for violence or insurrection, most fell short of the legal standard for a prosecutable threat, which typically requires evidence that the comment reflects a clear intent to act or instill fear, rather than simply suggesting a frightening outcome.

Still, one researcher who studies extremist militias said the guilty verdict could inspire violence by reinforcing a conviction among some of Trump's supporters that he's a victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by his enemies.

Reuters did not confirm that the comments were made by actual Trump supporters. Nor did it quote what actual, verifiable Trump supporters were saying in public, or what Trump-backing elected officials have said and done.

Trump supporters have urged each other to donate to Trump's campaign, to volunteer, and to vote. The Trump campaign announced Friday that it had raised a record-smashing $34.8 million in the hours after the verdict.

Many Trump supporters have also hoisted upside-down flags, a symbol for a nation in distress, in protest.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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