Victim Comes Forward: “I was Sexually Assaulted by James Alefantis”

	By now, most people are at least vaguely familiar with the so-called “fake news” story known as Pizzagate. For those that aren't, the brief version is that self described “internet investigators” caught wind of some strange wording in the John Podesta emails released by Wikileaks, and went down the largest internet rabbit hole in recent history.

	The story was quickly written off as mass hysteria, a conspiracy theory, and fake news by nearly all of mainstream media, and censored from the internet forum site Reddit. The theory, which has a plethora of circumstantial evidence, lacked one key factor: a victim. That is, until Wednesday, when an anonymous person posted a thread on Reddit's popular question and answer page, entitled “I was assaulted 8 years ago by the Pizzagate guy, owner of Comet Ping Pong, James Alefantis AMA! [Ask Me Anything]” The post was initially marked as “privately verified” by the moderator whose handle is mimw. The verification comment was deleted shortly after being posted, and the entire thread was removed. After a subsequent failed attempt to post to Reddit, a successful posting was made to the similar forum website Voat.co. The alleged victim linked to an imgur album showing screenshots of conversations between himself and Alefantis between 2008 and 2014.

	The anonymous nature of internet forums leads to skeptics demanding proof of any seemingly outrageous claim. The publication of these emails appears to be solid corroboration of his story.

	The claim is simple and straightforward. Eight years ago, a young college student (who wishes to keep his name anonymous) worked at Comet Ping Pong. He reached out to Alefantis as a friend, who subsequently drugged and assaulted him. The user also goes further to claim that around the same time, Alefantis was caught by former business partner Carole Greenwood assaulting her son, a minor, in the kitchen of Comet Ping Pong. While unproven, the timeline does indeed add up with Greenwood's abrupt abandonment of Comet, citing “urgent family matters”. We can also confirm via a Washington Post article written in 2003 that Greenwood does have a son who would have been young in 2009. Greenwood was unavailable for an interview. The man went on to say that an employee reported the lewd conduct, was fired, and eventually left the country. The employee was named, but unable to be contacted at this time, so her name will remain omitted from this story.

	In a strange twist of events, a user named JamesAlefantis appeared in the Reddit thread, attacking the accuser, posted several unsavory comments, and ultimately deleted his account.

	Now the question remains, what happens now? Unfortunately, eight years is past the DC statute of limitations for sexual assault. We can only hope that this victim's courageous testimony will lead to more people stepping forward and shining the light on a situation that appears to have been running smoothly in the dark for the better part of a decade.