* Over the past few weeks, President Trump has used Twitter to spread a conspiracy theory that TV host and former congressman Joe Scarborough murdered a former intern, Lori Klausutis.
* A medical examiner determined that Lori, who was found dead in Scarborough's district office in 2001, fainted as a result of an undiagnosed heart condition, fell, and hit her head on a desk.
* Lori's widower, T.J. Klausutis, has written a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking the company to delete Trump's many tweets on the matter that suggest Scarborough murdered Lori.
* "The President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain," he wrote.
* Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has used his powerful Twitter platform to spread a false conspiracy theory that TV host and former congressman Joe Scarborough murdered Lori Klausutis, a former intern who died in 2001 at age 28.
While many Lori's family members have declined to come forward to discuss the matter for their own safety, Lori's widower, T.J. Klausutis, has written a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking the company to delete Trump's many tweets on the matter that suggest Scarborough murdered her.
Lori was found dead in Scarborough's Florida-based district office in 2001. A medical examiner determined that she fainted as a result of an undiagnosed heart condition, fell, and hit her head on a desk. There is no evidence of foul play or that Scarborough, the co-host of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC and now an extremely vocal Trump critic, was involved.
When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020
A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida...and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses! https://t.co/UxbS5gZecd — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020
A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story! https://t.co/CjBXBXxoNS — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020
Trump doubled down on the conspiracy theory after the letter was published on Tuesday morning, writing, "The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus."
....about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
In his letter, which is the subject of a Tuesday column from technology journalist and New York Times editorial board member Kara Swisher, T.J. Klausutis writes that as Lori's husband, "I feel that one of my marital obligations is to protect her memory as I would have protected her in life."
"There has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died. I realize that may sound like an exaggeration, unfortunately, it is the verifiable truth," he wrote. "Because of this, I have struggled to move forward with my life."
He wrote that based on his own reading of the company rules, the tweet squarely violates Twitter's terms of service, adding, "an ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed."
Klausutis asked Dorsey to "intervene in this instance" because "the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain."
In her column, Swisher wrote that Klausutis "deserves an answer from Mr. Dorsey" who, as she noted, "has the unenviable task of sorting out what is perhaps unsortable, which is to say, the ugly heart of Twitter's most famous customer."
In response to Swisher's column, Twitter said they would not delete Trump's tweets fueling the conspiracy.
"We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to Insider. "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly."
Citing sources close to the company, Swisher reported that Twitter is considering a number of solutions to deal with Trump's latest conspiracy tear, including possibly marking the tweets as false," link[ing] to myriad high-quality information and reporting that refute the tweets' sinister insinuations," and "accelerated work on a more robust rubric around labeling and dealing with such falsehoods."
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