QAnon Theory Alleging Hillary Clinton’s Involvement In Suez Canal Blockage Debunked By Evergreen

Message boards for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon began circulating a new theory last week about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s connection to the Suez Canal blockage. The theory claimed that the ship stuck in the Canal is a actually human trafficking vessel with ties to Clinton.

Members of a QAnon message board tied Clinton’s Secret Service code name to the ship: the ship is owned by a company called Evergreen Marine and “Evergreen” was Clinton’s code name. It is worth noting that Evergreen Marine was established in 1968, long before Clinton was assigned the moniker “Evergreen.”

Michael Vooss, a spokesman for Evergreen, responded to the claim in an email to USA Today, stating that his company is not “engaged in illegal activity of any sort.”

Vooss denied any connection to Clinton herself. “As such, cargo aboard the vessel at any time can include a wide spectrum of goods one would expect might be legally transported within containers,” he said. “Evergreen is not now and has never in the past been connected in any way whatsoever to Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Vooss also called QAnon’s claims “nothing more than wholly-unfounded conspiracy theories.”

Conspiracy theorists have also claimed that the ship’s radio call signal intentionally matched Clinton’s initials – H3RC. However, this has been proven to be a mere coincidence – the International Telecommunications Union has set forth specific regulations for the naming of call signs.

These claims related to Clinton and the Suez Canal ship were spread across social media platforms. For instance, a Facebook user speculated that the ship (named Ever Given) “is most likely a cover for human and sex trafficking.”

This is not the first time QAnon adherents have attempted to link Clinton to serious crimes. QAnon postings have stated in the past that Clinton is a pedophile and a cannibal and that she (and many others) plotted against former President Donald Trump.

QAnon believers have spread false theories that Clinton and her former aide Huma Abedin sexually assaulting a young girl. They have also claimed that she was arrested by Navy Seals, despite Clinton being seen in public after she was supposedly “arrested.”

One of the most infamous QAnon theories involving Clinton, which is commonly referred to as Pizzagate, claimed that Democrats linked to the former Secretary of State were running a child-sex ring in a pizza shop basement in Washington.

All of these theories have been disproven. Clinton herself has responded to the allegations during an interview with The New York Times. “For me, it does go back to my earliest days in national politics, when it became clear to me that there was a bit of a market in trafficking in the most outlandish accusations and wild stories concerning me, my family, people that we knew, people close to us,” she said.

Article by Elizabeth Letsou