Sen. Blumenthal May Have Been Victim Of Twitter Hoax
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) – U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) may have been the victim of a Twitter hoax.
As WCBS 880's Mike Smeltz reported, someone claiming to be Linda Flores using the Twitter handle @LindaFl1257 tweeted Thursday that she interned for Blumenthal 40 years ago and he sexually assaulted her "countless times." The tweet ended with the hashtag #MeToo.
The message immediately started popping up around the internet. But as Smeltz reported, there are some oddities about the account behind the tweet.
First, the location of the user claimed to be in Cheshire, Connecticut, but Cheshire was misspelled. Second, the photo of the user changed between two different women.
One of them seemed to be another person named Linda Flores who lives in Texas and has tweeted that someone has stolen her picture and should not be believed. Another photo was of a human resources director at a company in Manchester, England.
The @LindaFl1257 has since been suspended by Twitter, Smeltz reported.
A spokesperson for the senator said in a statement the allegations are completely false and they are investigating the untrue claims.