Allies blast Donald Trump's murder conspiracy theory

Washington: In July 2001 Lori Klausutis was working as a constituent services officer for then Republican congressman Joe Scarborough in his office in Fort Walton, Florida. One morning she was found dead at her desk.

The local medical examiner concluded that the 28-year old lost consciousness because of an abnormal heart rhythm and fell, hitting her head.

Despite the medical examiner ruling out foul play, conspiracy theories instantly began circulating about Klausutis's death - specifically whether Scarborough had played a role it.

Left-wing film-maker Michael Moore even registered the domain name JoeScarboroughKilledHisIntern.com. But no evidence ever emerged connecting Scarborough, who was in Washington at the time, to the incident.

By 2016 Scarbrorough had reinvented himself as a morning television show host on MSNBC, the left-leaning cable network. During the Republican primaries Scarbrorough and his co-host Mika Brzezinski were friendly with Trump, who regularly called in for interviews on their Morning Joe program.

But the relationship soon soured.

Scarbrorough and Brzezinski (who are now married) have since become some of Trump's most vociferous critics. Trump, in turn has called Brzezinski "low IQ" and claimed he has seen her "bleeding badly from a face-lift".

In 2017 Trump resurfaced the Klausutis conspiracy theory, asking on Twitter when MSNBC executives would "terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the 'unsolved mystery' that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!"

In recent weeks, as the Morning Joe hosts have hammered his coronavirus response, Trump has repeatedly floated the baseless theory. "Did he get away with murder?" Trump asked on May 12. "Some people think so."

The latest stream of tweets prompted Klausutis's widower, Timothy Klausutis, to write to Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey and ask him to remove the tweets.

"I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him - the memory of my dead wife - and perverted it for perceived political gain," he wrote.

"My wife deserves better."

Twitter responded that it did not believe Trump's tweets breached its terms of service, and would not be removing them.

Even following the release of Timothy Klausutis's letter, Trump has continued to promote the conspiracy theory, falsely describing Lori Klausutis's death on Twitter as a "cold case" on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

Trump's behaviour has been criticised by prominent Republicans and usually supportive media outlets who say that, even for someone who revels in provocation, he had crossed the line.

"I do think the president should stop tweeting about Joe Scarborough," Liz Cheney, one of the most senior Republicans in the House of Representatives.

"We’re in the middle of a pandemic. He’s the commander in chief of this nation. And it’s causing great pain to the family of the young woman who died."

Republican Senator Mitt Romney tweeted: "I know Joe Scarborough. Joe is a friend of mine. I don't know TJ Klausutis. Joe can weather vile, baseless accusations but TJ? His heart is breaking. Enough already."

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board, while noting that Trump regularly traffics in conspiracy theories, said the smear was "ugly even for him".

"Mr Trump is debasing his office, and he’s hurting the country in doing so," The Journal said.

The right-leading Washington Examiner said Trump had promoted a "vile slander", and that this may be looked back upon as the moment his presidency began to unravel.

Addressing the issue for the first time at length on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), Scarborough said: "It is heartbreaking, the cruelty is unspeakable...Enough. Just enough. Let this poor woman rest in peace and let her family finally be able to move on with their lives 19 years later."