Fox News guest brands Hillary Clinton 'the real insurrectionist' over allegations campaign lawyer misled FBI

It’s not easy to confuse a violent group of right-wing rioters storming the US Capitol and threatening to overturn an election result with ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but somehow a Fox News guest managed to do exactly that on Monday.

A news chyron – in other words, the text in the bottom third of the screen used for headlines – on host Jesse Watters’ show said “Hillary is the real insurrectionist”, apparently.

The comment comes after US attorney John Denham filed a court document alleging a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, Michael Sussmann, provided the FBI General Counsel with “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and a Russia-based bank”.

“The indictment alleges that the defendant [Sussmann] lied in that meeting, falsely stating to the General Counsel that he was not providing the allegations to the FBI on behalf of any client.

“In fact, the defendant had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive at a US-based internet company, and the Clinton campaign,” it reads.

CNN reports that Mr Sussmann pleaded not guilty in September to a charge of lying to the FBI about a separate meeting.

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Somewhat predictably, however, right-wing commentators have since jumped at the chance to stick it to the Democrats, with Eric Trump appearing to get emotional over the issue in a separate Fox News interview.

Yes, really.

The unusual headline has since prompted shock and ridicule from Twitter users:

It isn’t the first time that Mr Watters’ has been associated with controversy, either, after he told conservatives to “ambush” chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci with a “kill-shot” argument during a speech in December.

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