A former White House adviser is promoting a right-wing claim that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is hiding a secret illness or is even dead.

It is a bizarre new claim being circulated by QAnon, a fringe pro-Trump and anti-“deep state” group.

Yesterday, former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka suggested on Twitter that the Ginsburg, 85, who has cancelled public appearances since undergoing surgery to remove cancerous lung growths in late December, might be hiding a medical condition.

Still no sign. 6 days left until Ruth Bader Ginsberg has to make her official appearance at @realDonaldTrump’s State of the Union. pic.twitter.com/zY1gSW54N6 — Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) January 31, 2019

Gorka tweeted, “Still no sign. 6 days left until Ruth Bader Ginsberg has to make her official appearance at @realDonaldTrump’s State of the Union.”

There is a good chance Ginsberg will skip Trump’s speech.

The truth is America’s favorite justice, according to a new Fox News poll this week, is recovering from surgery in December to remove cancerous nodes from her lungs — this isn’t a secret, and it’s been well-publicized.

She has been absent from the court as she recovers, however, providing enough room for the conspiratorially minded to speculate wildly.

Last week, documentary filmmakers who worked on a movie about the justice told reporters that she “sounded strong and cheerful,” was writing opinions, and is “continuing to stay on top of work.”

Q, the poster behind the bizarre “QAnon” theories that propound that a secret unnamed source with high-level government access is revealing Trump’s secret plot to jail his enemies, shared a message feeding speculation about her lack of public appearances.

On January 5, Q claimed that Ginsburg was only being kept alive with illicit drugs.

Other right-wing personalities began actively pushing conspiracy theories about Ginsburg this month.

Jacob Wohl, a young Trump supporter and internet troll who attempted to smear Special Counsel Robert Mueller with a sex-assault hoax in November, claimed three weeks ago that Ginsburg would resign January 11.

When Ginsburg didn’t resign, Wohl pivoted to suggesting that she was secretly dead, and demanded video of Ginsburg doing a sudoku as proof-of-life.

Wohl has also pushed an online petition to “impeach” Ginsburg, which has failed to meet its 5,000 signature goal.

Fox News inadvertently fueled the theory last Monday, when it accidentally aired an obituary graphic for Ginsburg.

Conspiracy theorists pointed to the slip-up as proof that Ginsburg was already dead.

On Twitter, the #WheresRuth hashtag began picking up steam on January 28, when it began trending nationally, according to Twitter tracker Trendsmap.

That engagement was driven largely by conservative retired actor James Woods, who promotes conspiracy theories to his nearly 2 million Twitter followers.

Woods tweeted the hashtag twice, racking up nearly 13,000 retweets each time.

“Seriously though… #WheresRuth?” Woods tweeted.

The fact that Gorka, a former White House adviser, is pushing the conspiracy theory reflects the Trump administration.

Trump has demonstrated a willingness to promote conspiracy theories throughout his political career.

Video that emerged last month of Ginsburg leaving her house (in a wheelchair) to go to a waiting car didn’t make the conspiracy theory go away.

Indeed, QAnon believers decided that whoever that was, it wasn’t Ruth Bader Ginsburg, merely a body double or clone.

This kind of commentary is familiar on the right wing.

During the 2016 campaign, there were rampant rumors about Hillary Clinton’s supposed health problems.

Many conservative conspiracists predicted she had only months to live.

They seized on small bits of reality — Clinton’s public bout of pneumonia, or her 2012 concussion — to extrapolate wild fantasies about her imminent demise.

Such rumors vanished, of course, after Clinton failed to win the 2016 election and continued on living.