A young man who accused Pete Buttigieg of sexual assault has fully rescinded the allegations, claiming he was swept up in a “despicable” setup coordinated by two of the most infamous right-wing trolls.

It all started when notorious conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl reportedly approached several men in recent weeks to discuss a “‘task force’ set up by the Donald Trump administration’ to undermine the 2020 presidential hopeful’s candidacy. Mr Wohl was hoping to use the men and their identities in a series of false accusations against the Indiana mayor, according to Daily Beast.

Mr Buttigieg, who has been rising in national polls, was viewed by Mr Wohl as a “terminal threat” to Mr Trump’s presidency, one of the approached men told the outlet. That anonymous source provided an audio recording of his interactions to verify his account.

Hunter Kelly, one of the men reportedly contacted by Mr Wohl, later confirmed he had not actually been assaulted by the Democratic politician in a Facebook post.

“It’s important for everyone to know that I was not sexually assaulted and would never falsely accuse anyone,” he wrote. “To keep it brief for now, I was approached by a political figure to come to DC to discuss political situations from the standpoint of a gay Republican. When I arrived they discussed Peter Buttigieg and started talking about how they would be working a campaign against him.”

The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Show all 25 1 /25 The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Bernie Sanders The Vermont senator has launched a second bid for president after losing out to Hilary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries. He is running on a similar platform of democratic socialist reform Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Joe Biden The former vice president recently faced scrutiny for inappropriate touching of women, but was thought to deal with the criticism well and has since maintained a front runner status in national polling EPA The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Elizabeth Warren The Massachusetts senator is a progressive Democrat, and a major supporter of regulating Wall Street Reuters The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Amy Klobuchar Klobuchar is a Minnesota senator who earned praise for her contribution to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Michael Bloomberg Michael Bloomberg, a late addition to the 2020 race, announced his candidacy after months of speculation in November. 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“I went to bed and woke up to a fake Twitter @RealHunterKelly and an article that I in no way endorsed or wrote,” he continued. “I have since left and am working on a formal statement to give to everyone including the Buttigieg family.”

Before Mr Kelly could deny the allegations, they had already been published in at least one major right-wing site called Big League Politics, which has since amended its post on the matter.

The Medium post originally published with the false allegations has also been removed from the platform. It previously claimed Mr Hunter was “raped” by Mr Buttigieg, and that he had been “contemplating suicide” while deciding to come out with the accusations.

Mr Buttigieg brushed off the controversy in a statement to the Daily Beast.

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