In an appearance today on the Newsmax show “Midpoint,” former congressman Ron Paul defended a conspiracy theorist’s article published on the Ron Paul Institute’s website this week suggesting that the attack at Charlie Hebdo’s offices, along with 9/11, was an American false flag operation designed “to cow France and place France back under Washington’s thumb.”

According to Paul, neither he nor the author believe that the Charlie Hebdo attack was actually a false flag.

Instead, Paul claimed, the author was just asking the question and “determined to try to get truth out” about the attacks, and since he was just asking the question, he shouldn’t be held responsible for the contents of the allegations.

“I think he suggested it, he wanted a discussion and he has some really good things in there,” Paul said. It’s a shame that the media doesn’t pick up and say ‘what about this chief investigator of the event committed suicide right in the middle of it?’ I have no idea what’s going on there but that to me is big stuff.”

“They’re not accusations, he pointed out some shortcomings and wanted to ask questions and get to some answers,” he said.

Paul pointed to the 2012 Benghazi attack as a reason to doubt reports surrounding the Charlie Hebdo massacre and “of course we have Rahm Emmanuel who says don’t ever let an emergency goes to waste, and I think that is part of what is going on there, this is a design to restructure and reorient people on foreign policy.”