Earlier this week, Donald Trump did what he does best and trolled the media over Ilhan Omar’s alleged immigration fraud, and media firefighters quickly mobilized to defend the innocent Democratic congresswoman. While the “she married her brother” story is murky at best, based on the concrete evidence out there, it seems reasonable to conclude that Ilhan Omar has been up to some very shady business.

But that’s not stopping the Daily Beast’s Will Sommer from suggesting that Omar is a victim of some kind of vast right-wing conspiracy:

I can't stress enough how much this Ilhan Omar smear — now on Fox and talk radio, and coming from the president himself — is based on absolute nonsense. It's Pizzagate-levels of delusion. https://t.co/YGabsKxL82 — Will Sommer (@willsommer) July 19, 2019

Sommer’s actually doing journalists a disservice here.

The Star Tribune would like a word. https://t.co/BQPGrKU2tx — neontaster (@neontaster) July 19, 2019

Not even the liberal-leaning Star Tribune could ignore all the red flags being sent up by Ilhan Omar.

Show me where in any Star Tribune article there’s any evidence that she married her brother — Will Sommer (@willsommer) July 19, 2019

Honestly I think that if there's a story here, it's one of falsifying documents, not actual bigamy or sibling marriage. But to call it a far right conspiracy theory is dishonest and it's a real shame that this is now your brand. — neontaster (@neontaster) July 19, 2019

That's quite a backtrack. Your original tweet suggested the Star Trib had found evidence her ex-husband is her brother — now you're admitting that's not the case. — Will Sommer (@willsommer) July 19, 2019

Come on, Will.

Ilhan Omar conspiracy theorists are insisting to me that the Star Trib proved the brother marriage. But that story has zero evidence of that. Omar incorrectly filed her taxes and used campaign money to fix it—that doesn't mean she married her brother!https://t.co/8vOkmhX1ZI — Will Sommer (@willsommer) July 19, 2019

That’s not what @neontaster was doing at all. But white knight Will would rather slay straw men for Ilhan Omar than admit that she might actually be guilty of deliberate tax fraud.

Hi Will. Why did you exclude the links from Washington Examiner and Star Tribune regarding legitimate questions from credentialed journalists around possible tax fraud which also has immigration implications, in your story? I can wait, thanks. — Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 19, 2019

Because not including that information in your story, seems to undermine your otherwise legitimate points about Loomer, which honestly makes you just another Loomer. See your problem? — Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 19, 2019

He doesn’t see the problem.

I doubt the worst parts of this story are true. But to say there is no story… Well, it's journalistic malpractice. — Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) July 19, 2019

Well see that's what he does. He takes the most fringe examples, publishes them, and uses that as an excuse to not cover the legitimate points about her tax records, which do in fact have immigration implications. Now ask why Will would do such a thing. — Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 19, 2019

It really is a head-scratcher.

Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner’s Tiana Lowe, who actually did some actual journalism and combed through legal documents regarding Ilhan Omar, takes issue with Sommer’s characterization of the investigations:

My response to @willsommer. Yes, many of the first people who jumped on this story did so without evidence & with malicious intent. But the @dcexaminer has independently found irrefutable evidence that her 2009-11 marriage was a sham. THAT is a scandal. https://t.co/XewbPcJKNG https://t.co/mKwp2j8phL — Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) July 19, 2019

We discovered crime records reporting Omar & her current husband living together during her faith marriage to Elmi (the alleged “brother”) & an eviction record showing Elmi lived 2 miles away from Omar after she claimed he was undiscoverable in London. https://t.co/XewbPcJKNG — Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) July 19, 2019

We couldn’t independently prove the brother claim and never reported finding a shred of corroborating evidence. But is a Congresswoman’s sham marriage, multiple crimes, then lying about them not a scandal enough? https://t.co/XewbPcJKNG — Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) July 19, 2019

Bam.

????? — Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) July 19, 2019

Maybe instead of lashing out at inconvenient truths, Will should try doing some journalism for a change.

The proper response for serious journalists, when a theory gets popular in fringey places, is to look at the actual evidence: https://t.co/fO0Z4KpwtC — Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) July 19, 2019

What a novel idea!