Fox hyped a flatly-denied rumor that the Obama administration was considering releasing a convicted terrorist to Egypt. The network then used that rumor to suggest that Obama may send American citizens to Egypt to be killed for insulting Islam.

Glenn Beck's website The Blaze and Breitbart.com reported that an anonymous source close to the Obama administration said that the State Department was considering Egypt's request to transfer Omar Abdel-Rahman to Egypt. Abdel-Rahman, commonly called the “Blind Sheikh,” was convicted after being accused of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. But Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd told The Blaze that the rumor was “utter garbage.”

Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson said that Fox had “not been able to confirm” the Blind Sheikh story, but nevertheless ran a four-minute segment on it, which went completely off the rails.

Fox legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. pivoted from the rumor about the Blind Sheikh to speculation about Egyptians wanting to try the Americans behind an incendiary anti-Muslim film.

Johnson hypothesized that U.S. citizens could be deported to Egypt and put to death for making a film in America. He blamed current foreign policy for the hypothetical extradition of Americans to Egypt: