Report: GOP consultant tweeted false storm news

Michael Winter, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Buzzfeed reports it has unmasked a Twitter user who posted some notable disinformation Monday night about Hurricane Sandy's impact on New York City's power and transportation, Wall Street and even Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Contributor Jack Steuf identifies @comfortablysmug as 29-year-old Shashank Tripathi, "a hedge fund analyst and the campaign manager of Christopher R. Wight, this year's Republican candidate for the U.S. House from New York's 12th Congressional District." Steuf says he made the I.D. based on "censored photos" Tripathi posted to his Twitter account but that Steuf found "unedited" elsewhere.

Stuef writes that Tripathi has been "a prolific commenter at NYmag.com and a popular conservative presence on Twitter."

Among the bogus information by @comfortablysmug were "breaking" tweets saying Consolidated Edison was cutting power to all of Manhattan, that all subways would be shut the rest of the week and that the New York Stock Exchange was under more than 3 feet of water. The latter was retweeted 636 times, including by CNN and The Weather Channel, the media site Poynter notes. One tweet also claimed that Cuomo was "trapped" in Manhattan and taken to a "secure shelter."

Stuef says Tripathi "immediately hung up" on him and didn't answer a Twitter direct message. The user also did not reply to a request for comment from USA TODAY's Marisol Bello.

A message posted to the Twitter account late Tuesday apologized, saying, "I made a series of irresponsible and inaccurate tweets."



Without identifying himself by name, the message said he had resigned from Wight's campaign. Wight's campaign website said the candidate had "accepted the resignation of campaign manager Shashank Tripathi."