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How a Catch-a-Predator Sting Nabbed a Right-Wing Hatemonger
Was Jake Lang evaluating a teenage girl for a bikinis-and-burkas protest? Or was something more lecherous at play?
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Welcome back to False Flag! Right-wing activist Laura Loomer has been promoting the pro-Trump Ellison family’s takeover of CNN and the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery. So I asked her: If the Ellisons take over, would she be willing to be a CNN contributor?
As it turns out, she would!
“I would happily become a CNN contributor if CNN is controlled by new leadership following a Paramount acquisition of WBD,” Loomer told me in a text message.
Watch out, Scott Jennings—you may have some competition.
This week, we’ve got a wild one. It’s a story that involves a fake 15-year-old, some age-inappropriately steamy text messages, and one of the right’s most hateful figures.
You can’t get this reporting and context anywhere else. If you’re not already a Bulwark+ member, please consider signing up today at 20 percent off the annual price:
–Will
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ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS HATEMONGERS on the far right appears to have finally stepped in it after being caught texting flirtatiously with what he assumed to be a 15-year-old girl.
Jake Lang has for years been a minor celebrity in the most noxious corners of the conservative movement. He burst onto the scene as a bat-wielding January 6th defendant, then was one of a handful of defendants who took their cases to the Supreme Court, arguing that some of the charges did not apply. Last year, he launched a failed Senate bid in Florida. He has kept himself in the spotlight by holding provocative demonstrations across the country aimed at whipping up hatred for both Jews and Muslims. This past January alone, Lang tossed out Hitler salutes outside of AIPAC’s headquarters and organized an anti-Muslim rally in Minneapolis that saw him attacked by counterprotesters.
Such acts would normally turn off one’s contemporaries. But Lang’s influence has steadily grown. He got what seemed like it would be a big break last Saturday as he led a small protest outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home, during which he accused Muslims of being “pedophiles.”
The already dicey situation took an even more serious turn when two Muslim counterprotesters, purportedly inspired by ISIS, allegedly threw a bomb at Lang and his fellow “crusaders.” The incident elevated Lang further, as fellow right-wing figures, including those who had previously been critical of his chaotic protest stunts, came to see him as a victim.
But the triumph, such as it was, was short-lived. Just days after the Mamdani rally, a video emerged revealing that Lang had been texting flirtatiously with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl.
The video was the product of another attention-hungry faction of the right: pedophile-hunters who stage amateur To Catch a Predator–style stings. On Monday, one of those pedophile-hunters, who goes by the name “The Zerggg,” posted on Instagram that he had been texting Lang while posing as an underage girl who described herself as a high school student.
“What Jake doesn’t tell you is he was chatting up with my 15-year-old decoy,” the Zerggg, a mustachioed young man in a UFC hoodie, said in the post, titled “🚨 JAKE LANG FILES DROP 🚨.”
Though Lang didn’t respond to a request for comment for this newsletter, he has acknowledged that the conversation with the fake 15-year-old girl was real—though unconvincingly insisted it was someone on his “team” who did it.
According to the shared screenshots, the conversation between Lang and the fake girl—whom he referred to as “baby” and “sweetie”—dated back to at least November. But it began to accelerate in early February as Lang tried to nail down the girl’s exact age.
“I might be too young for u lol,” the decoy wrote.
“How old are you bby?” Lang responded, adding “unless you are under 18 I don’t care haha.”
“i’m 15 lol,” the underage persona wrote back, adding a clothed picture of her body.
Having just set his age minimum at 18, Lang, age 30, responded: “When do you turn 16?”
“In 6 months,” she replied.
At this point, the pedophile-hunter, posing as the teenager, attempted to assure Lang.
“I won’t get u introuble [sic] if that’s what u r worried about I can keep a secret,” the decoy wrote back.
Lang “hearted” the message.
“What state do you live in?” he asked. “I can’t see you til your 16.”
If you need a break (or a shower) at this point, we understand. But, let me just say, it gets crazier...