“Pizzagate” DC shooter pleads guilty, faces years in prison

A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Friday to weapons-related charges for a December episode in which he stormed a Washington, DC pizzeria and fired rounds from a Colt AR-15 assault-style rifle. The incident was a bid to "self-investigate" an unfounded conspiracy theory concerning the restaurant's basement being the secret headquarters of a nonexistent child sex-trafficking ring whose (again, nonexistent) members included Hillary Clinton and her inner circle.

No one was injured, but the episode sent Comet Ping Pong employees and patrons running for their lives when Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, walked in with the assault weapon and a .38-caliber Colt revolver. Later, Welch pointed the AR-15 at a restaurant worker before shooting a computer and a lock on a backroom door.

Welch pleaded guilty to two counts. One charge was the interstate transport of firearms. The other was a local count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Welch remains jailed, and he faces up to a seven-year prison term when sentenced later this year. He faced a substantially longer term had he been convicted at trial.

US District Judge Ketanji Jackson of the District of Columbia asked Welch during the sentencing hearing if he was the culprit who stormed the Comet Ping Pong on December 4.

"Yes ma'am," Welch replied.

Conspiracy theory

After finding no evidence to support the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory—which had its origins in a white supremacist's tweets, the 4chan message board, Reddit, Donald Trump supporters, and right-wing blogs—Welch surrendered to armed police outside the restaurant.

According to the government:

The defendant was motivated, at least in part, by unfounded rumors concerning a child sex-trafficking ring that was being perpetrated by high-profile individuals at Comet. The defendant took it upon himself to act, contemplating a violent confrontation at the restaurant. He attempted to recruit at least two other people to join him, explaining to them that they would be “sacraficing [sic] the lives of a few for the lives of many,” and “[s]tanding up against a corrupt system that kidnaps, tortures and rapes babies and children in our own backyard.”

The judge ordered Welch to also pay $5,700 in restitution to the restaurant and to surrender his firearms.