GOP Nominee For MD Attorney General Hosted 9/11 Conspiracy Radio Shows: Report

MARYLAND — Michael Peroutka, a former Anne Arundel County Council member who won the Republican nomination for Maryland attorney general, co-hosted radio shows in 2006 in which he suggested the collapse of the World Trade Center and a nearby building was an “inside job” by government “bureaucrats,” according to a CNN report.

Peroutka, who has ties with neo-Confederate and white supremacist groups, defeated Jim Shalleck, a former state and federal prosecutor, in last month’s Republican primary for Maryland attorney general. Peroutka won 55.1 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, compared to 44.9 percent for Shalleck.

Peroutka will face Democrat Anthony Brown, who announced last year he would not seek reelection to Maryland’s 4th congressional district, in November’s general election for state attorney general.

In the 2006 radio shows, Peroutka speculated that every building in New York City could have preset charges awaiting detonation by some "elite bureaucrat," CNN reported Sunday.

"That begs the question that if there are preset charges in Building Seven, what's to stop there for being preset charges in Buildings 1, 2 8, 9, and 27?" Peroutka said. "Are there charges in every building in New York City? Is everyone ready to be brought down whenever some elite bureaucrat decides that he's gonna pull it?"

Peroutka told his radio listeners that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were an "inside job," CNN reported.

"You can't have an explosion in the basement that's done by the hijacker on the airplane," he said, adding that the official account of the 9/11 attack on New York City was the real "conspiracy theory."

Macky Stafford, Petroutka's campaign coordinator, told CNN in a statement that the "primary election results demonstrate that Maryland Republicans are dissatisfied with their current leadership."

Outgoing Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday that Peroutka's "disgusting lies don't belong in our party."

"We know who was responsible for 9/11. Blaming our country for Al-Qaeda's atrocities is an insult to the memory of the thousands of innocent Americans and brave first responders who died that day," Hogan said in a tweet.

Along with his embrace of 9/11 conspiracy theories, Peroutka has called for the dismantling of public education, which he denounced as “the 10th plank in the Communist Manifesto,” The Washington Post reported.

Peroutka served on the board of the League of the South from 2012 to 2014. The Alabama-based group is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “neo-Confederate” extremist organization that favors establishment of a Christian theocratic state and political domination of Black people and other minorities.

Prior to serving on the group's board, Peroutka ran for president under the Constitution Party in 2004. That year, he wrote on his blog, “I am proud to be a member of the League of the South. I look forward to receiving the support … from guys with Confederate flags in their trucks.”

During his presidential run in 2004, Peroutka gave a speech to the League of the South where he said he was “still angry” that Maryland did not secede at the start of the Civil War, Vice reported last month. “There should have been more of us in 1861,” he said.

Peroutka also promoted his 2004 candidacy to the Council of Conservative Citizens, CNN reported. The CCC is a self-described white-rights group that opposes non-white immigration and advances White nationalist ideology.

Brown, who is running against Peroutka in November, said in a statement that the former Anne Arundel County Council member "has once again proven himself to be unqualified to be Maryland's next attorney general."

"9/11 is one of the darkest days in our nation’s history," said Brown, who would be the first Black attorney general in Maryland if he wins in November. "To push ridiculous, debunked conspiracy theories is shameful and disqualifying."

Brown called on Dan Cox, the Republican nominee for Maryland governor who has endorsed Peroutka, and the Maryland Republican Party to join Hogan in disavowing Peroutka.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve learned of Mr. Peroutka’s conspiracy driven mindset. Each new revelation illustrates his unfitness to serve," Brown said. "Mr. Peroutka’s bizarre and hateful mindset cannot be allowed anywhere near the Office of the Attorney General.”