Italian journalist Marco Violi spoke out late Saturday night after being wrongly identified as the shooter in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, telling people on social media to, "leave me alone."
Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee, was struck by a bullet that pierced his right ear at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday at around 6 p.m. ET. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is calling it an assassination attempt.
Early Sunday morning the FBI identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was quickly killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
However, in the hours after the shooting, Violi was falsely accused online of being the shooter. Videos of Violi spread like wildfire, with people claiming that he posted that "justice was coming" before the attack and identified his name as "Mark Violets." The increase of attention lead to a surge in people searching on Google for "Mark Violets."
Violi wrote in his Instagram Story late Saturday night that he was in Italy when he was woken up in the middle of the night to notifications on social media about the situation.
"I categorically deny that I am involved in this situation," Violi's post said, according to an English translation.
He said in the post that he plans to file a legal complaint on Monday "against the accounts who invented this fake news and all the journalists that spread the fake news." "I kindly ask you to leave me alone," Violi added.
One post on X, formerly Twitter, from Wall Street Silver, a right-wing social media account run by Ivan Bayoukhi, said, "Per the Butler Police Department the Trump shooter has been arrested at the scene and has been identified as Mark Violets, an Antifa member. Prior to the sh00ting Mark Violets uploaded a video on YouTube claiming 'Justice is coming'."
Wall Street Silver's post was debunked by BBC News journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, who wrote on X on Saturday night: "Major blue-tick accounts are falsely claiming that 'Antifa extremist Mark Violet'" was the shooter at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania today, who earlier revealed his plan in a YouTube video. The video shows Italian football fan Marco Violi, who has nothing to do with the shooting."
Newsweek reached out to Violi via Instagram and Bayoukhi via email for comment on Sunday afternoon.
"The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP," Johnson wrote.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee, which has launched an investigation into the shooting, asked Cheatle to testify on July 22.
"The tremendous bravery of the individual United States Secret Service agents who protected [former] President Trump, eliminated the gunman, and possibly averted more loss of life cannot be overstated," Oversight Committee chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, wrote in the letter sent on Saturday formally inviting her to testify.
After the shooting, Italian media also debunked the claim that Violi was the shooter. Violi thanked them in an Instagram post for the solidarity.
