Reports: Malinowski receives death threats from conspiracy group

This story was updated with comment from Dan Fleiss and Harrison Neely at 4:32 p.m. A previous version of this story mistakenly said Malinowski sponsored an anti-QAnon resolution after the NRCC launched its ad. That was incorrect.

Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) received death threats after sponsoring a resolution condemning a baseless internet conspiracy that claims a global network of liberal pedophiles is seeking to undermine President Donald Trump, according to reports in the New York Times and Buzzfeed News.

Malinowski sponsored the bipartisan resolution condemning QAnon after the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news site, published a report claiming Malinowski lobbied against a 2006 bill that created a federal sex offender registry.

In September, the National Republican Congressional Committee launched a $250,000 ad trafficking the same claim with little supporting evidence.

Six current and former Human Rights Watch officials have told the New Jersey Globe Malinowski was not at all involved in its lobbying efforts against the bill. Malinowski, who was then the group’s Washington director, was responsible for foreign policy issues, they said.

The Democrat has also denied any involvement with the measure.

QAnon was labeled a domestic terror threat by the FBI.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean (R-Westfield), Malinowski’s Republican challenger, has not repeated the claims directly, though in a New Jersey Globe debate last month, he charged the incumbent was culpable for the lobbying because of his role in the organization.

His campaign hasn’t shown the same restraint. At least one member of Kean’s campaign staff has shared the NRCC’s attack on social media — a fact the incumbent’s campaign pointed to Thursday.

Still, the Democrat thinks the senator’s refusal to disavow the sex offender attack makes him culpable for the consequences.

“Kean may think this is a game, that you can say anything in a political campaign no matter how depraved or dishonest, as long as you think it may somehow help you win. But he is playing with fire,” Malinowski campaign manager Dan Fleiss said. “It reveals nothing about Congressman Malinowski and everything about Kean’s character and his fitness for office.”

The Republican has previously denounced QAnon.

On Thursday, his campaign condemned the death threats, though it denied Kean was in any way responsible for them.

“No one should be receiving death threats, but Congressman Malinowski is wrong to attempt to lay the blame at the feet of Senator Kean,” Kean campaign consultant Harrison Neely said. “The facts are that Congressman Malinowski boasts about Human Rights Watch having won a Nobel Prize before he worked there, but he is refusing to take accountability for the organization’s efforts while he was the Washington Director. Human Rights Watch broadly opposed a national sex offender registry and Malinowski signed the lobbying disclosure that said he worked on the issue.”