Authorities arrested a former Biden appointee and current Texas Democratic candidate for county commissioner for creating fake social media accounts to conduct a hate crime hoax.
The Post Millenial’s (TPM) Andy Ngô highlighted Taral Patel’s Wednesday arrest, reporting on X, “he allegedly created fake Facebook accounts to send himself racist, hateful messages.”
“[Patel] allegedly made many, many fake right-wing Christian pro-Trump accounts using photos of real people and their families.”
GOP 3rd Precinct commissioner Andy Meyers asked the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the source of the social media posts targeting his opponent, TPM reported.
One of the posts in question read, “I am with Meyers ALL THE WAY … unlike Patel and his followers who worship Monkey and Elephant.”
Others called Patel a “dirty Pakistani, telling him to “learn English.”
Patel shared these racist posts on Facebook, along with the caption, “when my Republican opponents supporters’ [sic] decide to hurl racist, anti-immigrant, Hinduphobic, or otherwise disgusting insults at my family, faith community, colleagues, and me – that crosses a line.”
“Fort Bend County’s diversity has made us all stronger and these hateful images (a small sample attached here) are from a place of deep and misguided feat – incited by people like former President Donald Trump and today’s extremist Republican party fear that immigrants are ‘taking their jobs’ and setting out to hurt our own communities.”
Meyers “recognized the username ‘Antonio Scalywag,’’ on one of the accounts Patel shared, then “hired an investigator who was unable to locate anyone in Fort Bend County named Antonio Scalywag,” per the arrest affidavit.
Investigator Evett Kelley cross-referenced “Scalywag’s” profile picture, discovering it was used as a profile photo for Patrick Ernst.
She conducted an in-person interview with Ernst in February, the Fort Bend Independent reported.
Ernst said “the photo of him on Antonio Scalywag’s profile was obtained and used without his consent.”
A subpoena was sent to Meta in February seeking information about the account, which revealed an email registered to Facebook.
Authorities subpoenaed Google for information on the email address in March, which identified Patel.
Subpoenas sent to JP Morgan Chase Bank and Comcast also returned information linked to Patel.
Authorities issued search warrants for the Gmail and Facebook accounts in May, revealing multiple accounts linked to Patel.
The Facebook account showed that the Scalywag account uploaded the Ernst profile photo in October from a mobile device using an IP address associated with Patel, TPM reported.
Patel was arrested by Texas authorities for felony online impersonation in the third degree.
He was also arrested for a Class A misdemeanor charge for misrepresentation of identity.
TPM reported that Patel was held in Fort Bend County Jail before posting the $20,000 bond for the felony charge and the $2,500 bond for the misdemeanor.
He is next scheduled to appear in court on July 22.
Hate Hoaxes have become an alarming trend gripping America. Cases like Jussie Smollet’s staged assault and Bubba Wallace’s garage door incident have garnered significant attention and subsequent debunking.
One college girl’s story recently went viral after her life was upended by false racism allegations, Resist the Mainstream previously reported.
She faced intense online harassment and scrutiny from university authorities and local media following the accusations, as the truth was overshadowed by political agendas.
