After the authenticity of Shaun King’s activism publicly came into question (again), he did what anyone would do in this digital age to prove their innocence and released what he believed were solid receipts (again). Unfortunately for him, however, people expressed their doubts and accused him of being an alleged serial sham, again.
Source: Steven Ferdman / Getty
An excited King posted on Friday that hostages Judith and Natalie Ranaan had been freed by Hamas and he was one of “dozens” who “worked frantically behind the scenes to help make this possible.”
“Hamas has just freed the teenager Natalie Raanan and her mother,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’m grateful. As I said last week, Natalie and her family have been supporters of mine and protested police violence in America alongside us.”
I am also thankful for the Qatari government for helping to negotiate this. Dozens of us worked frantically behind the scenes to help make this possible. I spoke to Natalie’s family this afternoon and they are anxiously awaiting more updates.”
Soon thereafter, however, the family of American hostages denied the 44-year-old’s claims leading the the accused grifter to post a thread of “receipts/records” to prove that Judith’s brother, Ben Raanan, requested help from him directly.
He wrote,
“Here is where Ben Raanan, the older brother of Natalie Raanan, first reached out to me for help finding and rescuing his sister. This was in the afternoon of October 9th. We spoke and texted and messaged 100+ times after this. I’ll provide those texts here. Ask him directly.”
The tweet was accompanied by a screenshot of the comment Ben left under a social media post of King’s reading, “I just messaged you about my missing sister in Israel.”
On Sunday, King took to Instagram stating that he was contacted by the family directly and that he would “never make up such a thing” and he emphasized again that he was specifically contacted by Ben Ranaan, not the other way around.
“FULL STOP: I did not reach out to this family. They reached out to me and said they were supporters of me, my work, and protested against police violence. â£
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I had ZERO INTENTION on helping rescue any hostages because I knew the full weight of multiple governments were already doing so. My assistance would be way more needed with Palestinians in Gaza. â£
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Nonetheless, after consulting advisors, family, and attorneys we thought helping, since I was asked, was the ethical thing to do. I did not insert myself into this situation. The family of Natalie Raanan inserted me into the situation. â£
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🚨From October 9th until 1 hour ago, I’ve talked, texted, and DM’d with this family nearly 100 times. â£
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Today though it’s trending that I made it all up. ⣠am a respected husband, father, leader, grad student, and employee of multiple companies. I would NEVER make up any such thing. Doing so would throw my whole life away. â£And even helping this family at all risked straining my relationships in Gaza. I did it anyway. â£
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We guess Ben didn’t communicate his correspondence with Shaun to his other relatives considering that they released that aforementioned scathing statement expressing that they found King’s posts to be “bizarre” and do not know who he is.
“Today we came across bizarre posts on the Instagram page of one Shaun King, who turns out to have millions of followers, who claims that our relative Natalie Raanan supports the anti-Israeli messages he uploads to his page,” reads the statement per TMZ.
The announcement continued,
“First and foremost, we make it clear that he is lying! Our family does not and did not have anything to do with him, neither directly nor indirectly. Not to him and not to anything he claims to represent.”
Natalie told us that this morning it was the first time in her life that she came across Shaun King’s name and his posts, after she finally got a phone call after two horrific weeks in captivity in Gaza, and was looking for what was written about her while she was away.
Shaun King is trying to catch a ride on the great exposure that her kidnapping received all over the world and in the US in particular, and the most ridiculous thing is that Natalie and her mother Judith are very active in Rabbi Hecht’s Jewish community in Chicago and in the Chabad house, and if Shaun King knew them or their family he would know that.
As you can imagine, Twitter had a field day with the miscommunication, and “#ShaunKingSuccessStories started trending. People also brought up King’s alleged history of scamming and his litany of nicknames ranging from “Charlatan Tha Faud” to “Mos Theft”, “Talcum X” and “Hueless P. Newton.”
Most recently, Ben Ranaan came to Shaun’s defense, stating,
“I do need to clear up a misunderstanding that has happened within the media. When this first happened, I reached out to activist Shaun King, as I knew he had many connections within the Palestine government.”
He added,
“While Shaun and I do have slight disagreements politically, we both agree that human life is the most sanctified value on this earth.”
Shaun King has since said that he’s “laser-focused” and is seemingly unphased by the vitriol he’s faced.
In a statement to Newsweek, he pleaded his case and said that the family has been told to keep their distance from him.
“Of course I spoke directly and repeatedly with this family,” said King in a email to the publication. “I have a job, career, and family. I would be throwing everything away to make such a thing up.”
He added that the family reached out to him and that he spoke to them over phone, text, and direct message.
“I am told that the Israeli government is now pressuring them to say they don’t know me,” he added. “The family is still in Israel and told me they feel they are in danger.”
Another day, another allegation for the man Twitter has labeled “WEB DeFraud.”
What do YOU think about Shaun King being accused of scamming yet again?
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