How Laura Loomer and Trump allies amplified ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ lie dogging Abdul El-Sayed

Michigan US Senate candidate signaled support for Egypt’s pro-democracy movement in 2012, not Islamist group The Republican campaign to defeat Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race by casting him as an Islamic extremist is based on a false claim first made by the conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer eight years ago, a Guardian review of the evidence reveals.

Loomer, an influential outside adviser to Donald Trump who calls herself “ a proud Islamophobe ”, has claimed since El-Sayed entered politics in 2018 that an open letter he signed in support of democracy in…