Sheriff Attended Sarasota Patriots For Trump Events With QAnon

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman spoke at three events organized by the Sarasota Patriots for Trump that included followers of the online conspiracy theory site QAnon, said Kaitlyn Perez, community affairs director for the sheriff’s office.

QAnon is a far-right conspiracy group that believes a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles oversee the “deep state” and plotted against former President Donald Trump in his re-election bid.

In October 2019, Hoffman appeared before the Patriots group to speak about immigration at the Waldemere Fire Station in Sarasota, she told Patch. He also attended an event featuring former GOP ambassador Alan Keyes, though she’s uncertain of the date.

In a third event, Hoffman was also interviewed in July by John Michael Chambers, the Sarasota Patriots for Trump founder who also runs a media website, American Media Periscope.

These events featured QAnon and other fringe speakers, and shared conspiracy theories and other extreme views, the Herald-Tribune reported.

Dustin Krieger, a QAnon influencer who goes by the name “Dustin Nemos” online and co-author of “QAnon: An invitation to The Great Awakening,” spoke at the Waldemere Fire Station event about QAnon.

When Hoffman appeared on Chambers’ online program in July, Chambers called COVID-19 the “conspiracy crime of all time,” and claimed the government was planning “a global reset,” using the pandemic, Black Lives Matter and an anti-fascist group to make that happen, reports said.

“I was learning so much from your previous guests,” Hoffman said during the show, according to the Herald-Tribune. “I’m taking notes here.”

The sheriff also talked about his dislike for government during this interview, reports said.

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Hoffman Responds To Criticism With Public Letter

These Sarasota Patriots for Trump appearances came to public light as Hoffman came under fire for a photograph he took with a QAnon supporter in October 2019 after the Herald-Tribune reported on it and the newspaper’s editorial board criticized the image.

In the photo, Hoffman, then the sheriff’s office’s second in command, is standing next to a woman wearing a "We Are Q" T-shirt at a booth selling similar T-shirts and other former President Donald Trump and QAnon items. He told the Herald-Tribune that he hadn’t heard of QAnon when the photo was taken.

In a public letter, the sheriff said he met the woman on the campaign trail and assisted her with a problem affecting her business.

“This was not the first time I have been in a photo with a grateful citizen, and it will not be the last,” Hoffman wrote.

He also accused the Herald-Tribune of "attacking conservative leaders and blamed the media, in general, for divisiveness in the United States.

"After three decades of law enforcement service, I would never support any theory that propagates or condones acts of violence or extremism, whether on the right, left or somewhere in between," the sheriff wrote. "I do not believe in the theory known as 'QAnon,' nor do I believe in the continued divisiveness of this country caused in large part by the news media. What I do believe in is serving citizens regardless of their political affiliations or belief systems. I believe in protecting the rights and freedoms afforded by our Constitution, and I will not back down from that, even if it makes me a target of the media."

Hoffman also defended the Sarasota Patriots in his letter.

“While the Herald Tribune is critical of the Sarasota Patriots organization, in my very limited interactions with their group, I saw many people from local churches, civic and veterans’ organizations at their meetings,” he wrote. “They were engaged and cared about local issues. That does not mean I agreed with every opinion expressed and it does not mean they all agreed with mine.”

Sheriff First Learned About QAnon In February

Perez said Hoffman looked through his campaign calendar in early February after Herald-Tribune staff members questioned him about the photograph with the QAnon supporter.

She claims the sheriff just learned about QAnon for the first time that month. Hoffman is a member of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, she added, noting that the task force never mentioned QAnon.

“That's all high-level stuff, Al-Qaeda, (events) overseas,” she said. “He was not briefed or told about this (QAnon) theory.”

In 2019, the FBI identified QAnon and other conspiracy theories as domestic terror threats.

A records search shows that the first time the phrase “QAnon” turned up in Hoffman’s email was in a September newsletter from ADL, an anti-hate organization, Perez said.

During his campaign, he spoke at more than 400 events over 439 days, she said. At many of them, he often left after he presented.

He also didn’t have a large campaign team to research organizations and individuals who invited him to speak, Perez said. “He very much was a one-man band,” though he worked with a campaign manager who was also busy running his own business. “I don’t think (Hoffman) had time to research everybody.”

Patch reached out to Sheriff Kurt Hoffman and John Michael Chambers for comments.