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They thought were getting a sneak peek at special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible Trump collusion. But it was just an elaborate Rickroll-style prank.
Travis Helwig, head writer at Crooked Media, laid the trap on Friday when he tweeted a link to what he claimed was the full report.
“Many of us in the media already have access to the #MuellerReport and it’s disgusting that none of the ‘real’ journalists have released it yet,” he teased.
Of course, Mueller’s actual report remains under wraps until Attorney General William Barr decides which elements to make public, if any at all.
But that didn’t stop folks from being enticed into clicking on Helwig’s link to an uploaded PDF. The cover page looked legit, but the remaining 68 pages just featured the lyrics to Smash Mouth’s 1999 hit “All Star” over and over again.
Scroll through the spoof document here:
Now, it wasn’t a strict Rickroll in the sense that the link did not take people to the music video for Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
That, some followers told Helwig, would have “won” the joke which in recent years even the White House and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have gotten in on.
Still, he received praise online for lightening the mood as much of America waits with bated breath to discover the content of Mueller’s probe.