Glenn Beck Appears To Cite Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory To Justify Not Revealing His Confidential Sources In Defamation Lawsuit

As we noted earlier today, a federal judge issued a ruling yesterday ordering Glenn Beck to reveal the names of several confidential sources upon whom he relied during his 2013 crusade to prove that Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi was “the money man” who financed and orchestrated the Boston Marathon bombing.

Alharbi is now suing Beck for defamation and demanding to know the identities of Beck’s sources so that they can be deposed by his lawyers, and the judge overseeing the case has ordered Beck’s legal team to reveal them.

Beck kicked off his radio program today by discussing the conspiracy theory that a Democratic National Committee staffer was recently murdered, supposedly because he was some sort of whistle-blower who was going to expose Hillary Clinton. And while Beck did not directly address the defamation lawsuit or the judge’s ruling in his comments, it was quite obvious that he was using this conspiracy theory as justification for his refusal to reveal the sources behind his attack on Alharbi.

“Read the papers,” Beck said. “Read the internet. Sources are under attack. Confidential sources are under attack and you cannot reveal confidential sources because there are sources that are concerned about this very kind of thing … I am convinced, after talking to people in the government and talking through others to sources, I am absolutely convinced that people feel this way; that if I say anything [they will be killed.]”

“Have we crossed a line to where our government or our politicians or our political institutions now feel comfortable enough to where they will kill you?” Beck asked. “Now that sounds crazy, but are we not moving towards Russia?”