A California woman accused of impersonating her ex-boyfriend’s new wife in Craigslist “rape-fantasy” ads has been exonerated, after spending nearly four months in jail for a crime she never committed, authorities say. 
 
 Orange County prosecutors say 30-year-old Michelle Hadley was framed. Now they’ve charged the wife who falsely accused her with a slew of felonies, including 22 counts of falsely reporting a crime to Anaheim police. 
 
 Angela Maria Diaz, 31, faces kidnapping, false-imprisonment, and forgery charges in connection to the elaborate setup. She was also charged with one count of perjury for lying in a petition for a restraining order against Hadley. 
 
 Diaz was arrested in Phoenix last week and will be extradited to California, prosecutors said Monday. If convicted, she faces as much as 12 years and eight months in a state prison, and 11 years in a county jail. 
 
 “It’s often said that true life is stranger than fiction. The facts of this case make that statement spot-on,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told reporters. 
 
 “When a person who’s committed a crime gets arrested and charged, that’s a bad day. But when someone who’s innocent gets arrested and charged with a crime, that’s not just a bad day. It’s a nightmare. 
 
 “This is the tale of a woman who faced such a nightmare,” Rackauckas said. 
 
 Hadley was first arrested in June 2016, when police accused her of violating a restraining order obtained by Diaz, who also goes by the name Angela Connell. Back then, Hadley was released on $100,000 bail. 
 
 But cops cuffed Hadley again in July, after police claimed she was posing as Diaz in Craigslist ads soliciting “rape fantasies.” She was held on $1 million bond. 
 
 But authorities would soon learn that Diaz was sending herself the threatening emails, which included links to graphic images of dead and decapitated human beings, as well as aborted fetuses, Rackauckas said. 
 
 Hadley was finally released from jail in October, when prosecutors were already reexamining Diaz’s accusations. 
 
 The convoluted Gone Girl-style drama made national news, with Hadley’s mugshot plastered across the web. At the time, she faced life in prison for charges including six felony counts of attempted forcible rape. 
 
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 Prosecutors had claimed Hadley repeatedly sent threats to Diaz, who was identified only as “Jane Doe” and as the pregnant new wife of Hadley’s former fiancé, a deputy U.S. Marshal whom authorities have not named. 
 
 During Monday’s press conference, Rackauckas said Hadley is “an innocent victim of a diabolical scheme.” 
 
 “This is a very detailed case. I wanted to make sure, however, that Ms. Hadley is cleared in every possible way—in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion. It should be clear in the media and in cyberspace,” he said. 
 
 Rackauckas identified Hadley’s ex only as “John Doe,” and said there is no evidence that he was involved in Diaz’s plot. 
 
 Diaz and John Doe were married in February 2016. Hadley dated John Doe from August 2013 to August 2015, investigators said. 
 
 Still, Rackauckas did not provide a motive in Diaz’s alleged frame-up. 
 
 “I don’t think we have a clear statement of what her motive might be,” the DA said, before adding, “You have a love triangle. Maybe a [desire] to put the dagger into the older relationship, but all that’s just speculation at this time.” 
 
 Diaz faces a host of other frightening accusations, including “faking a pregnancy” with John Doe, prosecutors say. 
 
 Police say Diaz altered a paycheck to give herself an extra $2,000 in April 2016. She also allegedly faked a cervical-cancer diagnosis, pretended to be an attorney, forged doctor’s notes, and impersonated two of John Doe’s ex-girlfriends over email. 
 
 According to prosecutors, Diaz sent emails to herself to make it appear Hadley was the author of the messages. She allegedly used Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and third-party proxy servers to avoid detection, authorities say. 
 
 From June 1 to July 13, 2016, Diaz allegedly made false reports with police, claiming Hadley threatened her and the life of her unborn child. (A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said authorities do not believe Diaz was ever pregnant with John Doe’s child.) 
 
 An MBA student at Chapman University, Hadley was accused of providing men responding to the Craigslist ad with Diaz’s photos and details of her daily routine. Hadley was also accused to telling them “to have forcible sexual intercourse with [Diaz], even if she screamed or resisted,” the district attorney claimed at the time. 
 
 Now the DA says Diaz posted the ads herself, luring at least two men to her residence and calling 911. Cops “intercepted” the men intending to participate in the “rape fantasies”—incidents that appeared to bolster Diaz’s ruse. 
 
 Anaheim police also noted a visibly distraught Diaz had redness on her neck and breast area when she claimed a man tried to rape her, Rackauckas said. 
 
 “The police did a very thorough investigation,” Deputy District Attorney Richard Zimmer told The Daily Beast in July of last year. “What was presented to us… we have enough evidence to prove this case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.” 
 
 “This case just shows some of the dangers of social media and the online world we live in now,” Zimmer added. 
 
 Diaz’s story began to fall apart after Hadley’s defense attorney, Michael Guisti, worked closely with authorities to reinvestigate the source of the messages. They learned Diaz was sending herself emails from her hubby’s condo, her cellphone, and her father’s home in Arizona, Rackauckas said. 
 
 Guisti said Hadley is relieved by the dismissal of charges against her. “She was going about her business, getting her MBA, when all of a sudden this literally came out of the blue,” he told reporters Monday. 
 
 Hadley has been living at home since her release from jail and “laying low,” Guisti said. 
 
 Meanwhile, Michael Hadley had always declared his daughter’s innocence. Last year, he told The Daily Beast that he believed Michelle’s 38-year-old former flame was sabotaging her and accused Anaheim detectives of shoddy policework. 
 
 He said the ex-boyfriend was seeking revenge because his daughter filed a lawsuit to boot him from their condominium. “The marshal knows her email address,” Michael Hadley said in a July phone interview. “They were going to get married. They got the condo and everything else and it all fell apart.” 
 
 Hadley scoffed at portrayals of his daughter as vindictively jealous of her former beau’s new relationship. “What they’re saying is totally contrary to what’s going on,” Hadley told The Daily Beast. “My daughter could [not] care less.” 
 
 The ex-fiancé filed for a restraining order against Hadley in September 2015. His petition included a series of wacky emails that Hadley allegedly sent him, and that included biblical references and accusations of sexual assault. 
 
 “She frequently tells me ‘I fucking hate you’ and insults my manhood and sexuality,” he wrote in the document. He added, “most of our arguments end with [Hadley] self-medicating with an entire bottle of wine.” 
 
 One September 2015 message, which carried the subject line “Gone Girl,” included the rant: “You know exactly how God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God are involved with the condo. We both do.” 
 
 “Your end will come, and you will relinquish the keys to the earth,” Hadley allegedly wrote. 
 
 Her ex-boyfriend replied, “I am not sure how God, the Bible, or again, my childhood, has any relevance to the condo and mortgage.” 
 
 In June 2016, Diaz requested a restraining order against Hadley. 
 
 “Ms. Hadley has been emailing me for over one week, repeatedly threatening my life, my marriage, my safety, and slandering my husband,” she wrote in her filing. Diaz accused Hadley of using “over six different email addresses” to harass her. 
 
 “I am now fearful of leaving my home, have had to delete my online presence, and am incredibly emotionally distressed,” Diaz wrote. 
 
 “I am fearful of being ‘raped,’ ‘attacked,’ ‘killed.’ I have had to completely uproot my life, including missing work at a new job to quash this issue,” she added. “The tone and tenor of these emails escalates and there seems no sign of stopping.” 
 
 Diaz attached a collection of biblical-themed missives, which she claimed Hadley sent her via LinkedIn under the pseudonym “Jason Ray.” 
 
 “There are legends that Adam had a wife before Eve who was named Lilith, but this is not found in the Bible,” one May 2016 message began. 
 
 “YOU ARE NOT PERFECT, BUT YOU ARE THE EVE TO HIM… MICHELLE WAS THE TRUTH——HIS LILLITH [sic] BUT SHE AND THE OTHER WOMEN WOULD NOT SUBMIT TO HIS CONTROLLING WAYS,” the email continued. 
 
 Days later, another phony email warned Diaz that her new husband “is using you for everything.” 
 
 “Don’t you see this?” the message stated. “He is obsessed with me, I am his treasure princess, you are nothing.” ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 An Ontario woman who was jailed after being accused of harassing, stalking, pretending to be the wife of her ex-fiance, and placing ads online soliciting “rape fantasies” was in fact framed by the woman she was accused of impersonating, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday. 
 
 Michelle Hadley, 30, was behind bars for several months following her arrest in July, according to inmate records. She was charged with felony stalking, attempted forcible rape, violating a protective order and assault, facing a sentence of life in prison if convicted, prosecutors said at the time. 
 
 But on Monday, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced that Hadley was the victim in the case. She has been exonerated. 
 
 Instead, another woman -- identified as 31-year-old Angela Maria Diaz of Phoenix, Arizona -- faces a slew of charges after allegedly framing Hadley for stalking and attempted rape, the DA's office said in a news release. 
 
 Diaz has also allegedly faked cervical cancer and a pregnancy, pretended to be an attorney and forged doctor’s notes, the release stated. 
 
 Hadley walked out of court in Fullerton Monday after the case against her was dismissed. She teared up as she spoke to gathered news media. 
 
 "Obviously, this has been a huge nightmare for me," Hadley said. "Probably the most traumatic experience of my life, and I'm glad it's finally over." 
 
 At a news conference, Rackauckas described Hadley as an "innocent victim of a diabolical scheme." 
 
 “As important as the filing of charges against Ms. Diaz, is the dismissal of the previous complaint and full exoneration of Michelle Hadley,” Rackauckas said in the release. “This is a very detailed case. I wanted to make sure, however, that Ms. Hadley is cleared in every possible way – in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion. It should be clear in the media and in cyberspace. Ms. Hadley is an innocent victim of a diabolical scheme.” 
 
 Diaz has been married to a man, identified only as "John Doe," since February 2016. Hadley had a relationship with the same man, described over the summer by the DA's office as an agent with the U.S. Marshals Service, from August 2013 to August 2015. 
 
 Diaz and Doe married after meeting via a dating website in January 2016. In May, Diaz told her husband that she was pregnant with twins, the DA's office said. 
 
 About two weeks after announcing her pregnancy, Diaz went to the Anaheim Police Department and allegedly falsely reported harassing messages that she said were from Hadley. Diaz is accused of sending herself those emails in an effort to make it appear they were sent by Hadley. 
 
 Diaz then allegedly applied for, and obtained, a restraining order against Hadley by signing under penalty of perjury that she had been threatened by the other woman, according to the release. 
 
 "On many occasions from June 1, 2016, to July 13, 2016, Diaz is accused of falsely filing police reports with APD, calling for officers to respond to the home she shared with John Doe. The defendant is accused of making false claims that Hadley made threats against her life and the life of her unborn child," the release stated. 
 
 Also in June, Diaz allegedly posed as Hadley to respond to online advertisements that she wanted to engage in sex acts resembling rape, according to prosecutors. Diaz is also suspected of posting an ad stating she wanted to engage in "rape fantasies." 
 
 Diaz allegedly sent responders photos of herself and details about her own daily routine. She is also accused of telling them to have forcible sex with her, even if she screamed or resisted, the release stated. 
 
 At least two men who planned to travel to her residence to participate in the "rape fantasies" were intercepted by law enforcement, authorities said. 
 
 Diaz allegedly told Anaheim police at the time that she was being stalked by Hadley, and was not involved in the solicitations. 
 
 Later that month, in an apparent effort to bolster her claims against Hadley, Diaz called 911 and allegedly falsely reported that a man had entered her garage and attempted to rape her, prosecutors said. She showed police redness around her neck and breast, and arrived with a torn shirt, the DA's office said, providing photos of Diaz at the time she made the report. 
 
 Hadley was arrested by Anaheim police later that day -- on June 24 -- and then released the next morning on $100,000 bail. 
 
 After Hadley's arrest, Diaz allegedly reported that the threatening emails stopped. However, after the victim's release, she began repeatedly sending threatening herself emails and -- pretending to be Hadley again -- resumed responding to "rape fantasy" ads, according to the release. 
 
 The language in the emails became more violent, and the defendant tried to make it appear her life was being threatened by the victim, the DA's office said. 
 
 Hadley was again arrested on July 14 and held on $1 million bail. Her re-arrest and increase in bail were allegedly due Diaz's false statements regarding the latest round of alleged email threats. 
 
 Hadley said her friends and relatives supported her, never believing she was guilty of the crimes of which she'd been accused. 
 
 She remained in jail until Oct. 7, "at which point sufficient evidence had been ascertained through extensive investigative efforts and the cooperation of the victim’s attorney," according to the DA's office. "OCDA and APD sought the victim’s immediate release on her own recognizance from custody while continuing to investigate Diaz." 
 
 Meanwhile, Diaz is also suspected of forging a paycheck from Orange County on Sept. 6 and trying to cash it, authorities said. She allegedly altered another check from her employer, trying to add $2,000 to the total, on April 22, the DA's office said. 
 
 Diaz was arrested on Jan. 6 in Phoenix. 
 
 Diaz was charged last week with the following: two felony counts of kidnapping; two felony counts of false imprisonment by menace, fraud, or deceit; one felony count of perjury; one felony count of grand theft; two felony counts of forgery; two felony counts of possession of a forged check over $950; one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime to a police agency; and 21 misdemeanor counts of falsely reporting a crime to a peace officer. 
 
 If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 12 years and eight months in state prison, plus 11 years in county jail. 
 
 Diaz is still awaiting extradition from Arizona, and a court date has yet to be set. 
 
 KTLA's Melissa Pamer contributed to this article. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 By Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins 
 
 In November 2017, a small-time YouTube video creator and two moderators of the 4chan website, one of the most extreme message boards on the internet, banded together and plucked out of obscurity an anonymous and cryptic post from the many conspiracy theories that populated the website's message board. 
 
 Over the next several months, they would create videos, a Reddit community, a business and an entire mythology based off the 4chan posts of “Q,” the pseudonym of a person claiming to be a high-ranking military officer. The theory they espoused would become Qanon, and it would eventually make its way from those message boards to national media stories and the rallies of President Donald Trump. 
 
 Now, the people behind that effort are at the center of a fractious debate among conspiracy enthusiasts, some of whom believe the three people who first popularized the Qanon theory are promoting it in order to make a living. Others suggest that these original followers actually wrote Q’s mysterious posts. 
 
 While the identity of the original author or authors behind “Q” is still unknown, the history of the conspiracy theory’s spread is well-documented — through YouTube videos, social media posts, Reddit archives, and public records reviewed by NBC News. 
 
 NBC News has found that the theory can be traced back to three people who sparked some of the first conversation about Qanon and, in doing so, attracted followers who they then asked to help fund Qanon “research.” 
 
 Qanon is a convoluted conspiracy theory with no apparent foundation in reality. The heart of it asserts that for the last year the anonymous “Q” has taken to the fringe internet message boards of 4chan and 8chan to leak intelligence about Trump’s top-secret war with a cabal of criminals run by politicians like Hillary Clinton and the Hollywood elite. There is no evidence for these claims. 
 
 In addition to peeking into the mainstream, the theory has been increasingly linked to real-world violence. In recent months, Qanon followers have allegedly been involved in a foiled presidential assassination plot, a devastating California wildfire, and an armed standoff with local law enforcement officers in Arizona. 
 
 Part of the Qanon appeal lies in its game-like quality. Followers wait for clues left by “Q” on the message board. When the clues appear, believers dissect the riddle-like posts alongside Trump’s speeches and tweets and news articles in an effort to validate the main narrative that Trump is winning a war against evil. 
 
 There are now dozens of commentators who dissect “Q” posts — on message boards, in YouTube videos and on their personal pages — but the theory was first championed by a handful of people who worked together to stir discussion of the “Q” posts, eventually pushing the theory on to bigger platforms and gaining followers — a strategy that proved to be the key to Qanon’s spread and the originators’ financial gain. 
 
 The anons 
 
 Before Q, there was a wide variety of “anon” 4chan posters all claiming to have special government access. 
 
 In 2016, there was FBIAnon, a self-described “high-level analyst and strategist” offering intel about the 2016 investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Then came HLIAnon, an acronym for High Level Insider, who posted about various dubious conspiracies in riddles, including one that claimed Princess Diana had been killed because she found out about 9/11 “beforehand” and had “tried to stop it.” Then “CIAAnon” and “CIA Intern” took to the boards in early 2017, and last August one called WH Insider Anon offered a supposed preview that something that was “going to go down” regarding the DNC and leaks. 
 
 Qanon was just another unremarkable part of the “anon” genre until November 2017, when two moderators of the 4chan board where Q posted predictions, who went by the usernames Pamphlet Anon and BaruchtheScribe, reached out to Tracy Diaz, according to Diaz’s blogs and YouTube videos. BaruchtheScribe, in reality a self-identified web programmer from South Africa named Paul Furber, confirmed that account to NBC News. 
 
 “A bunch of us decided that the message needed to go wider so we contacted Youtubers who had been commenting on the Q drops,” Furber said in an email. 
 
 Diaz, a small-time YouTube star who once hosted a talk show on the fringe right-wing network Liberty Movement Radio, had found moderate popularity with a couple of thousand views for her YouTube videos analyzing WikiLeaks releases and discussing the "pizzagate" conspiracy, a baseless theory that alleged a child sex ring was being run out of a Washington pizza shop. 
 
 As Diaz tells it in a blog post detailing her role in the early days of Qanon, she banded together with the two moderators. Their goal, according to Diaz, was to build a following for Qanon — which would mean bigger followings for them as well. 
 
 On Nov. 3, 2017, just six days after the first 4chan post from “Q,” Diaz posted a video entitled “/POL/- Q Clearance Anon - Is it #happening???” in which she introduced the conspiracy theory to her audience. 
 
 “I do not typically do videos like this,” she said, but citing Q’s “very specific and kind of eerie” posts, Diaz explained that she would be covering the 4chan posts, “just in case this stuff turns out to be legit because honestly it kind of seems legit.” 
 
 That video, which has been viewed nearly 250,000 times, made Diaz one of the earliest people to seize on “Q” posts and decipher them for a conspiracy-hungry audience. Diaz followed with dozens more Q-themed videos, each containing a call for viewers to donate through links to her Patreon and PayPal accounts 
 
 Diaz’s YouTube channel now boasts more than 90,000 subscribers and her videos have been watched over 8 million times. More than 97,000 people follow her on Twitter. Diaz, who emerged from bankruptcy in 2009, says in her YouTube videos that she now relies on donations from patrons funding her YouTube “research” as her sole source of income. 
 
 Diaz declined to comment on this story. 
 
 “Because I cover Q, I got an audience,” Diaz acknowledged in a video that NBC News reviewed last week before she deleted it. 
 
 Building a movement 
 
 To reach a more mainstream audience (older people and “normies,” who on their own would have trouble navigating the fringe message boards), Diaz said in a blog post she recommended they move to the more user-friendly Reddit. Archives listing the three as the original posters and moderators show they created a new Reddit community called CBTS_Stream, short for Calm Before The Storm, where subscribers soon gathered to talk all things Q. 
 
 Their move to Reddit was key to Qanon’s eventual spread. There, they were able to tap into a larger audience of conspiracy theorists, and drive discussion with their analysis of each Q post. From there, Qanon crept to Facebook where it found a new, older audience via dozens of public and private groups. 
 
 That audience then started to head to 8chan to check out the original source and interact directly with the posts. (Q posts moved from 4chan to its more toxic offshoot 8chan in November after a post claiming the original board had been “infiltrated.” 8chan became notorious for having no rules, and even hosting child pornography.) 
 
 8chan’s owner’s official Twitter account marveled at the influx of older, less internet-savvy visitors to his site, drawn by Qanon. “We joked about it for years, but #Qanon is making it a reality: Boomers! On your imageboard.” 
 
 Meanwhile, Diaz kept making videos, racking up hundreds of thousands of views. Over the next several months, Diaz and the two moderators picked up tens of thousands of followers on Reddit and YouTube and added even more moderators to their 8chan and Reddit boards. 
 
 They also began to break into what might be considered the mainstream of the conspiracy world. Conspiracy theorist Dr. Jerome Corsi, an Infowars editor and a best-selling author of books about the “deep state,” had taken an interest in Q and was decoding the messages on the Reddit board. In December, Pamphlet Anon and BaruchtheScribe even made an appearance on InfoWars. 
 
 Corsi has since disavowed the Qanon conspiracy and called the current Q poster “a fraud,” citing a supposed takeover of the channel by someone posing as Q in April. But last week, facing backlash from his base, Corsi tweeted that he supports the Qanon movement and its supporters’ “excellent research.” 
 
 Soon, as Diaz explained on her blog, their expanding crew was spending all their waking hours in chat rooms on the gaming-focused forum Discord analyzing and decoding Q messages and planning for a larger dissemination of Q’s message. 
 
 In March, their Reddit board, which boasted some 20,000 subscribers, was shut down by Reddit for “encouraging or inciting violence and posting personal and confidential information,” and the moderators — Diaz and the rest — were banned from the site. Furber had already been booted from the site for allegedly threatening to reveal the personal details of another user, and was pushed out of the private Q discussion groups he had helped form. 
 
 “I was very definitely banished,” Furber said, noting that he believes Q’s board has been taken over by imposters. 
 
 By then, Pamphlet Anon, whose real name is Coleman Rogers, had developed grander plans. (NBC was able to determine Rogers’ identity through property records that link the address where his business is registered to his parent’s home and to photos from his personal social media account. Those photos show him to be the same person who appears on YouTube as Pamphlet Anon.) 
 
 Rogers did not respond to calls seeking comment, but acknowledged his receipt of messages from NBC News via his website’s Twitter, writing in part, “WE DO NOT TALK TO FAKE NEWS.” 
 
 Network effect 
 
 Kicked off Reddit, Rogers hatched a new plan. He would replace the mainstream media — often a target of Q’s posts — with a constantly streaming YouTube network made up of the self-described “researchers” who were putting together Q’s clues. 
 
 Within a month, Rogers, 31, and his wife, Christina Urso, 29, had launched the Patriots’ Soapbox, a round-the-clock livestreamed YouTube channel for Qanon study and discussion. The channel is, in effect, a broadcast of a Discord chatroom with constant audio commentary from a rotating cast of volunteers and moderators with sporadic appearances by Rogers and Urso. In April, Urso registered Patriots’ Soapbox LLC in Virginia. 
 
 Rogers and Urso use their channel to call for donations that are accepted through PayPal, cryptocurrencies or mail. 
 
 It was a natural progression for Rogers. A review of Rogers’ Facebook page shows he had been active in internet politics and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, self-identifying as part of the “meme war” — the creation and dissemination of images and internet-style commentary that internet agitators on the chans and Reddit credit with Trump’s win. Rogers often posted memes about “liberal tears” as well as the ludicrous claims that Democrats murdered children and worshipped Satan — details similar to those that would eventually form the Qanon theory. 
 
 Rogers’ Facebook updates waned after Trump took office but started up again in the fall, when he began posting “Q” messages to both confused and supportive family and friends. 
 
 Rogers has publicly denied that he is the author of the “Q” posts, though his last visible Facebook post, published on Aug. 2, hinted that he might someday be associated with the theory. 
 
 “Ten bucks says you see my face on national news within a few weeks, saying that I'm ‘the mysterious hacker known as #Qanon,’” Rogers wrote, a reference to a CNN segment that mistakenly referred to the website 4chan as a hacker. 
 
 Following a request for comment from NBC News, Rogers deleted every post on his Facebook profile after 2014. Following another message from a reporter informing him that NBC News had archived his page, he deleted his Facebook account entirely. 
 
 Tables turned 
 
 As Qanon picked up steam, growing skepticism over the motives of Diaz, Rogers, and the other early Qanon supporters led some in the internet’s conspiracy circles to turn their paranoia on the group. 
 
 Recently, some Qanon followers have accused Diaz and Rogers of profiting from the movement by soliciting donations from their followers. Other pro-Trump online groups have questioned the roles that Diaz and Rogers have played in promoting Q, pointing to a series of slip-ups that they say show Rogers and Diaz may have been involved in the theory from the start. 
 
 Those accusations have led Diaz and Rogers to both deny that they are Q and say they don’t know who Q is. There is no direct proof that the group or any individual members are behind it. 
 
 Still, Qanon skeptics have pointed to two videos as evidence that Rogers had insider knowledge of Q’s account. Some YouTube channels, like one named Unirock, are mostly dedicated to poring over Patriots’ Soapbox livestreams and dissecting purported slip-ups. 
 
 One archived livestream appears to show Rogers logging into the 8chan account of “Q.”The Patriots’ Soapbox feed quickly cuts out after the login attempt. “Sorry, leg cramp,” Rogers says, before the feed reappears seconds later. 
 
 Users in the associated chatroom begin to wonder if Rogers had accidentally revealed his identity as Q. “How did you post as Q?” one user wrote. 
 
 In another livestreamed video, Rogers begins to analyze a supposed “Q” post on his livestream program when his co-host points out that the post in question doesn’t actually appear on Q’s feed and was authored anonymously. Rogers’ explanation — that Q must have forgotten to sign in before posting — was criticized as extremely unlikely by people familiar with the message boards, as it would require knowledge of the posting to pick it out among hundreds of other anonymous ones. 
 
 In part because of the mounting claims against Patriots’ Soapbox, the web’s largest pro-Trump community has banned all mentions of Qanon. Reddit’s 640,000-member community r/The_Donald set up an autodelete function for mentions of Qanon’s claims, two moderators confirmed to NBC News, believing the group of YouTubers is making posts as Q. 
 
 Still, Patriots’ Soapbox 24-hour livestream remains live on YouTube, broadcasting to its 46,000 subscribers. And despite the growing skepticism of the group, they still have their supporters who ardently believe in the Qanon theory. 
 
 “The funniest thing about those who try to discredit Q. They focus on whether Q is real or not, instead of the information being provided,” tweeted one follower. “NO ONE cares who Q is. WE care about the TRUTH.”
– It's a convoluted story and, it turns out, a "diabolical" one. A California woman arrested over the summer and charged with posting "rape fantasy" ads on Craigslist that invited men to violate her ex-fiance's new wife has been cleared. It turns out the wife was allegedly behind the twisted caper, and now she's in jail, the Los Angeles Times reports. Michelle Hadley, 30, "is an innocent victim of a diabolical scheme," Orange Country DA Tony Rackauckas said Monday. The case made national headlines after Hadley was accused of posting ads urging men to rape Angela Maria Diaz, the pregnant wife of her ex, and ignore Diaz's screams and protests. Last June, Diaz called 911 tearfully telling cops that a man tried to rape her in her garage. Cops busted Hadley, who spent 88 days in jail, but now say Diaz, 31, was behind it all. The break in the case came when authorities were able to determine the IP addresses associated with the ads led to Diaz's and her father's homes; Diaz allegedly used software that made the emails look as if they were sent by Hadley. The Daily Beast reports the emails contained links to images of aborted fetuses and headless humans; one email allegedly read, "I am his treasure princess, you are nothing." Another member of the DA's office calls Diaz a "serial con artist" who allegedly faked being pregnant and having cervical cancer. Authorities don't believe Diaz's husband—an unnamed US marshal who married Diaz in February after meeting her via online dating the month prior, per KTLA—was in on the plot. Now Hadley, who once faced life in prison, says she'll go back to her MBA studies. Diaz faces up to 12 years, 8 months in prison and 11 years in county jail if convicted. (This woman was cleared in a zookeeper love triangle.)