Floats baseless conspiracy that Iran executed a U.S.-linked scientist because of Clinton’s hacked emails

Trump tweeted an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory about Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who had reportedly defected to the U.S. and was executed in Iran. Using anonymous attribution to evade responsibility, he wrote: "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails." Fact-checkers and reporting at the time noted there was no evidence that Amiri’s execution was linked to Clinton’s emails, and that the claim relied on speculative partisan narratives rather than documented intelligence. The episode shows Trump using "many people are saying" as a permission slip to launder a serious foreign-policy accusation into campaign messaging without evidence.

"Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails." — Aug. 8, 2016 tweet about Shahram Amiri’s execution in Iran