Stop Taking @kimdavis917 Seriously. It’s a Troll Account. Here’s How We Know

***Update***: Liberty Counsel has confirmed that @kimdavis917 is not actually Kim Davis:

While Kim Davis remains a prisoner of conscience, unscrupulous individuals are attempting to personally attack her, her family, her faith, and her church. The purported letter from Kim Davis circulated on Twitter and other social media in the last 12 hours is fake and fraudulent. Liberty Counsel attorneys remain the exclusive spokespersons for Kim Davis.

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A lot of people have been quick to follow and cite @kimdavis917 as if it’s a legitimate account currently run by Kim Davis‘ husband. It’s not. It’s fake. I’ll tell you why in a moment.

Yet after the account posted a supposed letter Davis wrote from jail, it managed to fool bloggers, a New York Times reporter, a progressive media outlet, and probably most of those 800+ followers.

How do we know it’s a troll account? The evidence is all there if you look for it. Let’s run through a short list…

1) The first tweet from the account went out on September 1, long after Davis became a well-known name in the culture wars. A perfect time for a troll to emerge.

2) There’s no Twitter-verification checkmark for the account — which would normally happen by this time to someone who’s in the news.

3) The capitalized words and misspellings throughout the account’s timeline are the hallmarks of what you’d do if you were trying to imitate a Christian fundamentalist. In other words, it’s *too* error-filled to be accurate.

4) There’s this tweet about her multiple marriages:

Davis “found Jesus” in 2011, years after she married her current husband Joe. Her defenders would tell you she never violated her faith because she didn’t have that faith until after her most recent marriage. So Davis simply wouldn’t write a tweet like this. It’s not how she thinks.

5) There’s this tweet:

I know she thinks of herself as a martyr, but that’s too over the top, even for her.

6) There’s this tweet:

Too far. Remember: People like her *love* gay people. They just oppose their rights.

7) There’s this tweet, thanking a comedian who mocked her.

Even she’s not that stupid.

8) Finally, there’s this letter, supposedly written by Davis while in jail:

The title channels Martin Luther King, Jr. while the rhetoric channels Sarah Palin:

I have no doubt your opinion of me has been swayed by the liberal media gotchyas. I am here because there is a war on Christians in America. This country was founded on the belifes of Christianity!! This is a fact.

I sit here with me Bible close to my heart, [communicating?] with the Lord. I have a lot of time to think. I think of what Rose Parks must have felt! She had it easy let me tell you. The whole WORLD is watching me. Under this microscope, I am now not only an example for my famiy, but for the millions on Christians in America facing persecution and the loss of their fundemental right of Religious FREEDOM!!! I know now that I have been chosen for the highest purpose.

Again, I find that a little too imperfect to be accurate. (“Rose Parks”?)

But here’s the most telling sign:

This is all a trial from God above. And I ask that you read this passage from Luke 16:18 and think of me, “Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produced endurance.

That’s not what Luke 16:18 says.

This is what Luke 16:18 says:

Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

@SMLXist pointed that one out on Twitter and it’s pretty much the clincher.

9) Need more evidence? Look at the signature in Davis’ letter. It doesn’t match how she signs marriage certificates:

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Why spoil the fun? Because people are spreading bullshit when there’s plenty to criticize in real life. We don’t need to resort to mocking this letter — and the supposed ignorance and lack of education it conveys — in order to criticize Davis’ beliefs.

It’s easy to get taken in by this stuff. I almost did, too. But it’s not that hard to find evidence that it’s all fake.