Christopher Sign, the ABC news reporter who broke the story of the infamous 2016 "tarmac meeting" between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch died on Saturday, June 12, in an apparent suicide, according to police.
The 45-year-old Alabama TV anchor was found dead by Hoover police at around 8.13 a.m. on Saturday after cops received reports of "a person down" at his Scout Trace home, according to Al.com. Sign's death is being investigated as a suicide, said Hoover Lt. Keith Czeskleba.
The Clinton-Lynch Tarmac Story
Sign broke the Clinton-Lynch tarmac story when was a reporter and morning anchor ABC affiliate KNXV-TV in Phoenix in June 2016. The incident spiralled into a political storm with Republicans asserting that it compromised the Justice Department's investigation into the former president's wife Hillary Clinton's emails during her tenure as Secretary of State.
At the time, Lynch said the meeting with Clinton was unplanned, largely social, and did not include a discussion on the email investigation. She claimed that he had walked uninvited from his plane to her government aircraft, which were both parked on a tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Sign also penned a book about the encounter titled "Secret on the Tarmac," which included details about "the process, the questions of sabotage, the attempt at a coverup and the source who saw it all."
'My Family Received Significant Death Threats'
A month before the book's release in February last year, Sign said in an interview on Fox & Friends that he was receiving death threats over the explosive story.
"Well my family received significant death threats shortly after breaking this story," Sign told the anchor before adding that his family had to come up with "secret codewords" for his children because he was concerned about their safety. Watch the clip below:
Conspiracy Theorists Claim Sign was 'Assassinated'
The clip has led conspiracy theorists to believe that the Clintons had something to do with Sign's untimely demise.
"Here we go again. Another person who had dirt on the Clinton's has died from 'suicide.' One more name to the body count," wrote one user, while another commented, "Apparently another journalist was assassinated oh I'm sorry he committed "Suicide" after writing a book about the clintons and what happened on the tarmac in the 2016 election.
Here are some other reactions on Twitter:
