To get answers, BuzzFeed News investigated Paine's and True Pundit’s social media accounts, business and court records, and other publicly available information. They reveal that Thomas Paine is, in fact, Michael D. Moore, 51, a Pennsylvania man with a background in journalism, a criminal record as a result of an FBI investigation, and a long history of shady and illegal business practices.
After being contacted for comment, Moore did not respond and instead published a story on his website confirming BuzzFeed News' reporting.
Just as Paine has publicly stated, Moore won a Loeb Award in 1996 while working for the Record, a New Jersey newspaper. He also authored at least some coverage of TWA Flight 800: A copy of the front page of a New Jersey newspaper from Sept. 12, 1996, features a story with his byline that examined airport security in light of the crash. (To read how BuzzFeed News found Moore, see the section “Connecting Michael D. Moore to True Pundit and Thomas Paine” at the bottom of this story.)
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Paine has also talked publicly about leaving journalism in the late ’90s to work in “intelligence.” During that same time period, Moore created a company called Dig Dirt that he described as an investigations service. He left his newspaper job to work on it full time. The company’s site is now offline, but as recently as the fall of 2016 it contained language that directly echoes the messaging of True Pundit.
“We subordinate our desire for public recognition and publicity to the ever-growing need for confiendiality [sic] and LOYALTY. Old School,” said the Dig Dirt site.
True Pundit’s Patreon says it’s “creating old school journalism,” and the Paine Twitter account constantly refers to things as “old school.”
The Patreon’s description also says True Pundit offers “investigative intelligence unmatched elsewhere.”
Dig Dirt’s tagline? “Investigative intelligence.”
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Moore also has a connection to the FBI that could explain True Pundit's fixation with the agency: He was arrested by federal agents in November 2011 for running two websites that sold pirated hockey DVDs and downloads. Months earlier, FBI agents executed a search warrant on his home and carted off the equipment he used to pirate hockey games and other content.
Moore pleaded guilty to one count of copyright infringement in June 2013. He was sentenced to time served of one day in prison, a year of house arrest, and three years of supervised release. During his release he had to provide monthly income statements and facilitate the “investigation of his financial dealings,” according to a sentencing document filed on June 17, 2013.
And so, almost exactly three years later, with probation and its financial disclosure requirements behind him, Moore launched True Pundit.
He didn’t waste any time pumping up its credentials. “True Pundit has folks who worked for the FBI and other agencies on staff,” claimed one of the site’s earliest articles.
Moore's hastily published admission that he is in fact Thomas Paine made it clear that his case later fed his motivation to start a site that would hit back at the FBI.
"These bastards — and their bosses — were going to pay for violating my family. My kids. My home. One way or the other, I would have the last word," he wrote. "As I have throughout my life and career. And I was going to have to go back into journalism to even the score."
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