GOP Campaign Manager Resigns After Fake Hurricane Sandy Tweets

Shashank Tripathi, the Twitter troll who went by the handle @ComfortablySmug and deliberately spread false information when Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast on Monday, has apologized after his real identity was outed by BuzzFeed.

I wish to offer the people of New York a sincere, humble and unconditional apology. twitter.com/ComfortablySmu…

— ComfortablySmug (@ComfortablySmug) October 31, 2012

Tripathi also resigned his post as campaign manager for Christopher Wight, the Republican congressional candidate for New York’s 12th District. The communication director for Wight’s campaign issued the following statement Wednesday:

“Today, Christopher Wight, candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional district, accepted the resignation of Shashank Tripathi. Previously, Mr. Tripathi served on various New York congressional and local campaigns. This is a pivotal moment for voters of New York’s 12th congressional district. The campaign looks forward to carrying on Christopher Wight’s message of job creation in the days ahead.”

In the past, the 29-year-old Tripathi worked as a hedge fund analyst and is also a GOP political consultant.

BuzzFeed:

FEC documents show Wight has paid Tripathi thousands of dollars this election cycle as a “consultant.” @comfortablysmug has been a vocal supporter of Mitt Romney and posted tweets suggesting he attended this year’s Republican convention. He’s listed here by a local Republican group coordinating volunteers for a Romney phone bank.

…For years, he’s been a prolific commenter at NYmag.com and a popular conservative presence on Twitter. In 2008, he penned an entry for the site’s popular sex diary feature that “detailed a week of obsession, rough sex, and Ambien.”

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— Posted by Tracy Bloom.