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It all began innocuously enough for James Alefantis, with a sudden uptick in followers for the Instagram feed for Comet Ping Pong, his Washington, D.C., pizzeria, early in November, before the election.

A month later, , a ratcheting spiral of conspiracist-driven lunacy 鈥撯�� a spiral聽fueled by claims the restaurant secretly hosted a cabal of child abusers led by Hillary Clinton 鈥撯�� culminated in a North Carolina man entering the business and firing off a round from his AR-15 assault聽rifle.

The gunman was arrested by Metro police in the street outside the pizzeria shortly afterward. He was identified as Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, 聽of Salisbury, N.C., and he told investigators he was there to 鈥渟elf-investigate鈥� the sordid claims about the restaurant.

The so-called 鈥淧izzagate鈥� conspiracy theories are predicated on a series of emails from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta that were released by Wikileaks late in October, in the election鈥檚 waning days, deliberately misinterpreted to suggest that Podesta and Clinton were part of a child-sex-abuse ring who selected their victims for sex acts in secret rooms at the pizzeria. One of , unsurprisingly, has been conspiracy-meister Alex Jones, who claimed the emails contained pedophile code words聽and that the affair is more deeply connected to a .

The theories originated on the anything-goes Internet forum 4chan, a favorite haunt of Alt-Right聽white nationalists, and soon articles began circulating on Facebook and Twitter with headlines like 鈥淧izzagate: How 4Chan Uncovered the Sick World of Washington鈥檚 Occult Elite.鈥�

Alefantis told the he first became aware of the conspiracists鈥� claims about his pizzeria when his Instagram account showed an unusual spike in followers in the days before the election. Within the week, he said, he began receiving hundreds of threatening and hateful messages on social media and through texts, including one reading: 鈥淚 will kill you personally.鈥� And Instagram message read: 鈥淭his place should be burned to the ground!鈥�

As Alefantis explained, he has never met either Clinton or Podesta (though Podesta鈥檚 brother is one of his customers), has no secret rooms at his pizzeria, and otherwise quietly employs 40 people in his family-oriented business.

鈥淔rom this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we鈥檝e come under constant assault,鈥� Alefantis told the Times. 鈥淚鈥檝e done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized.鈥�

One Pizzagate theorist came into the restaurant and shot a live video of its interior that he posted on Facebook. Police told the man to leave.

The claims kept ratcheting higher, especially as Jones began stoking them to a nationwide audience on his InfoWars program. His most recent iteration, published the day of Welch鈥檚 assault on the pizzeria, claimed (falsely, of course) that Clinton was secretly behind .

The threats had been stepping up as well; even were targeted for harassment on social media and in their shops.

Edgar Maddison Welch poses with his AR-15. (Facebook)

On his Facebook page, that he was a fan of聽Jones鈥� InfoWars program. He also posed for several photos with the AR-15 he carried into the restaurant; in his car, he had left behind a shotgun and a handgun as well.聽

Conspiracy theories are generally built on claims that have little or no basis in factual reality and so are often viewed as harmless fantasies that don鈥檛 often intrude on the real world. However, as any number of violent incidents in the past decade have demonstrated,聽including Sunday鈥檚 scare in Washington,聽their unhinging effect frequently has the power to inspire unstable personalities to embark on terroristic rampages.

What is especially remarkable about the so-called 鈥淧izzagate鈥� conspiracy theory聽has been the extent to which the bizarre and utterly groundless claims have been embraced by people close to the incoming Trump聽administration, often going聽beyond Jones, who 聽while appearing on his radio program. But the theories also have been promoted on Twitter by Trump transition team member Michael Flynn Jr., the son of Trump鈥檚 apparent selection for National Security Adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

The elder Flynn had, earlier in November,聽 that supported claims that Clinton was involved in child sex abuse, though not at Comet Ping Pong specifically: 鈥淯 decide - NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc...MUST READ!鈥� he wrote.

Evidently defending his father (for whom he also has served as chief of staff), Flynn Jr. the same day as Comet Ping Pong was attacked, linking to the Twitter account of Jack Posobiec, the self-described 鈥渟pecial projects director鈥� for 鈥淐itizens4Trump鈥�:

Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many "coincidences" tied to it.

Flynn Jr. close to a dozen tweets related to the conspiracy theory, adamant that the proof was substantive.

Certain Alt-Right figures also indicated they intended to double down on the claims as well. Milo Yinnapoulos told students at West Virginia University that he considered Alex Jones鈥� (as usual, ) that the Wikipedia emails revealed Podesta participating in a Satanic ritual called 鈥淪pirit Cooking鈥� entirely credible, because 鈥淚 know that lesbianism and witchcraft go together like Donald Trump and winning.鈥�

Yiannapoulos had announced early Monday that he intended聽to discuss 鈥淧izzagate鈥� during an evening appearance at Miami University of Ohio, but : 鈥淪adly, I got a number of phone calls with Washington area codes saying 鈥楴ot yet! Stop it!鈥� So we鈥檙e going to talk about a few other things instead.鈥�

Jones too appeared to double down , apparently in response to the Comet Ping Pong attack without directly addressing it. With a Christmas tree as his backdrop, Jones instead launched into a lascivious recounting of the alleged sex acts described in Podesta鈥檚 emails, concluding with a wild-eyed attack on CNN and other聽media outlets, suggesting that they were the real purveyors of fake news.

鈥淛ust, as for CNN and everybody else,鈥� he said, 鈥渓ook, I know the mainstream media is dead. You鈥檙e dead. Your response now is to be state-run media, Obama has said it, and then try to shut us down. Good luck!鈥�

James Alefantis remained shaken after the Sunday incident, but refused to be cowed.

鈥淲hat happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences,鈥� he said . 鈥淚 hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away.鈥�