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Ryan Zinke is running for a House seat in Montana.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke put a right-wing commentator who has promoted numerous conspiracy theories on the board of his super PAC in 2012. The move was part of Zinke’s longtime association with retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, a promoter of the birther conspiracy theory, which falsely alleges former President Barack Obama is not a natural born US citizen. In 2010, Vallely said that he firmly believed Obama “is a Muslim in nature” and said there was “no proof that I’ve seen that he was born in Honolulu.”

CNN’s KFile previously reported on Vallely’s appearance on Zinke’s radio show in April 2013, when he brought up a false conspiracy theory that a Saudi national was involved in the Boston Marathon bombing. In that appearance, Zinke called Vallely a “great patriot.”

A CNN KFile review of Zinke’s interaction with Vallely reveals their relationship went far beyond the radio show appearance.

When Zinke launched his veterans-oriented, anti-Obama super PAC Special Operations for America in July 2012, Vallely was quoted in the press release and was listed as one of six members of the board.

Zinke’s super PAC also linked to an article by Vallely in which he wrote that a “civil uprising” was not “out of the question” to stop Obama who was facilitating the rise of “radical Islam, the caliphate, and Jihad – the slow infiltration and dismantling of our American institutions” either “willfully, or due to sheer naiveté.” On the group’s website, the article is described as “outstanding.” https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/24/politics/kfile-zinke-birther-conspiracy-board-of-pac/index.html

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