Newspapers near where James A. Alefantis grew up and went to college show that a James A. Alefantis was arrested on multiple occasions. This is significant because it shows that James A. Alefantis, who owns Comet Ping Pong, was arrested for criminal activity prior to owning Comet Ping Pong. This is relevant to Pizzagate because Alefantis claims that no illegal activity is occurring at Comet Ping Pong, yet he has a prior criminal record. Please note that I could not find a conviction record for the drug dealing arrest so I don’t know if he was convicted. In searching for duplicates of this info, I only found a Reddit post referencing arrests that has been scrubbed—so I decided it was important to post on VOAT. It would be interesting to see if Alefantis has any other arrests.

Here is the list of arrests with the news article references below:

11/25/1996: Drug Charges: charged with distributing marijuana and possessing marijuana

03/18/1996: Served a bench warrant for failing to pay fines taken before the magistrate and released on bond.

04/28/1994: Fake ID and drunk in public

Newspaper Articles:

This first article isn’t available online. You would need to look it up at a library if you wanted to view the original source.

Daily News-Record Harrisonburg, VA November 25, 1996 Man Gets Probation For Assault …

Drug Charges Three men -- James A. Alefantis, 22, Edward Comstock, 21 and Cyrus T. Morrell, 21 -- have each been charged by the Harrisonburg Police Department with distributing marijuana and possessing marijuana, according to department files.

…

James Madison University Breeze Monday, March 18, 1996

Bench Warrant Served Student James A. Alefantis, 21 of McLean, was served a bench warrant at the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity house for failing to pay fines at 1 a.m. March 14. Alefantis reportedly was taken before the magistrate and released on bond.

http://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=i19901999

James Madison University Breeze Thursday, April 28, 1994

Student James A. Alefantis, 19 of McLean, charged with possession of a fake ID and drunk in public on Oct. 24, 1993, was found guilty of both offenses on April 14. For the first offense, he was fined $50 and charged $26 in court costs. For the DIP he was fined $15 and charged $26 in court costs. His case is being appealed.

http://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1494&context=i19901999