What is Pizzagate?

'Pizzagate' Shooter to Serve Four Years in Jail
https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/06/dcs-pizzagate-shooter-sentenced-to-4-years-in-jail/531381/

"Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory that swept the internet in 2016"
https://arcdigital.media/the-insane-qanon-conspiracy-theory-is-a-big-budget-sequel-to-pizzagate-145abb34bdc2

"Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory borne out of emails obtained by Wikileaks from Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta."
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a54126/pizzagate-will-never-die/

"Pizzagate appears to have begun on the troll haven and message board 4chan."
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news

"Pizzagate is the (admittedly rather silly and unoriginal) name of an actual conspiracy theory claiming Hillary Clinton is secretly involved in a pedophile ring"
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pizzagate

"Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec—who helped orchestrate the Pizzagate"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-cernovich-and-jack-posobiec-the-far-rights-twin-trolls-taste-their-own-bitter-medicine

"Michael Flynn, 33, left the US president-elect's transition team on Tuesday following his tweets about the so-called Pizzagate fake news story."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38231532

"Corsi hopped aboard Pizzagate, the debunked rumor that Clinton campaign manager John Podesta ran a child-sex ring underneath a D.C. pizza restaurant"
https://theoutline.com/post/3831/jerome-corsi-killing-the-deep-state-infowars?zd=2&zi=jdwoay2c

"Longtime conspiracy theorist and propagator Alex Jones has apologized to the Washington, D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong and its owner James Alefantis for his show's role in promoting the false "pizzagate" conspiracy theory involving a child sex-abuse ring."
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/26/521545788/conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-apologizes-for-promoting-pizzagate

"Pizzagate technically started in March, when WikiLeaks released a batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, and an anonymous 4Chan user claimed a photo Podesta received of two girls sharing pizza proved that he was involved in human trafficking."
https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/internet/2016/12/pizzagate-how-4chan-conspiracy-went-mainstream