Former Fox Booker and Ingraham Producer Busted Impersonating Diplomat, Congressman, and Rolling Stone Writer

If you thought the title of this story was odd, just get ready for the details. Fishbowl DC  is about to take you on a wacky ride.

Some background first. Nelson Lewis is a young Washington, D.C. conservative. Like many young people in D.C., he is apparently trying to stand out, be something more than just another face with an overblown title and a dark cubicle. So what did he decide to do? He decided to create a fake diplomatic identity, and in the process impersonate a congressman and a Rolling Stone writer. If you don't want to read more, I can't help you.

Ready? Here we go.

On Thursday, Fishbowl DC (FBDC) got a hold of an interesting story: after supposedly being attacked on the D.C. streets, a young man, Nelson Lewis, with an official congressional pin claimed to be Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA). "Claimed" is the key word -- he wasn't Kingston anymore than I am Matthew McConaughey. In the process it was revealed that Lewis is a former Fox booker and producer for Laura Ingraham*. FBDC reports:

Nelson Lewis, a former Fox News booker who took the role of senior producer for the Laura Ingraham Show for 15 weeks this year, was arraigned in District Court yesterday and is being charged with illegal possession of a congressional pin.

According to the Examiner‘s Scott McCabe, Lewis was arrested around 1 am at the 100 block of Independence Avenue SE on November 17th after Capitol Police responded to a call that a member of Congress had been assaulted.  When they arrived, they found the 26-year-old Lewis sporting the pin and claiming to be 55-year-old Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.).  Lewis later changed his story and said the pin belonged to a deceased uncle.

According to Lewis’s Facebook page, he is a currently a classic rock features writer and columnist for Rolling Stone.  FishbowlDC contacted the magazine’s HR department who could not verify his employment and a web search produced no Lewis-penned articles for the magazine.  Another source at the mag said, “never heard of him.”

Rolling Stone reporter, huh? Maybe out doing a story and got roughed up. Plausible, I guess. Not so much:

[W]e’ve since discovered that no one at Rolling Stone has ever heard of Lewis and rather than working with Ingraham for the ten months he claims, he was actually terminated after only 15 weeks.  Weirder.

But this last little nugget takes the cake.  A reader directed us to this gem of a video where Kate Michael‘s “District Dish” interviews His Excellency Nelson Lewis, Minister Plenipotentiary for Artistic Endeavors at the Embassy of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Oh, I get it. He's a diplomat that might have had a little too much to drink, got caught getting roughed up, and rattled off the first thing that came to his mind. Got it -- makes sense. ... Nope, wrong again. According to an interview with Rep. Kingston, Lewis is an old family friend and he was an intern with Kingston's office a few years ago. While originally brushing off the story as a young man's hijinx, Kingston reportedly became concerned when he learned of the full details:

Police told Kingston that nothing would become of it, that they were going to slap Lewis on the wrist sort of thing. But according to McCabe’s story, the young man was arrested and faces charges that could land him six months in jail. This was news to Kingston.

The congressman largely gives Lewis the benefit of the doubt and plans to speak with him. “It breaks my heart and I will talk to him as Dutch uncle first chance I get,” he said, clear worry and concern in his voice.

Then there's the business card. FBDC provides the following picture of "His Excellency's" official-looking card that even apparently fooled one New York social writer:

The social writer from above is Carol Joynt, who took pictures of "His Excellency" on election night in November. He's reportedly known for crashing parties:

As more details about the weirdest cat in town unravel, we’re introduced to “Jesse James.”  Despite his flamboyant personality, Nelson Lewis was seen hanging out with a woman he identified to Carol Joynt at a midterm election night party “as his girlfriend, Jessica James “Jesse James” Golden.

Another media type recalled Lewis walking around the recent TIME magazine party with a gentleman he claimed was his chef.

So where does that leave us? With a step-by-step guide of how to accomplish what Lewis did, of course. FBDC shows exactly how Lewis morphed into a diplomat, "award-winning" producer, and Rolling Stone writer. See that here.

In the meantime, be blown away even more by an invitation from last month to an autism fundraiser featuring Lewis and all three of his fake personas:

Here's a picture of Lewis posing with Golden, reportedly taken at that autism event. Interestingly, it is posted on the blog kstreetkate.net, which also produced the video above featuring Lewis as His Excellency:

Notice the name tag, which (although fuzzy) when blown up seems to confirm he did in fact use his phony diplomatic title:

Wow.

*This information was added to clarify Lewis's position. The headline was also updated.