Tens of thousands of people remain without power in Moore County after authorities said two power substations were shot at in a “targeted” attack on Saturday.

At a press conference on Sunday, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields didn’t identify any suspects or provide a motive, but said state investigators and the FBI are assisting.

He also didn’t rule out a theory circulating on social media that the outages were intended to shut down a drag show.

Fields was asked by a reporter about Rainey after she made several cryptic posts on Facebook, saying she knew what had caused the outages. The photo circulating of her with the sheriff also led others to ask questions on social media.

Moore County Chief Deputy Richard Maness told Newsweek on Tuesday that Fields has no personal relationship with Rainey.

“Sheriff Fields is an elected official,” Maness said. “He attends many public and private events and has his picture taken with lots of people upon their request. There is neither now, nor ever been, a personal relationship with this person.”

Rainey, a former U.S. Army psychological operations officer and conservative activist who has been vocally protesting drag shows, wrote on Facebook shortly after the electricity failed: “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.”

She then posted a photograph of the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines, where a drag show was scheduled for Saturday, and said: “God will not be mocked.”

At Sunday’s news conference, Fields said: “We had to go and interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her and so, but it turned out to be nothing.”

Asked how deputies had determined Rainey’s posts were false, Fields said it was due to “good law enforcement,” without elaborating. The Moore County Sheriff’s Office and Rainey have been contacted for comment.

Rainey posted on Facebook that her name “has been officially cleared by law enforcement.”

In another post, she said deputies had “wasted their time” by visiting her. “I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters,” she wrote. “God is chastising Moore County. I thanked them for coming and wished them a good night. Thankful for the LEOs service, as always.”

Maness told Newsweek that the investigation “is ongoing and no person has been completely cleared nor implicated.”

He said: “Our investigators are contacting multiple persons based on tips and evidence as they present themselves. Ms. Rainey was interviewed based on her careless choice of words posted on social media.”

However, the photo of Fields with Rainey at a 2020 event circulated on social media, prompting some to suggest the sheriff was quick to clear Rainey because of a personal relationship and call for the FBI to investigate.

The photo was taken during a Back the Red, White and Blue event in October 2020 that was organized by Moore County Citizens for Freedom, a group “dedicated to the promotion of conservative values” that Rainey founded in May 2020, according to the LinkedIn page.

“The sheriff didn’t mention in his news conference that he knew her - had he prayed with her before?” one person wrote on Twitter.

Another wrote: “I mean maybe they are false & she doesn’t have anything to do with it but they ruled her out in one night & the answer he gives in response to how they did so is ‘good law enforcement snicker?”’

However, reporter Jo Yurcaba noted that they had “heard ‘had a word of prayer’ while growing up, it meant someone was in trouble. Good to keep in mind that sayings in the south can mean something different.”

Rainey left the Army while under investigation for leading a group to a rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, that culminated in supporters of former President Donald Trump storming the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot.

She told the Associated Press that she led 100 members of Moore County Citizens for Freedom to the rally to “stand against election fraud” and support Trump.

She said she didn’t know of anyone who entered the Capitol and that she was “doing everything right and within my rights.”

In 2020, she was charged with injury to personal property after she posted a video online that showed her pulling down caution tape at a playground that was closed under North Carolina’s COVID restrictions.

Police in Southern Pines told WRAL-TV that they let her off with warnings twice after she tore down the tape closing off the playground. The Army gave Rainey “appropriate administrative action” for that incident, and she later submitted her resignation.

Update 12/6/22, 9:22 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comments from Richard Maness.