Did Cher, Patrick Mahomes, Bono and other celebrities pull business deals with Amazon over founder Jeff Bezos' "quiet alignment with Trump," sending messages to Bezos that all began "Wake up, Jeff"? No, that's not true: The posts tell nearly identical stories featuring those and dozens of other famous names. The clickbait fictions were published by a network of foreign websites…

Are 315,000 unsigned early votes in Fulton County, Georgia proof of electoral fraud? No, that's not true. The Georgia secretary of state told Lead Stories that the missing signatures were the result of a clerical error and did not invalidate legally cast votes. An election expert told Lead Stories that the minor administrative error did not affect the final results…

Was Jon-Bernard Kairouz confronted about his appearance in pictures from newly released Epstein files while being interviewed on Fox News? No, that's not true: The viral video did not show a real Fox News segment. In what appears to be a digitally produced clip, Kairouz, who is a comedian, is seen making a satirical sketch. Kairouz is not mentioned in…

Did the FBI discover a secret tunnel under Rob Reiner's Brentwood mansion? No, that's not true: There is no credible information to support this claim. The day after Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered, clickbait videos began to surface on YouTube claiming the FBI found a tunnel under their home. Some of these videos had titles identical to…

Is a photo showing Melania Trump kissing Jeffrey Epstein on the lips real? No, that's not true: The Hive Moderation AI detection tool was conclusive that the image was created by an artificial intelligence tool, rating it at 98.8 percent certainty. Online searches found no examples of the image earlier than one shared in an X post on December 17,…

Did Cher tell Karoline Leavitt to "sit down, baby girl" after reading out her bio on MSNBC? No, that's not true: The viral story about the singer reacting to a supposed rant from Leavitt about "out-of-touch celebrities who think they can lecture America" originated on a network of websites and Facebook pages run from Vietnam. It contained verifiably false details.…

Was a pdf that included images of Donald Trump with women deleted from the Epstein Library hours after the Department of Justice released the files as required by a new federal law? Yes, that's true: EFTA00000468.pdf was included in the files downloaded from the site soon after the link was made public, but it was no longer accessible on Saturday,…

Did Karoline Leavitt or someone else tweet "You Need To Shut Up" at various celebrities and did they all react during a "live show" with millions of viewers? No, that's not true: Dozens of variations of the same story but mentioning different celebrities were posted by a network of Facebook pages and websites operated from Vietnam. Leavitt's personal and official…

Does the new Trump-Kennedy sign at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts have gold appliques like President Donald Trump added to the walls of the Oval Office? No, that's not true: Though Trump's name was added, there were no news reports that gold ornaments were added to the facade of the Kennedy Center. Photos taken by Lead Stories on…

Did the White House confirm "Trump's impromptu visit to Walter Reed hospital" to receive "Dementia test of the year" award? No, that's not true: The story originated from a website that says it publishes satire content. The White House website said nothing about it. The claim first appeared in an article (archived here) published on December 19, 2025, by the…