Did former Secretary of State and retired Army General Colin Powell urge "the U.S. military to recall [retired Army Lieutenant General] Michael Flynn and put him on military trial for sedition?" No, that's not true: There is no record of Gen. Powell attacking Lt. Genn. Flynn in such a public statement, but Powell's former chief of staff retired U.S. Army…

Does a photo show suspected Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner wearing a Trump 2020 hat? No, that's not true: The photo circulated on social media in the days after the Christmas morning bombing in Nashville, Tennessee is not of Warner, the 63-year-old Tennessee man identified by the FBI as the bomber. The bearded man in the photo is clearly not…

Does the stimulus bill passed December 21, 2020 by Congress strip President Donald J. Trump of his Insurrection Act authority? No, that's not true: The claim is based on a House of Representatives amendment from July 2020 to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, which did not make it into the final version of that legislation.…

Was Derek Chauvin, the police officer accused of murdering George Floyd himself killed in prison and did he leave half of his estate to the Trump campaign? No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to mislead Trump supporters and Republicans into sharing made up stories that are clearly marked as satire when…

Does a photo show Chief Justice John Roberts swimming with Bill Clinton on Jeffrey Epstein's private island? No, that's not true: The image used to support the claim that Roberts visited Epstein's private island was taken at a resort in the Dominican Republic in 2017. The men seen socializing with former President Bill Clinton do not include Roberts. The claim…

Did Rudy Giuliani say "it's highly likely that all these people that have contracted the China Virus got it from having sex with barnyard animals"? No, there's no evidence he ever said that. Searches on Google and Twitter turned up no instance of such a quote attributed to Giuliani, who has tested positive for COVID-19. The claim appeared in a…

Was a fatal car crash a message for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp "to get back in line"? No, there's no evidence that's true: Although the cause of the crash, which killed an aide to Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, remains under investigation, a police spokeswoman told Lead Stories the accident involved a collision. "We've gotten the calls about possible bombings and…

Is this a photo of Sen. Kelly Loeffler's Atlanta house? No, that's not true: This is a photo of a house owned by comedian and broadcaster Steve Harvey. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) where it was published by @ginandtacos on December 6, 2020. The caption read: Just remember, this is Kelly Loeffler's house. This is what…

Did President Ronald Reagan say, "Any attempt to disarm the people must be stopped, by force if necessary"? No, that's not true: It was the 19th Century revolutionaries Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, co-authors of the Communist Manifesto, who originated this quote in a joint address to the Central Committee to the Communist League in London in March, 1850. These…

Did President Trump seemingly confuse recently deceased soccer superstar Diego Maradona with singer Madonna? No, that's not true: the tweet in which the President seemingly made comments praising Maradona's music from the 1980's was a crude fake. It never appeared on his Twitter feed. An example of the fake tweet can be seen in this Facebook post (archived here). The…

Was the Parler social network hacked? No, there is no evidence for that. The original news came from a now deleted tweet by a conceptual artist known for high-tech art projects. A configuration file that was supposedly part of the hack has been online for several months. No hacked data has appeared online so far and the CEO of Parler…

Did the governor and secretary of state in Georgia take money from China to steal the election from Donald Trump? No, there's zero proof that's true. Lead Stories reached out to the person making the accusation, radio host Hal Turner, to ask for evidence. He did not respond. Turner, a convicted felon, has a history of making false and unsubstantiated…

Did chapter 45 of Donald Trump's book "Art of the Deal" state "Never admit defeat. You win. If you don't win claim they cheated"? No, that's not true: The book only has 14 chapters and this quote is not included in the book. The number 45 may be significant in that Trump is the 45th president. The claim appeared in…

Have President Trump, the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department not commented on the deaths of U.S. service members in a helicopter crash in Egypt on November 12, 2020? No, that's not true: Although Trump and the White House have not commented, the Pentagon and the State Department issued statements acknowledging the incident and offering condolences. The claim…

Did the "DC Park Service" put the number of people attending the "Million MAGA March" in Washington, D.C., at 11,600? No, that's not true. No agency released that number as an official crowd estimate. The National Park Service, not the "DC Park Service," manages federal areas including Washington's Freedom Plaza where the November 14, 2020, march was centered. The National…

Did movers carry Trump belongings from the White House while he complained about the election? No, that's not true: This video has been altered to add the moving van and movers in the background. The video of President Trump speaking is authentic, but it does not show him speaking about the election results, rather this video dates back to September…

Did Facebook send out a warning that someone's Facebook page was about to be unpublished because it violates their terms? No, that's not true: This is a phishing scam. The notice was sent by an imposter posing as Facebook. The goal of this scam is to trick someone into sharing their login information. Once the baddie has the login information,…

Did Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia post on Parler that Stacey Abrams must not be allowed to again register hundreds of thousands of Black voters? No, that's not true: A screenshot showing the purported post was not from Loeffler's official or personal Parler account. It was an account created in the previous week, with no followers, and set on private.…

Did Fox News confirm that philanthropist George Soros owns the social media platform Parler? No, that's not true: This is a doctored chyron that Fox News never aired. The claim appeared in a Tweet (archived here) published on November 11, 2020 with the caption, "People are leaving Facebook in droves and heading to @parler_app. Now fox News drops this bs."…

Did the official White House website post that it's the "final holiday season for the Trump White House," implying that Donald Trump has accepted defeat in the presidential election? No, that's not true: This is not an authentic government site, which the site says at the bottom of its pages. The site's URL reads, "whitehouse.gov1.info" whereas the actual White House…