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…

Did Judicial Watch publish a story titled "Quantum Blockchain System Recount of Votes" that claimed with no evidence elite National Guard units were recounting votes in several states? No, that's not true: there is no trace of the article on the website of Judicial Watch and according to searches of the web and social media there never was one. The…

Has social media site Parler been sold? No, that's not true: Co-owner Dan Bongino said on his verified Twitter account that rumors of the sale are false, and another co-owner is reported to have said the same in a Parler post. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Twitter on November 8, 2020. It opened:"Well look at…

Did Fox news cancel Judge Jeanine's show? No, that's not true. Fox News denied the claim, saying in an email to Lead Stories that her absence was due to "election coverage," and that she would be back on the air the following weekend. The claim appeared as an article published by Objectivist.co on November 8, 2020 titled "Heads Roll at…

Did the Freedom Bell in Berlin's Rathaus Schoneberg ring on November 7, 2020, to celebrate Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election? No, that's not true: The bell in the former city hall of West Berlin rings every day at noon and not, as claimed in several social media posts, only on German holidays. It rang at its regularly…

Did White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany start deleting tweets from the days leading up to and following the November 3, 2020, presidential election? No, that's not true: A review of the @PressSec Twitter account shows no evidence of tweets being deleted in recent days. The claim can be traced to a Facebook post (archived here) published November 6, 2020,…

Is a photograph that shows a mammoth wall in front of the White House real? No, that's not true: It's been Photoshopped. The doctored image is based on a decade-old photograph. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on November 3, 2020. It included the image of a giant gray wall and opened: Doesn't get any crazier than…

If Joe Biden wins the election are there people planning on mass murdering POC and LGBTQ+ people? No, that's not true. A claim has gone viral that if the Democratic nominee beats Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, there are people plotting to kill people of color and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, and warns that people should stay…

Is this Trump supporter blocking a polling site at City Hall in Clifton, New Jersey, and would doing so be a "Class A Felony"? No, neither claim is true: The voter holding the Trump flag up was not blocking any polling site. And if he were, it would not be a "Class A Felony" because in the state of New…

Did election officials warn voters to "stay home and stay safe"? No, state officials in Nebraska and other states say robocalls with that message are fraudulent attempt to suppress voting. The deception was spotlighted in a tweet (archived here) published by the Nebraska secretary of state on November 3, 2020, which opened: The Secretary of State Office has received reports…