Did the military raid Hunter Biden's home in California on August 30, 2021? No, that's not true: A duty officer at the Pentagon verified with Lead Stories that it's false. Also, this could not have been possible as the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the U.S. military from enforcing domestic laws, and Lead Stories has previously debunked multiple contentions published by…

Did the United States leave behind military working dogs in cages in Afghanistan? No, that's not true: "No military working dogs were left behind," the Pentagon told Lead Stories. The photograph of dogs in cages at the Hamid Karzai International Airport were dogs that were under the care of an animal rescue organization, not the U.S. military. The claim appeared…

Did the military arrest Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, on August 30, 2021? No, that's not true: It is not even possible, as the Posse Comitatus Act makes it a federal crime to use the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement. Also, the claim is made on a website known for publishing false assertions and that…

Did Kamala Harris once pose for red carpet photos with Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: On September 17, 2015, Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff were photographed together at a black-tie dinner for the opening of the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. The original photo from the inaugural event at the museum is in the Getty Image library…

Has the government sent letters to farmers telling them that they must destroy their crops and be paid one-and-a-half times the value of the crop or lose all government farm subsidies? No, that's not true: A collection of hoax TikTok videos has been circulating with baseless claims about a global or U.S. government plot to destroy crops and depopulate the…

Did President Joe Biden not go to Dover Air Force Base (AFB) on August 29, 2021, to attend the dignified transfer of the remains of service members killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport in Afghanistan? No, that's not true: A spokesperson from Mortuary Affairs at Dover AFB told Lead Stories that "President Biden was here" for the transfer…

Was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's younger brother arrested on charges of sexual conduct with a minor? No, that's not true: The Montreal Police Department told Lead Stories they had "no file" on Alexandre Trudeau. The website that posted the story has a history of publishing false stories. The claim appeared as an article by The Conservative Beaver on August…

Does a Facebook video show President Joe Biden crying and leaving a press briefing, only to come back and ask former President Donald Trump to return? No, that's not true: the video is clickbait and shows footage of a Pentagon press briefing. The video does not feature Biden at all. The claim appeared in the title of a Facebook video…

Did a set of computer backups released at Mike Lindell's Cyber Symposium prove Dominion Voting Systems erased "election logs" from Mesa County, Colorado, voting machines after the 2020 election? No, that's not true: Independent cybersecurity experts at the event said the two backup copies (called "images") turned out to be from two different servers and cannot logically be used to…

Was the fifth Mike Lindell election fraud video correct in claiming a major American voting machine company is controlled by Chinese Communist Party investors and that voting machines used in the 2020 election were hacked via the internet? No, the claims were made without accompanying evidence. Federal banking and finance forms fall well short of supporting the claim that Dominion…

Does a blurry video posted to Mike Lindell's Frankspeech.com show internally consistent evidence of election fraud? No, that's not true: the (clearer) screenshot that serves as the thumbnail image for the video shows identical data for Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That would suggest the video documents manufactured evidence. The video was also used as the centerpiece of Mike Lindell's Cyber Symposium…

Did Barack Obama pay for a new hospital in Martha's Vineyard named Kunduz following his lavish birthday party? No, that's not true: the post is a satirical dig at the former president, who threw an elaborate 60th birthday party for himself at his Massachusetts compound. "Kunduz hospital" refers to a 2015 U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan while he was commander in…

Does this DIY statistical analysis explain away recent election results and prove Donald Trump won the 2020 election? No, that's not true: In at least one state addressed by the model, experts trained in the specifics of election data analysis say the Seth Keshel analysis is flawed in the same way prior attempts by non-experts have failed to prove Trump…

Did Trump win and do the audits prove that he is the president? No, that's not true: Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Trump received 74 million votes to Biden's 81 million votes, and Biden received 306 electoral college votes while Trump only received 232 electoral college votes. The claim appeared as a post (archived…

Did former President Donald Trump get subpoenas for routers associated with Arizona's voting-counting machines and does that pave the way for Trump to be reinstated as president? No, that's not true: While Arizona's senate is attempting to obtain Maricopa County's routers, Trump is not directly involved in that. If the routers are handed over, and contain evidence of fraud, both…

Does an old photo show a young Nancy Pelosi walking with her dad, who appears to be Adolph Hitler? No, that's not true: The black-and-white image shows Helga Goebbels, the daughter of the chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, walking with the German dictator in 1936. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on July 24, 2021.…

Is a letter rejecting AARP membership and criticizing President Joe Biden's "Socialist politics" from 2021? No, that's not true: The letter was written in 2009 during the administration of former President Barack Obama. A copy of the letter circulating online in 2021 included language that didn't appear in the original letter, including comments about the "Biden Regime" and "illegal perpetrators,"…

Were Democrats the original "anti-vaxxers" less than a year ago? No, that's not true: Old tape of three Democratic leaders appearing to say they didn't support the COVID-19 vaccine is clipped. Partial footage doesn't tell the whole story. The leaders' full comments made clear they supported the vaccine and would recommend others get it, assuming scientists and public health professionals…

Was a Florida court told that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota was recruited by Qatar, received money from that country, and passed "sensitive intel" to Iran through intermediates? Yes, but the statements were made in a deposition during a lawsuit that had nothing to do with Omar and no evidence was presented to prove it was truthful testimony. The lawsuit was…

Do ballots cast by people not on the voter rolls in Maricopa County, Arizona, constitute evidence of fraud in the 2020 election? No, that's not true: People can cast provisional ballots, which are only counted if it's determined that the voters are eligible to vote, according to county officials. Such people would then be added to the rolls at a…