Does President Joe Biden have the power to pardon Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson? No, that's not true: As of this writing, Mangione was jailed on state charges in Pennsylvania and was charged with murder by New York. The Constitution allows presidents to grant pardons only for federal crimes. The claim originated in…
Did Fox host and former prosecutor Jeanine Pirro criticize President-elect Donald Trump over pardons? No, that's not true: An authentic video of Pirro was included in a social media post with photographs of Trump. In reality, Pirro was criticizing President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden. The claim appeared in a post and video on Threads on December…
Did Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush pardon family members? No, that's not true: Neither former president pardoned a member of his family. While Carter's brother Billy and Bush's son Neil were involved in controversies during their relatives' presidencies, neither needed a pardon because they weren't charged with crimes. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Threads…
Did President Joe Biden turn and smile when a reporter asked if his son, Hunter Biden, should receive a presidential pardon? No, that's not true: The audio track of this video was altered. Audio from a press briefing held on September 15, 2023, was added to video footage filmed on May 31, 2024, to suggest that Biden had smiled after…
Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say Italy opposes President Joe Biden's policy change that permits Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available recording or transcript of Meloni expressing Italian opposition to the change. During the Group of 20 summit on November 18 and 19, 2024, shortly…
Is there no way to avoid that January 19, 2025, is TikTok's last day of operation in the United States, as implied in a "BREAKING" post on Threads? No, that's not true: On the day the post appeared, there was no breaking news about enforcement of a federal law forcing the sale of TikTok to non-Chinese ownership. The bill signed…
Did President-elect Donald Trump announce $6,400 "relief checks" that "any American can qualify for"? No, that's not true: A video on Facebook showing Trump announcing the checks is a deepfake. A link in the post did not direct users to an official government website but rather to a health insurance webpage. As of this publication, the government had not announced…
Did President Joe Biden announce "emergency" $6,400 stimulus checks in November 2024? No, that's not true: An online search found no such announcement from Biden, the U.S. Department of the Treasury or the Internal Revenue Service. Those two government agencies administered three earlier stimulus programs. The claim appeared in a video post on Facebook (archived here) on November, 20, 2024,…
Did Billie Eilish turn down an Oscar nomination and announce she plans to leave the U.S. after Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election? No, that's not true: The rumor originated in an obscure blog that didn't cite a single source and didn't disclose its ownership. No credible journalistic organization reported such an event. The claim appeared in a…
Does a photo show President Joe Biden sporting a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap during his meeting with incoming President Donald Trump at the White House? No, that's not true: Media coverage of the meeting shows that the two men were wearing different clothing than what's seen in the photo. Online image-analysis tools found substantial evidence that the…
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