Did President Trump invoke or sign the Insurrection Act following the events of January 6, 2021 (or before that)? No, that's not true: President Trump has never made use of the Insurrection Act up to the time of writing of this article on January 11, 2021. In the wake of the events at the U.S. Capitol online, rumors started spreading…

Was Pope Francis arrested in Vatican City after a supposed blackout and was he indicted for child trafficking and fraud? No, that's not true: there is no evidence for any of this and the claim went viral through a website run by an anonymous person using a fake identity that has published several other arrest hoaxes in the past. The…

Does a letter published by the chairman of a Nevada county Republican Central Committee, disputing the outcome of the presidential election, include evidence for the conspiracy theories proposed? No, that's not true: the widely viral article cites several unproven and disproven conspiracy theories, including "vote dumps", servers in Germany switching votes, President Trump escaping Washington on a "Doomsday" plane and…

Is the White House pardons office soliciting Trump supporters involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection to apply for presidential pardons? No, that's not true: Parler posts posing as being from White House pardons attorneys were fake, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The pardons office "does not have a social media presence and is not involved in…

Did Alabama man Kevin Greeson die after accidentally tasing himself inside the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, insurrection? No, this claim is based on a fake statement purported to be from Greeson's family. The real family statement said he suffered a heart attack, and did not say it was triggered when he accidentally tasered "himself in the balls."…

Did Olive Garden announce it was revoking the "Never Ending Pasta Pass" for any customers identified as a participant in the invasion of the U.S. Capitol, along with the revocation of Sean Hannity's "Lifetime Pasta Pass"? No, that's not true: The person who created the meme has acknowledged he was making a "social media statement" as a joke. He has…

Was radio host Rush Limbaugh suspended from Twitter in the wake of President Trump's suspension from the plaform? No, that's not true: in an email to Lead Stories, Twitter has confirmed it was the user behind the @RealRLimbaugh account who deleted it. At the time of writing there is no statement about the deletion on Limbaugh's site but it is…

Did President Trump board an E-4b Command Post to fly to the National Military Command Center in Abilene, Texas on the evening of January 6, 2021? No, that's not true: President Trump was in Washington, D.C. on January 6 and 7. He delivered a mid-day address to supporters in Washington on January 6, and he delivered a video message from…

Did the FBI confirm it was Antifa activists, not Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol? No, that's not true: A claim has gone viral that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed antifascist activists, known as Antifa, were the ones who invaded the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. The FBI has made no such statement about…

Is it true that all insurrectionists were let go after storming the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021? No, that's not true: A number were arrested on the day of the riots and charged in connection with the violence and destruction. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) where it was published by Shaun King on January…

Did "The Simpsons" predict the protester wearing viking horns who stormed the United States Capitol building? No, that's not true: A meme claims a Simpsons TV episode once showed the "Groundskeeper Willie" character dressed like the man in viking horns who was photographed inside the Capitol with insurrectionists on the afternoon of January 6, 2021. The image of the Simpsons…

Did President Donald Trump file state and federal lawsuits against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for allegedly "leaking" the tape of a "confidential litigation call" regarding the president's request to overturn election results? No, that's not true: Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, whom the Gateway Pundit article used as the source about lawsuits, told Lead Stories he was…

Did police withhold tear gas when insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021? No, that's not true: There has been criticism of the police response to the rioters and the chief of Capitol police resigned in the aftermath of the chaos, but tear gas was used on the mob of Trump supporters who interrupted Congress' ceremonial counting…

Did one of the people who stormed into the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, have a communist hammer and sickle tattoo on his hand? No, that's not true: The man pictured inside the Capitol building has been identified by Lead Stories as Will Watson, and additional photos of his hands show that his tattoo is from the video…

Did a photo show Michiel Vos, son-in-law of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, meeting the shirtless, horned QAnon supporter who was widely mistaken for an Antifa activist during the January 6 events and is that a sign the two were in cahoots somehow? No, that's not true: the photo showing Vos next to Jake Angeli (aka "QAnon Shaman") was…

Does security camera video from Fulton County, Georgia, show an election worker on November 3, 2020, improperly scanning the same ballots multiple times? And were media representatives and other observers told to go home before this scanning took place following a water main break? No, those claims are not true: The director of registration and elections in Fulton County told…

Did "Stefan Serafini," a purported foreign service officer in Rome, work with Barack Obama, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and others to rig the 2020 election? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to support the international conspiracy theory that, among other claims, recycles debunked claims that software was used to flip votes in favor of Joe Biden. Almost…

Were the protesters who committed violence in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, really antifa activists dressing up as Trump supporters? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available evidence that the people who stormed the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. were antifa activists. National media outlets identified protesters as QAnon and Trump supporters after claims surfaced…

Did an antifa member post a video confessing that he was paid to protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021? No, that's not true: The man in the video making the claim posted another video admitting that it was a joke and that his "Antifa" means "anti-fart," because they are "smelly." The claim originated in a video posted…

Does a viral video show disabled people being forcibly removed from the Capitol by police and/or security during the January 6, 2021, breach? No, that's not true: the video dates back to 2017 and shows people protesting against Medicaid cuts being removed from a hallway in front of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office. You can hear them yelling "No…