Was Amber Heard arrested for perjury and cocaine possession as of June 3, 2022? No, that's not true: This is a completely made-up claim, published by a website that calls itself a "trusted source for satire." The claim appeared in an article published by the Vancouver Times on June 3, 2022, titled "Amber Heard arrested for perjury, cocaine." It opened:…

Did protesters shout "Lock her up!" when confronting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the Congress floor? No, that's not true: This interaction took place between pro-immigration protesters and Pelosi at a press conference in San Francisco on September 18, 2017. The audio heard in this Facebook video is from somewhere else. The original audio from this day had protesters chanting…

Is it true that "a 9 mm bullet blows the lung out of the body"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories reached out to firearms experts and a trauma surgeon who said the claim is false. The claim was made by President Joe Biden on May 30, 2022. In an apparent attempt to make a case against what he called…

Is the impeachment of President Joe Biden "in progress" as Sen. Ted Cruz and GOP lawmakers file a lawsuit? No, that's not true: The video in the Facebook post does not show Cruz and other GOP lawmakers announcing the impeachment of Biden or a lawsuit against him. In addition, lawsuits are not part of the impeachment equation. The claims appeared…

Does data given to the Food and Drug Administration before Pfizer COVID-19 shots were officially approved show up to 97 percent of vaccinated pregnant women lost their babies? No, that's not true: The Pfizer document that was released as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit does not provide the total number of pregnant women in 63 countries…

Does purple paint on a post, tree or fence in Texas and "10 other states" mean no hunting, no trespassing, no solicitation or, simply, go away? Yes, that's true: According to a U.S. government database, Texas and at least 11 other states have laws in which a specific shade of purple paint is equivalent to a written no-trespass or no-hunting…

Did Elon Musk "just save us" by destroying a Chinese spy satellite with a SpaceX rocket? No, that's not true: This is a baseless clickbait video manufactured for views. There are news stories from late 2021 about close calls between two SpaceX satellites and the Chinese space station, but there is no supporting evidence offered or existing reporting from other…

Was Paul Pelosi charged with possession of child pornography? No, that's not true: Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence on May 28, 2022, and was not charged with possession of child pornography, according to the press release from Napa California Highway Patrol about the DUI arrest, and his spokesperson,…

Did the military arrest the current White House deputy chief of staff, Jennifer Brigid O'Malley Dillon? No, that's not true: Lead Stories received an email from a duty officer at the Pentagon who told us the claim was not true. The claim was published by Real Raw News, a site known for writing false claims about public figures. Real Raw…

Will electricity go through your body while you use a smartphone? No, that's not true: Trac-Duy Tran, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told Lead Stories that smartphones do not transmit electricity into the body and that they are safe for everyday use. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control…

Does a new National Institutes of Health study find that long COVID isn't real? No, that's not true: Nowhere in the study do the authors say long COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection (PASC), is fake. Lead study author Dr. Michael C. Sneller with the National Institutes of Health told Lead Stories, "I want to be…

Are people who have five inches of fat on their body "bulletproof"? No, that's not true: Body fat may slow a bullet but it does not stop the projectile nor does it render a person "bulletproof." The claim appears in a 13-second reel published on Facebook on May 13, 2022, without a caption. The transcription of the video is: I…

Did an Arkansas district attorney get a court order to exhume the body of former deputy White House counsel Vince Foster? No, that's not true: The claim, which suggests that former first lady Hillary Clinton was responsible for Foster's death, is satirical. Foster's death was ruled a suicide, although conspiracy theories dating back to the 1990s have reasoned that Foster…

Is there proof of law enforcement raids on multiple Arizona nonprofit organizations in a "2000 Mules"-driven ballot trafficking investigation? No, there's no evidence that's true: Reporting by The Arizona Republic puts two uniformed officers and two plainclothes investigators from the Arizona attorney general's office at the office of just one nonprofit: Comité de Bien Estar in San Luis in May…

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that Finland transferred tanks to the Russian border at the beginning of May 2022? No, it's not true: A video showing trains carrying military equipment captured the Finnish army heading to a scheduled military exercise in the opposite direction. One of the first English-language posts claiming that the Finnish army moved dangerously close to…

Will a suburban Chicago high school use a race-based grading system during the 2022-2023 school year? No, that's not true: According to Oak Park and River Forest High School, such a policy has neither been proposed nor implemented at the school. School officials clarified that the school is conducting research into equitable grading policies and that some teachers have tested…

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that Warsaw is going to send troops to the western parts of Ukraine to repossess the lands Poland used to own in the distant past? No, it's not true. Claims about the allegedly planned Polish invasion of Ukraine started to spread on social media on April 28, 2022, following the statement made by Sergei…

Is Elon Musk considering buying the Keystone XL pipeline? No, that's not true: This claim appeared on a satirical website with a clear disclaimer on its About Us page. It is the work of Christopher Blair, a notorious liberal prankster who produces fake claims to troll conservatives. The claim appeared in an article published by the Patriot Party Press on…

Did two different television networks report on the same Uvalde school shooting victim with two different fathers? No, that's not true: Both the biological father and stepfather of Amerie Jo Garza, 10, gave interviews to different networks but were both initially identified as her father. News reports clarified their relationship with her but a social media post said "same victim,…

Did Jacob Albarado, an off-duty Border Patrol agent, kill Salvador Ramos, the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school? There's no such evidence: Albarado, whose wife worked at the school and child attended the school, went to the scene and helped evacuate children during the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. In…