Did Sam Bankman-Fried write a post on X, offering Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez money in bitcoins to fund a 2028 presidential run? No, that's not true: As of this writing, there was no such post on his account. No credible media organizations published reports about the purported entry. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on February 24, 2026.…
Did California pay the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) more than $100 million mainly to fund protests as a viral social media post said? No, that's not true: California's payments to CHIRLA were overwhelmingly tied to immigration legal services and social welfare programs. There is no evidence in state budget records that any funds were used to pay or…
Did Kash Patel, Sen. John Kennedy, Pete Buttigieg, Vince Gill and others demand that former President Barack Obama return millions he earned through ownership related to "Obamacare"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories that swap-in those and other names are part of an international network of websites and Facebook pages that publish fake news stories about famous people to…
Does a video of passengers on a plane screaming while an "unknown creature is loose" show a real incident? No, that's not true: The video clip of the passengers screaming and jumping up on their seats to avoid an unknown critter running around the plane was a skit with actors. The TikTok page where it was originally posted features dozens…
Was Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested 666 days after blood-soaked horses associated with the Royal Family escaped in London? Yes, that's true: The former Prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on February 19, 2026. This came 666 days after a separate incident on April 24, 2024, in which five horses from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment threw…
Does a video of a heckler, who was assaulted after shouting at Prince Andrew, show a 2026 incident? No, that's not true: The video is authentic, but was more than three years old at the time of the former Duke of York's arrest on suspicion of "misconduct in office". It shows the October 2022 procession carrying the coffin of Queen…
Is a grainy image of former Prince Andrew and Meghan Markle in intimate postures authentic? No, that's not true: The image is "99% AI slop," the creator of the image wrote on their X.com account. Blocky pixelations and a faint red ring around the woman's face reinforce what the image-creator said: it's a manufactured picture. The claim appeared in a…
Did Chelsea Clinton tweet, "Close but no cigar Trump!!!" while claiming there was a conspiracy to disparage her father's name? No, that's not true: This is a fake screenshot. Chelsea Clinton never posted a tweet with this loaded satirical wording. Additionally, usernames on X are displayed with an @ sign, while the ChelseaClinton username pictured in the fake screenshot does…
Did the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks refuse an invitation to the White House? No, that's not true: There's no evidence the team has been invited to Washington for a reception with President Donald Trump or that the team has refused such an invitation. The White House has not responded to inquiries from Lead Stories about the matter. The Seattle…
Did tabloid news outlet TMZ publish a report saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bought a Los Angeles mansion belonging to Sean "Diddy" Combs for $61 Million? No, that's not true: Using TMZ's search box, Lead Stories found no such story about Diddy. Searching for Zelenskyy's name similarly showed no such TMZ story. The claim appeared in a Feb. 18, 2026…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.
Get more fact-checks in your Google Search results by setting up leadstories.com as one of your preferred sources.
