Georgia

Did Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's legal staff notify Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in late 2023 that 17,852 invalid 2020 votes were counted in Georgia's Fulton County? No, that's not true: The State Election Board told Lead Stories that Kemp's office forwarded a claim by one Georgia citizen to Raffensperger and to the state Election Board in 2022. Kemp's office…

Will 10 states be issuing a fourth round of IRS stimulus checks on November 30, 2023? No, that's not true: There is no 2023 federal tax benefit stimulus program from the IRS nor are all the states listed in a social media post issuing their own stimulus checks. Virginia will be issuing rebate checks to eligible taxpayers before November 30,…

Does a photo show American soldiers praying in 2023 "before being deployed to defend Israel"? No, that's not true: At the time of writing, U.S. soldiers were not deployed to Israel. This photo was posted on social media in 2017, six years before the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict began. The 2017 post described it as "soldiers praying together after a Chapel…

Did at least two German news outlets, Deutsche Welle and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, publish reports about a graffiti mural in Berlin that showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy labeled a "Cannibal," eating the dismembered arm of a Ukrainian soldier holding an AR-15-style rifle? No, that's not true: These screenshots are fabricated propaganda, designed to look like news reports about anti-Ukrainian…

Does a Pennsylvania judge's ruling in a state civil suit that Donald Trump's false election claims while in office are covered by presidential immunity also apply to his four criminal cases? No, that's not true: A law school professor called the claim in a video "misleading," telling Lead Stories that the "ruling did not find that former President Trump is…

Were 7 million people registered to vote in the 2020 general election in Wisconsin when only 4.5 million were eligible voters? No, that's not true: There were more than 3.9 million registered voters and an estimated 4.5 million eligible voters in that election, a Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) representative told Lead Stories. A version of the claim made by former…

Do 222 contributions with "zero donor information" to the campaign of Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis prove there was fraud? No, that's not true: An Emory University political science professor emeritus told Lead Stories, "Looks like they're all very small donations for which donor info is not required under Georgia law." Other political scientists said the same. The…

Is former President Donald Trump facing the possibility of the death penalty in the four indictments against him? No, that's not true: Lead Stories spoke to three legal experts who told us that none of the charges against Trump carries the death penalty if convicted. While one charge, "Conspiracy against rights," can be eligible for the death penalty, that's only…

Did 14 American cities join a "World Economic Forum treaty" imposing a total ban on meat, dairy and private cars by 2030? No, that's not true: At the time of writing, there is no such WEF treaty. The source of the claim cited an unrelated report that explored several emission reduction models and was not meant to become a law…

Does a photo show a real mug shot for former President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: No mug shot had yet been taken of Trump for any of his court cases as of August 16, 2023. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Twitter on August 15, 2023. It opened: #Indicted. Over 80 times. And now indictments…