Georgia

Did special counsel Robert Hur say President Joe Biden was mentally unfit to stand trial? No, that's not true: There is no credible information or source suggesting that the special counsel made such a statement about the president. Instead, Hur's report stated that there was "insufficient evidence" to prove that Biden "intentionally" retained classified documents or to support bringing charges…

Was the purpose of Prohibition to stop people from fueling their cars and homes with alcohol? No, that's not true: Professors in history and sociology told Lead Stories that there's no truth to the claim. Prohibition in the United States, which ran from 1920 to 1933, was not about preventing people from using alcohol as fuel for cars or homes;…

by: Ed Payne and Alexis Tereszcuk Does a 32-page report shared online in January of 2023 provide proof of widespread 2020 election fraud in five swing states? No, that's not true: The report lacks credible nonpartisan documentation or verifiable data that would substantiate such a sweeping assertion. It promotes a repeatedly disproven assertion that "hundreds of thousands of votes were…

Did Fulton County, Georgia, count 20,713 votes that did not exist in the 2020 election and that there are "no records" for, such as poll tapes? No, that's not true: An election-watchdog expert said that claiming votes are missing because of missing poll tapes is "like telling me my house doesn't exist unless I can find all the bank documents."…

Did Dr. Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and former Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary, endorse blood vessel-cleaning gummies? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Carson said that the claim is "completely fake." Additionally, a digital forensics and deepfakes website that analyzes audio and other media concluded that a recording purporting to show him saying that was not authentic.…

Did the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps arrest Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for treason in December 2023? No, that's not true: The chief operating officer for the Secretary of State's office posted a message on social media saying the claims are "ridiculous crap." The website where this claim was made has a disclaimer that states it publishes…

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…