Hunter Biden

Did Hamish Harding, an aviation businessman and aircraft pilot who died in the OceanGate Titan submersible disaster, tweet on June 17, 2023, that the Biden family tried to hire his aviation company for human smuggling? No, that's not true: No credible evidence exists that Harding ever published any such tweet, and his company tells Lead Stories this claim is false.…

Do flaws in a mock-up of a purported Hunter Biden message to a Chinese businessman prove it is not authentic? No, that's not true: Although Lead Stories can't vouch for its overall validity, the details of the message accurately reflect a whistleblower interview by the House Ways And Means Committee on May 26, 2023, by Gary Shapley, a supervisory special…

Was the wife of a former Burisma co-owner found dead after she had offered to disclose the firm's secrets she had accessed as an accountant? No, that's not true: According to her attorney, the woman is alive and well as of June 19, 2023, and she didn't work as an accountant for the company in question. The story originated from…

Was a website that posted photos from Hunter Biden's laptop shut down for distributing child porn? No, that's not true: The social media account that originated the claim routinely posts satire. The tweet that began the claim was deleted from the account and a reply to the tweet read, "Folks, this is satire." The claim appeared as a post (archived…

Were three high-profile Democrats, including President Joe Biden, arrested on or before May 10, 2023? No, that's not true: The claim came from a 2021 video that theorized about that happening in the future, but two years later, as of this writing, none of it materialized. The story appeared in a post published on Facebook on May 10, 2023. It…

Does a photo that has been circulating online since November 2022 show British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flashing his bare chest and wearing nothing but a white lab coat and a jockstrap? No, that's not true: This photo cannot be traced back to Sunak and its origin is unknown. It could be a digitally edited or an AI-generated image. The…

Do images circulating on social media show press photos of Anthony Fauci under arrest and in police custody? No, that's not true: Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has not been arrested. These are not photos of a real incident but are images generated by an artificial intelligence program. Jack Posobiec posted the…

Does a background screening document prove that Hunter Biden paid his father, President Joe Biden, nearly $50,000 per month in rent to live in his father's Delaware home? No, that's not true: The amount listed on the form as "Monthly Rent" -- $49,910 -- matches what the younger Biden paid in quarterly rent for an office space in Washington, D.C.,…

Did former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi cry after Iowa's Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley presented information about business ties between Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, and the Chinese government? No, that's not true: Video footage posted on social media with this claim shows no confrontation between the two lawmakers. It shows Grassley speaking on the Senate…

Does a photo circulating on social media show President Joe Biden "fondling" a child? No, that's not true: The image was digitally altered. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) published by the @realstewpeters account on December 30, 2022. It contained a picture showing Biden interacting with a toddler. The tweet said: What the EFF am I looking at…