Has U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi been accused of espionage by two separate intelligence agencies? No, that's not true: The story comes from a satirical website that trolls conservatives with pieces that are often stolen by fake-news sites and presented as real - with no reference to the satirical origins. There is no truth to the story.
The claim is made in an article published by Taters Gonna Tate on December 28, 2019, titled "Nancy Pelosi Accused of Espionage by Two Seperate Intelligence Agencies" (archived here) which opened:
Two separate intelligence agencies, each independent from the other, have filed reports with the Attorney General of possible espionage on the part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Both the Central Unified National Trust Service and the Terrorism Watch And Telecommunications Service filed the reports on behalf of their parent agencies, the CIA and NSA.
The details are a bit sketchy as of yet, as the allegations are classified, but our source inside the intelligence community says that they are serious and potentially career-ending for the high-powered Democrat:
'Pelosi is accused of giving national secrets to her contacts in Ukraine in exchange for testimony against Trump and handing billions to Iran in exchange for their silence over the Burisma acquisition of Uranium One.
'These scandals would benefit both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton in their attempts to overthrow the Trump administration if they weren't discovered.'
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Nancy Pelosi Accused of Espionage by Two Seperate Intelligence Agencies
The Speaker of the House has some explaining to do.
Pelosi, a favorite target of conservatives, oversaw the December 18, 2019, formal impeachment of President Trump in the U.S. House on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Pelosi officially turned over the articles of impeachment, after a long delay, to the U.S. Senate for a trial on the charges - which Trump's team calls "frivolous" and "dangerous".
Taters Gonna Tate is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact-checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact-checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this, he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past, but new ones keep cropping up.
Here is a video of Blair explaining how his process works:
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer, it is, of course, also fake news.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes tatersgonnatate.com as:
A site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news, part of a network named America's Last Line of Defense run by hoax perpetrator Christopher Blair.
According to NewsGuard, the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about tatersgonnatate.com before. Here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Opinion Writer Does NOT Believe Trump Should File Article 2 Motion To Impeach Nancy Pelosi
- Fake News: Pelosi NOT To Begin Post-Impeachment Eviction Procedure
- Fake News: AOC Did NOT Say Christianity Should Be Ignored As "Superstitious Nonsense"
- Fake News: Thousands of Young Trump Supporters Did NOT Show Up At Local Recruiters To Volunteer For Duty
- Fake News: Trump-Owned Property In Agrabah NOT Burned To The Ground By Terrorists
