Did Hillary Clinton face a military tribunal on April 8, 2021? No, that's not true. "The story is fabricated," the Defense Department press operations duty officer told Lead Stories via email on April 12, 2021. Lead Stories previously debunked the claim that Hillary Clinton was arrested by Navy SEALs in March 2021, with a U.S. Navy spokesperson on the record stating: "The story is fabricated and not factual." Clinton has been seen live via video on national news outlets since the alleged "arrest."
One of the most recent claims appeared as an article published by Real Raw News on March 30, 2021, titled "Clinton Military Tribunal Set for April 8 - Real Raw News" (archived here) which opened:
Hillary Clinton will have her day in court; more precisely, on April 8 she will face a military tribunal to answer for crimes committed against America and its people. As reported previously, U.S. Navy SEALs under Trump's command staged a March 2 raid on Clinton's Chappaqua, NY, estate, capturing her and seizing laptops that link [...]
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Clinton Military Tribunal Set for April 8 - Real Raw News
Hillary Clinton will have her day in court; more precisely, on April 8 she will face a military tribunal to answer for crimes committed against America and its people. As reported previously, U.S. Navy SEALs under Trump's command staged a March 2 raid on Clinton's Chappaqua, NY, estate, capturing her and seizing laptops that link [...]
The article claimed Clinton was arrested in March and was facing trial:
As reported previously, U.S. Navy SEALs under Trump's command staged a March 2 raid on Clinton's Chappaqua, NY, estate, capturing her and seizing laptops that link the former First Lady to countless atrocities. She has been held under military guard at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center Camp Delta since March 5."
Lead Stories previously debunked this claim. "The story is fabricated and not factual," Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, assistant chief of information, Media Operations/Plans for the U.S. Navy, told Lead Stories.
The article published on Real Raw News recycled made up details about Clinton's supposed arrest with unnamed or quoted sources that are not backed up with any evidence.
It also claims she has been locked up since March 5, 2021.
On Monday, April 12, 2021 Clinton appeared on video with Maria Ressa's show "Hold the Line" on Rappler.com. She appeared to be in her home in New York where she often conducts interviews, not in prison in Guantanamo Bay.
And as Lead Stories previously published, Clinton On Monday, March 8, 2021, did a live interview that aired on the front page of the Washington Post website. This is a screenshot of her interview with Jonathan Capehart that aired live on Twitter and on the newspaper's site. She was not incarcerated and appeared to be in her home.
👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾 Join me and @HillaryClinton at the top of the hour for our WaPo @postlive interview at 2pm ET! #Internationalwomensday https://t.co/Yphf9JWHMS
-- Jonathan Capehart (@CapehartJ) March 8, 2021
The Real Raw News article details who would be overseeing Clinton's tribunal:
In just over a week, the villainous, vile creature will stand before a military tribunal consisting of six U.S. military officers handpicked by Donald J. Trump and his advisory board. A Trump source familiar with the proceedings told RRN that the officers who will serve as both judge and jury cover a broad range of military ranks--from O-3 (captain) to 0-9 (Lt. General)--selected from all branches of U.S. Armed Forces."
Trump is no longer President of the United States, as of January 20, 2021, per the United States Constitution. The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution determines when a new president's term begins. He did not select military officers to serve as "both judge and jury," for the made-up case. He has no control over the military since leaving office in January 2021.
Three subsequent articles published by Real Raw News purported to report on events of "Day 1, Day 2 and Day 2 Part 2" of the trial. They cited a real person, Vice Adm. John G. Hannink of the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps, as the military member prosecuting the case, and the articles spun a false tale about the proceedings of the trial. Lead Stories reached out to the U.S. Navy for comment and will update the story when a response is received.
The Clinton-being-arrested claim is another QAnon conspiracy theory, one in a continuing series of prophecies that don't come true, all related to baseless claims that she is part of an international cabal of evil Democrats that kill children and eat them, and that she will be taken into custody by Trump's military and tried for her crimes. This is not supported by any public evidence and has been debunked by Lead Stories and national news outlets including the New York Times.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes realrawnews.com as:
An anonymously run website that has published baseless and debunked conspiracies about COVID-19 and U.S. politics.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
