Did former President Donald Trump pick up the defense legal fees for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin? No, that's not true: The claim that Trump paid for Chauvin's defense in his trial for the murder of George Floyd is satire published by a website known for trolling conservatives. In fact, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is funding Chauvin's defense.
The claim originated in an article published by americaslastlineofdefense.com on April 17, 2021, titled "Trump Picking Up Officer Chauvin's Legal Fees," (archived here) which opened:
It's no secret that Donald Trump, #45, loves the police and holds them in high regard. Trump is a big fan of all first responders, but none more than police officers. Donald Trump spoke about early aspirations to be a police officer, but his family business came calling louder. That did nothing to diminish his love for law enforcement.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Trump Picking Up Officer Chauvin's Legal Fees
Trump loves law enforcement and stands behind officer Derek Chauvin
The site 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. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
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 that omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake. One of the most persistent networks of such sites is run by a man from Pakistan named Kashif Shahzad Khokhar (aka "DashiKashi") who has spammed hundreds of such stolen stories into conservative and right-wing Facebook pages in order to profit from the ad revenue.
When fact checkers point this out to the people liking and sharing these copycat stories, some of them get mad at the fact checkers instead of directing their anger at the foreign spammers or the liberal satire writers. Others send a polite "thank you" note, which is much appreciated.
