Was Hunter Biden hanged at Guantanamo Bay on October 15, 2021? No, that's not true: A duty officer at the Pentagon told Lead Stories, "this is false." Also, this claim was made on a self-described satirical website whose disclaimer says it publishes articles like this one for "entertainment purposes."
Lead Stories debunked a separate, similar article from the same site -- Real Raw News -- about the U.S. military convicting Hunter Biden and sentencing him to the death penalty. That story, like the hanging claim, was false.
The hanging claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on October 16, 2021, titled "Hunter Biden Hanged at GITMO" (archived here). It opened:
Hunter Biden's life ended Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. when the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps in cooperation with the Office of Military Commissions hanged him to death. His execution happened only a few weeks after a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay found him guilty of treason--a capital offense--and a myriad of sex crimes against underage women.
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Hunter Biden Hanged at GITMO - Real Raw News
Hunter Biden's life ended Friday morning when the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps in cooperation with the Office of Military Commissions hanged him to death at a few minutes past 8:00 a.m. His execution happened only a few weeks after a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay found him guilty of treason--a capital offense--and a [...]
Lead Stories reached out to the Pentagon to ask about the story's claim. In an email dated October 18, 2021, a duty officer responded:
This is false.
If Hunter Biden had been arrested, tried, and executed, it would be deemed a significant news event with widespread global news coverage, which there has not been. A Google search using the keywords "Hunter Biden hanged at GITMO" produced no results substantiating this claim -- it did produce references to other debunks of Real Raw News articles. Pentagon public information staff have pointed out several times that U.S. military tribunals have no jurisdiction over civilians.
Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and that "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).
The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that warns readers not to take its content too seriously. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items is collected here .
