Was Anita Dunn, former senior advisor to President Joe Biden, arrested on November 20, 2021, by the U.S. Marine Corps? No, that's not true: officials told Lead Stories the political strategist was not apprehended. Plus, the website where the claim was published is infamous for promoting fake stories.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) posted online on November 23, 2021, by Real Raw News. It opened:
On Saturday morning U.S. Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, apprehended a Deep State asset whose name laymen may find unfamiliar but who, from the shadows, has influenced the illegal Biden administration's domestic policy decisions on a grand scale. That person is Anita Dunn, a political strategist who served as Biden's chief advisor until her resignation on August 12.
Users on social media saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Military Arrests Biden's Deep State Handler Anita Dunn - Real Raw News
On Saturday morning U.S. Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, apprehended a Deep State asset whose name laymen may find unfamiliar but who, from the shadows, has influenced the illegal Biden administration's domestic policy decisions on a grand scale. That person is Anita Dunn, a political strategist who served as Biden's chief advisor until her [...]
In an email to Lead Stories on November 26, 2021, a spokesperson for Dunn said:
This story is completely false, and no such events have occurred.
Andrew Wood, a communication strategy officer for the Marine Corps, also told Lead Stories in an email on November 26, 2021, that the claim was not true:
No reference of the Marine Corps in the story is based in fact.
Lead Stories reached out to the U.S. Navy -- which was mentioned in the article as having participated in Dunn's "arrest" -- and will update this story with any relevant response.
Previous Lead Stories debunks (including here and here) have discussed why arrests of civilians by the U.S. armed forces are highly unlikely. The Posse Comitatus Act outlines much of the military's relationship to the enforcement of civilian law. The act typically does not allow for military interference in civilian legal affairs that can be handled by civilian law authorities such as the police.
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 .
