Did Gavin Newsom, governor of California, receive the death penalty for committing sex crimes against children and treason? No, that's not true: An on-duty press officer at the Pentagon told Lead Stories that this story is false. Tweets from Newsom's personal Twitter account also make clear that he is not being held at Guantanamo Bay. And the claim came from a website that features a disclaimer warning readers not to take its content at face value.
The claim originated in an article published by Real Raw News on January 3, 2022, titled "Gavin Newsom Gets Death Penalty" (archived here) that opened:
On Thursday afternoon a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay found Gavin Newsom guilty of child sex crimes and treason and sentenced him to death. For nearly six hours, the three officers chosen to hear the case against Newsom listened intently as Rear Adm. Darse E. Crandall systematically and meticulously described what he called Newsom's "Covid Crimes," a nexus of egregious felonies that began shortly after the disgraced governor received from the NIH/CDC a letter instructing him to lockdown the State of California.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Gavin Newsom Gets Death Penalty - Real Raw News
(Source: Real Raw News screenshot taken on Tue Jan 4 15:45:03 2022 UTC)
Lead Stories reached out to the Pentagon, which replied on January 4, 2022, in an email. They told us, "This is completely false, and silly doesn't adequately describe the complete farce of this story."
On Newsom's personal Twitter account, @GavinNewsom, his most recent tweet was on January 3, 2022, the same day the bogus article appeared.
.@LorenaSGonzalez is a fighter and fierce leader who will do incredible things in her next role. Congrats! https://t.co/QzBzYGjR9l
-- Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 4, 2022
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.
