Did the military arrest the current White House deputy chief of staff, Jennifer Brigid O'Malley Dillon? No, that's not true: Lead Stories received an email from a duty officer at the Pentagon who told us the claim was not true. The claim was published by Real Raw News, a site known for writing false claims about public figures. Real Raw News' website has a disclaimer that states, "This website contains humor, parody, and satire."
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on June 1, 2022 titled "Military Arrests White House Deputy Chief of Staff" (archived here) which opened:
U.S. Army Rangers on Wednesday arrested former Biden campaign manager and current Deputy Chief of Staff Jennifer Brigid O'Malley Dillon at a Washington, D.C. hotel, the result of a military investigation into whether she took part in a ballot harvesting ring in which Democrat-liberal sympathizers, known as "mules," illegally collected and deposited ballots into drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Screenshot taken on Thurs Jun 2 20:31:10 2022 UTC)
Lead Stories reached out to the Pentagon and received an email from a duty officer on June 2, 2022, that said this claim was false.
Lead Stories also sent an email to the White House. We will update this story with any relevant information if we receive a response.
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)
The Real Raw News story on the purported arrest of O'Malley Dillon references the movie "2000 Mules," which promotes an unsubstantiated theory of voter fraud in the 2020 election. You can see other Lead Stories articles on "2000 Mules" here.
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.
