Did a military tribunal sentence Liz Cheney, a former U.S. representative, to hang? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories this claim "is false." Also, it was made on a self-described satirical website whose disclaimer says it publishes articles for "entertainment purposes."
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on April 23, 2023, titled "Military Sentences Liz Cheney to Hang to Death | Real Raw News" (archived here). It opened:
Vice Admiral Darse E. Crandall of the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps asked an all-female panel to find Liz Cheney guilty of treason after she all but confessed to betraying her oath of office and threatened to have her people murder the admiral and his family.
He delivered a scorching statement painting Cheney as a depraved, bitter woman whose hatred of the U.S. Constitution rivaled her father's, and whose unjustifiable animus for President Trump prompted her to commit election fraud and, later, spitefully chair a committee that failed to shame or criminally indict Trump.
This is how the claim looked at the time of publication:
The article concluded:
The panel said Cheney should hang to death.
And Vice Adm. Crandall set a date of execution for Monday, April 24.
Lead Stories reached out to the Pentagon to ask about the claim. In an email on April 26, 2023, a duty officer responded:
That statement is false.
Cheney posted a tweet on her verified Twitter account on April 24, 2023 -- the day Real Raw News claimed she was to be hung.
A Google news search using the keywords "Military Sentences Liz Cheney to Hang to Death" produced no results substantiating this claim. If Cheney had been arrested, tried or executed, it would have been deemed a significant news event with widespread global news coverage, which there has not been.
Real Raw News
Real Raw News is a website that consistently publishes made-up stories about U.S. politics. The well-written English and news-style layout of the website make it look like a legitimate news source, so it often fools people into believing the stories are real. Screenshots and copies of the stories regularly turn up on other websites or on social media where they are presented as real.
It bills itself as "humor, parody and satire" on the "about" page (archived here):
Disclaimer:
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.
The same "about" page claims the main author is a man named Michael Baxter. In 2021 a PolitiFact article (archived here) identified the writer as a "Michael Tuffin" in Texas based on records found in a GoFundMe campaign set up to support the site.
NewsGuard, a tool that provides credibility ratings for websites, published a five-page PDF report (archived here) in 2021 describing realrawnews.com as, "An anonymously run website that has published baseless and debunked conspiracies about COVID-19 and U.S. politics." It cautioned that the website severely violates basic journalistic standards."
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.
