Did the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps sentence Arati Prabhakar to death at a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal on January 16, 2024, for committing treason? No, that's not true: Prabhakar, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has made a public appearance following the purported date of conviction, and she did not appear to be in any imminent danger of being sentenced to death. Also, the website where this claim was made publishes fabricated content.
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on January 18, 2024, and titled "JAG Sentences Biden Regime's Chief Science Officer to Death" (archived here).
It began:
The criminal Biden Regime's chief science officer, Arati Prabhakar, was convicted of conspiracy to commit treason and insurrection and sentenced to death Tuesday morning at a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal, GITMO sources told Real Raw News.
And included:
The document, Prabhakar's statement, and an email chain between her and Kamala Harris were Vice Admiral Darse E. Crandall's only evidence at Tuesday's tribunal.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
JAG Sentences Biden Regime's Chief Science Officer to Death
The criminal Biden Regime's chief science officer, Arati Prabhakar, was convicted of conspiracy to commit treason and insurrection and sentenced to death Tuesday morning at a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal, GITMO sources told Real Raw News.
The article claimed that investigators from a "JAG processing center" -- a reference to the military's legal counsels, known as the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps -- had interrogated Prabhakar before her supposed trial and sentencing on January 16, 2024.
The article described U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Darse E. Crandall, head of the Navy's JAG Corps, allegedly interrogating Prabhakar. Crandall's name has been used multiple times in conspiracy articles published by Real Raw News. These present him as leading extrajudicial military tribunals and executions, which are a popular QAnon trope. A site-specific Google search for the term "Vice Adm. Crandall" (archived here) brings up more than 70 articles about events that didn't happen, but which claim that Crandall had announced the arrests of notable people, death sentences and hangings.
A January 17, 2024, Axios article reported that Prabhakar publicly spoke about "how to reduce instances of bias and misinformation in AI-powered tools" at a reception "as part of a week of event programming held during the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland." This was a day after Prabhakar's purported conviction in the Real Raw News article.
In the images of the Axios article, Prabhakar is seen speaking without any appearance of handcuffs or distress. There is also no mention of Prabhakar's alleged impending death sentence in the Axios article.
A Google News search (archived here) using the keyword parameters of "Arati Prabhakar" AND "convicted of conspiracy to commit treason and insurrection" AND "Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunal" AND "Judge Advocate General Corps" AND "January 16, 2024" did not produce any results to substantiate Real Raw News' claim. A search (archived here) of the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) website for the purported conviction of Prabhakar on January 16, 2024, also did not produce any results to substantiate this claim.
Lead Stories contacted the U.S. Navy and will update this fact check if a response is received.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks that mention the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps can be read here.
Real Raw News
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 "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 declares the site does not stand by the contents of the stories, calling them entertainment. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. ... 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 are collected here.
