Did U.S. Marine Corps "white hats" arrest Federal Emergency Management Agency Regional Administrator Tony Robinson on February 2, 2024? No, that's not true: FEMA and Pentagon representatives confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim is false. This claim originated on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content.
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on February 5, 2024, titled "White Hats Find FEMA at Border" (archived here), which began:
The criminal Biden regime has secretly dispatched undercover FEMA agents to the southern border, a source in General Eric M. Smith's office told Real Raw News. On Friday, February 2, a White Hat officer embedded within the Texas Military Department spotted, and later apprehended, FEMA Region VI supervisor Tony Robinson at the Autel Rio Inn, a budget motel less than 600 feet from the border in Eagle Pass, Texas.
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White Hats Find FEMA at Border
The criminal Biden regime has secretly dispatched undercover FEMA agents to the southern border, a source in General Eric M. Smith's office told Real Raw News. On Friday, February 2, a White Hat officer embedded within the Texas Military Department spotted, and later apprehended, FEMA Region VI supervisor Tony Robinson at the Autel Rio Inn, a budget motel less than 600 feet from the border in Eagle Pass, Texas.
This article claims that U.S. Marine Corps officers, referred to as "white hats" in the article, arrested Tony Robinson, who currently serves as regional administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 6 office located in Denton, Texas, near the Mexico-United States border. The supposed arrest was said to have occurred on February 2, 2024.
Lead Stories reached out to FEMA for a statement regarding this claim. A FEMA spokesperson that represents Region 6 responded via a February 8, 2023, email, writing:
We can confirm that this claim is false.
Lead Stories also reached out to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for a statement regarding this claim. A Pentagon representative responded via a February 8, 2023, email, writing:
The statement is false.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks that mention the U.S. Marines Corps and FEMA can be found 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.
