Was the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate Corps holding 345 Federal Emergency Management Agency employees at a U.S. Marine Corps Base in Hawaii as of February 2024? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that this claim is false. The claim appeared in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content.
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on February 15, 2024. Titled "Justice Not So Swift For FEMA Caught in Maui," (archived here) the story began:
Less than 20 miles from the blazing sun, the crashing surf, and the touristy trappings of Waikiki Beach, secluded corners of Pearl Harbor and Marine Corps Base Hawaii on the windward side of Honolulu currently house 345 Federal Emergency Management Agency 'guests' whom JAG has accused of worsening last summer's Lahaina blaze and callously inflicting heinous carnage on locals and tourists alike.
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Justice Not So Swift For FEMA Caught in Maui
Less than 20 miles from the blazing sun, the crashing surf, and the touristy trappings of Waikiki Beach, secluded corners of Pearl Harbor and Marine Corps Base Hawaii on the windward side of Honolulu currently house 345 Federal Emergency Management Agency "guests" whom JAG has accused of worsening last summer's Lahaina blaze and callously inflicting heinous carnage on locals and tourists alike.
A Pentagon duty officer responded via email on February 16, 2024, to an inquiry from Lead Stories about the claim. The duty officer, who did not provide a name, wrote:
This is false.
A Google News search (archived here) for the terms "'Judge Advocate General's Corps' AND '345' AND 'FEMA employees' AND 'Marine Corps Base Hawaii' AND February 2024" also produced no results to substantiate this claim.
Lead Stories contacted FEMA and will update this fact check if a response is received.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks that mention the U.S. Marines and FEMA are here.
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 Us 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 Us page claims the site's 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.
