Did New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warn truck drivers against boycotting or she would "seize" their bank accounts and homes? No, that's not true: Hochul's press secretary denied this claim in an email to Lead Stories. A search in an online news index also did not yield any relevant results. Searching the governor's executive orders catalog, news page and X account did not substantiate the claim made in a social media post.
The claim appeared on X, formerly Twitter, published on February 25, 2024 (archived here) which read:
Gov. Hochul of NY gives truckers a stern warning if they boycott she can employ their bank accounts and seize their homes. American truckers aren't Canadians. These kind of threats will close NY in a New York second. #HIAW
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
The post does not mention when or where Hochul supposedly made this statement or give any background on a truckers' boycott.
Lead Stories contacted Hochul's press team and received an emailed response. On March 4, 2023, Avi Small (archived here), a press secretary for Hochul, said:
This quote is fabricated. The Governor never said this.
Lead Stories checked and did not find any evidence that this claim was legitimate from searching through the governor's executive orders (archived here), the news page (archived here) on the governor's website and her X account (archived here).
A search of Google's index of thousands of credible information sites using the search terms "Gov. Kathy Hochul AND truckers AND boycotts AND empty bank accounts AND seize their homes" (archived here) did not yield independent results to corroborate this claim.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding Gov. Kathy Hochul are here.
