Did U.S. Marines arrest U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and her husband, Robert Kagan? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that the information in this claim is "false." This claim also appears on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by Real Raw News on March 7, 2024, under the title "Marines Arrest Victoria Nuland and Husband." It began:
United States Marines on Monday arrested warmonger and top Deep State Department official Victoria Nuland, enforcing a military arrest warrant that charges the vile woman with treason and seditious conspiracy, crimes for which she will likely be executed, if convicted.
The arrest occurred Monday morning on the outskirts of D.C. at Nuland's palatial estate. Sources in General Eric M. Smith's office told Real Raw News that she and her husband, historian Robert Kagan, had just seated themselves for breakfast when a Marine scout/sniper squad stormed the home, tranquilized Nuland's taxpayer-funded security detail, and arrested both Nuland and Kagan, the latter as a co-conspirator to Nuland's villainy.
Users on social media only saw this title, description, and thumbnail:
(Source: Real Raw News screenshot taken on Fri Mar 8 19:28:43 2023 UTC)
This article claims that Nuland and her husband, Kagan, were arrested on March 4, 2024, by U.S. Marines on charges of treason and seditious conspiracy regarding multiple crimes. This fact check will focus on Nuland, a frequent target of conspiracy theories and disinformation related to Ukraine and Russia.
Pentagon duty officers responded via email on March 8, 2024, to an inquiry from Lead Stories regarding the claim about Nuland and Kagan's arrest, writing:
The information [in this claim] is false.
A Google News search (archived here) using the keywords "U.S. Marines" AND "Arrest" AND "State Department Official Victoria Nuland" AND "Husband" AND "Robert Kagan" AND "March 4, 2024" produced no results to substantiate this claim.
A March 5, 2024, press release from the U.S. Department of State reports that Nuland "intends to step down in the coming weeks as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs" after "three and a half decades" of public service.
Lead Stories contacted the State Department about the Real Raw News claim and will update this article if a response is received.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks mentioning the U.S. Marines Corps and Real Raw News 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.
