Did the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps convict the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, of treason in March 2024? No, that's not true: This claim appears in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. Lead Stories previously debunked the claim, also mentioned in this article, that Graves was initially arrested for treason by "Delta Force" in January 2024.
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on March 24, 2024, titled "JAG Convicts D.C. District Attorney for TREASON" (archived here), which began:
Last week, the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps convicted U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves of treason. Graves had vowed to remain silent but ended up self-snitching himself into a death sentence.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
JAG Convicts D.C. District Attorney for TREASON
Last week, the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps convicted U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves of treason. Graves had vowed to remain silent but ended up self-snitching himself into a death sentence.
The claim in this article is that Graves was convicted of treason by the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. In a January 23, 2024, fact check, Lead Stories found the claim that the Delta Force arrested Graves to be false.
Lead Stories reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Columbia. In a March 27, 2024 email, a spokesperson of the U.S. Attorney's Office, on behalf of Graves, responded:
That story is a complete fabrication.
A search (archived here) of the Google News index of thousands of reliable information sources, using the keywords "United States Judge Advocate General's Corps" AND "Convicts" AND "U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia" AND "Matthew Graves" AND "Treason" produced no results that substantiated this claim.
As seen in the screenshot below, Graves was active on his official LinkedIn account during the week of March 18, 2024 -- according to Real Raw News, the week of the conviction -- where he liked two posts that did not make any mention of his purported conviction:
(Source: LinkedIn screenshot taken on Wed Mar 27 15:35:37 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories reached out to the U.S. Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for statements concerning this claim. This fact check will be updated if a response is received.
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.
