Did the FBI post a video warning that Democrats had rigged voting by prisoners in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona ahead of the 2024 presidential election? No, that's not true: The FBI put out a bulletin calling this a "false narrative." It said the video was "not authentic" and its contents were "false."
The claim appeared in a post for a video on X on November 4, 2024 (post screenshot archived here). The caption for the video read:
The @FBI issued a statement on the eve of the election: The management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona rigged inmate voting.
The post's video, emblazoned with the FBI's official seal, had a voiceover that said:
The management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona rigged inmate voting. People affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party colluded with prison management. They rigged ballots in which inmates allegedly cast their votes for Kamala Harris. The investigation results indicate that such practice was actually used in hundreds of prisons. Tens of thousands of prisoners' votes were rigged to favor Harris. The FBI will insist in the U.S. Senate that all prisoners' votes be considered only after the investigation is complete.
This is how the post looked on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Nov 5 17:33:48 UTC 2024)
A copy of the video, captured by Lead Stories from the post on X, can be viewed here.
On November 5, 2024, the FBI issued a press release headlined "FBI Statement on Inauthentic Use of Bureau Name, Insignia in Promoting False Election-Related Narratives" (archived here). It said:
[A] fabricated video containing a fabricated FBI press release alleges that the management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party. This video is also not authentic, and its contents are false.Election integrity is among our highest priorities, and the FBI is working closely with state and local law enforcement partners to respond to election threats and protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote. Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI threat assessments and activities aim to undermine our democratic process and erode trust in the electoral system.
The right half of the video on X shows a QR code with the word "Verified." Lead Stories scanned the code and discovered it led to the CIA's homepage, which did not feature any warnings about voter fraud in prisons at the time of writing.
The repetitive, meandering nature of the voiceover raised Lead Stories' suspicions that it might be the product of artificial intelligence. We uploaded the post's link into AI detector Truemedia.org, which found "substantial evidence of manipulation" in both the video's semantics (the meaning of its language) and in its voices.
(Source: Truemedia.org screenshot taken on Tue Nov 5 18:55:04 UTC 2024)
The three states mentioned in the X post -- Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona -- are "swing states" where the presidential race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump is expected to be especially close. Lead Stories debunked several claims about election fraud in these states in the runup to the election, which can be found here.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be read here.
