Did a story about JAG arresting Phyllis Fong, the USDA Inspector General who defied her dismissal by President Trump, originate on a news website? No, that's not true: The story first appeared on Real Raw News, a site with a legal disclaimer that says it "contains humor, parody, and satire." The site has a long history of publishing made-up stories about current events, often involving arrests by the military.
The story appeared in an article (archived here) published by Real Raw News on January 30, 2025, under the title "JAG Arrests Nasty, Vicious, unAmercian USDA Inspector General Phyllis "Fong" After She Gets Kicked Out of Office". It opened:
White Hats on Monday arrested USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong minutes after President Trump fired her and security officials escorted her out of her office without even letting her pack her personal belongings, a source in General Eric M. Smith's office told Real Raw News.
It also read:
Her punishment came the next day. President Trump had ordered security agents to drag the unamerican, vile ***** from her office to her car in the parking lot, where US Navy JAG investigators eagerly awaited her arrival.
(Note: slur replaced with ***** by Lead Stories)
That contradicts reporting by Reuters (archived here) that said:
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Security agents escorted the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with her firing by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
and
After this article was published, a USDA spokesperson said Fong left the office Monday on her own accord.
"She was accompanied by two friends who she paused to take selfies with on her way out. Security officials did not play any role in her departure," the spokesperson said.
Lead Stories emailed Fong and the Navy JAG Corps for comment, and we will update this story if we receive an answer.
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" 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" page claims the 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.
