Was U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's sister charged in the city of Yonkers in New York in April 2025 in connection with a supposed attack on a Tesla dealership? No, that's not true: She has no sister. The claim originated from a source known for spreading made-up stories. It was first published by an account with a satire label.
The claim reappeared in a post (archived here) published on X on April 20, 2025. It opened:
😂🤣 Hey AOC, now I can say to you that your sister is not above the law! AOC's sister faces 10 years in prison for vandalizing a Tesla dealership! FAFO!!! This is sweet! 😂 👇👇
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The entry reviewed in this fact check reposted a screenshot of another post (archived here) that was published on Facebook on April 5, 2025, by the page named "America's Last Line Of Defense" (archived here) whose description reads:
The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash.
Nothing on this page is real.
As of this writing, a search across Google News for the keywords seen here showed no credible reports corroborating the purported story:
(Source: Google News screenshot by Lead Stories)
Earlier, describing the death of her father as a pivotal moment in her life, Ocasio-Cortez mentioned her sibling but said it was a brother (archived here).
The page that published the claim was part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning the materials published with a satire label can be found here.
