“Ambassador Susan Rice Tribunal, Gavin Newsom indicted.”
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Gov. Gavin Newsom wears a protective mask on his face while speaking to reporters at a restaurant during the coronavirus outbreak in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, June 9, 2020. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Claim of Susan Rice tribunal, Gavin Newsom indictment is Pants on Fire false
If Your Time is short
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The claim of military court action against the two prominent Democrats is baseless and was made by a website with a history of producing false information.
Since Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump and was inaugurated as president, fantastical claims have been made that the American military has arrested, put on trial or even executed various political figures.
Were any of them true, they would have generated massive news coverage.
As it is, they aren’t.
Such is the case with a Facebook post that makes a cryptic claim about two prominent Democrats: Susan Rice, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is head of President Joe Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
It says: "Ambassador Susan Rice Tribunal, Gavin Newsom indicted."
The July 22 post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It was shared from an account called Breaking from US, but it is not a credible page.
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News of either alleged action would be widely covered by the media. No such reports exist, nor credible evidence to support either part of the claim, which is completely baseless.
The post includes a 35-minute video that starts with a promotion of bug repellent. About 19 minutes in, the woman hosting the video shares screenshots of and reads two articles posted July 20 by Real Raw News. The website has a history of publishing false claims, including that Hillary Clinton was hanged at Guantanamo Bay, which we rated Pants on Fire.
One article shared in the video claims the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps used powers under the Insurrection Act to indict Newsom after finding he "betrayed his oath of office" by imposing mask mandates and taking "bribes and kickbacks."
The other article claims the same office convicted Rice on charges "of high treason and sentenced her to death for her participation in a 2017 scheme to defame" Trump "by falsely and knowingly linking his campaign to baseless allegations of Russian collusion."
There is no evidence for either part of the claim.
Like many of the other claims we have rated from this site, this post, too, gets a Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Facebook, post, July 22, 2021
Real Raw News, "Military Indicts Venal Gavin Newsom," July 20, 2021
Real Raw News, "Military Convicts Susan Rice of Treason," July 20, 2021
Check Your Fact, "FACT CHECK: HAS SUSAN RICE BEEN CONVICTED OF TREASON?", July 22, 2021
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Claim of Susan Rice tribunal, Gavin Newsom indictment is Pants on Fire false
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