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No, the military didn’t arrest Hunter Biden
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- There’s no evidence to support this claim, which appears to have originated on a site that has previously published false news.
According to social media posts, Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, was recently arrested by "elements of the U.S. military."
"Military arrests Hunter Biden!" reads the title of an Aug. 31 blog post. It goes on to say that Biden was arrested on Aug. 30 "as he and two underage female companions tried to reenter the United States after deboarding a chartered flight that originated in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates."
But that’s wrong, and the claim appears to have originated on a website that has previously published false news.
This 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.)
The language in the blog post is word-for-word what appears in an Aug. 30 post on Real Raw News, which describes itself as a site that tries "to bring light to topics often ignored by others" with a caveat.
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"Information on this site is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes," a disclaimer says. "This website contains humor, parody and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice of legal counsel."
PolitiFact has debunked claims posted on the site on several occasions. We couldn’t find any credible information corroborating this report. The U.S. military has limited power to arrest civilians on U.S. soil, except for military purposes.
Hunter Biden has drawn some news headlines lately. On Sept. 7, for example, Fox News reported that the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee has started scrutinizing Hunter Biden’s art dealings. News broke in December that the Justice Department was investigating Hunter Biden’s finances, including some of his Chinese business dealings.
But Fox didn’t write about Biden getting arrested. And we found no such coverage by any legitimate news outlet.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Blog post, Aug. 31, 2021
Real Raw News, Military arrests Hunter Biden, Aug. 30, 2021
Fox News, House oversight Republicans probe Hunter Biden’s art dealings, Sept. 7, 2021
The Associated Press, Hunter Biden tax probe examining Chinese business dealings, Dec. 9, 2020
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No, the military didn’t arrest Hunter Biden
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