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Fake News: Giuliani Did NOT File Impeachment Papers For Pelosi on Behalf of the White House
by: Maarten Schenk
(Tue, 21 May 2019 14:29:21 Z)
Did Rudi Guiliani file impeachment papers for Nancy Pelosi on behalf of the White House? No, that's not true: No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to educate gullible Trump supporters and Republicans about the need to actually click and read links before sharing or liking them in order to avoid being embarrassed by fans of the site later. All the events described in the article are not real.
The story originated from an article (archived here) where it was published on March 18, 2019 under the title "Giuliani Files Impeachment Papers For Pelosi on Behalf of the White House". It opened:
Rudy Giuliani walked into the 1st Circuit Court of Writs today and filed Articles of Impeachment for Nancy Pelosi. Giuliani, considered one of the most talented legal minds of his generation, said the time had come for action:
"The President is tired of the shenanigans and fake news Congress turning everything he does into something he shouldn't have done. We have the best economy of all time and the country is getting all of its manufacturing and coal jobs back. Prices on candy bars in New York City are down more than 20 percent this year. Gas is dropping.
The Democrats are trying everything in their cheater playbook, including trying to try to convict a sitting president for his crimes, which can't be done even if there were crimes. The 9th Amendment is clear on that."
None of the events in the story are real and there is no "1st Circuit Court of Writs". The article was posted under the category "Fan Fiction, Hot Potato, That Isn't How Any of This Works".
The site is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run byself-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine and his partner in crime John Prager along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry extremely visible disclaimers everywhere.
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
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 often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up. In this case the story was copied by DeselCo and FightForAmerica.live, both likely foreign website publishing whatever they can to attract clicks and ad revenue from naive Americans:
Giuliani Files Impeachment Papers For Pelosi on Behalf of the White House
Loading... Rudy Giuliani walked into the 1st Circuit Court of Writs today and filed Articles of Impeachment for Nancy Pelosi. Giuliani, considered one of the most talented legal minds of his generation, said the time had come for action: "The President is tired of the shenanigans and fake news Congress turning everything he does into something he ...
Giuliani Files Impeachment Papers For Pelosi on Behalf of the White House - Fight For America
Rudy Giuliani walked into the 1st Circuit Court of Writstoday and filed Articles of Impeachment for Nancy Pelosi. Giuliani, considered one of the most talented legal minds of his generation, said the time had come for action: "The President is tired of the shenanigans and fake news Congress turning everything he does into something he shouldn't ...
Blair and his operation were profiled by the Washington Post on November 17, 2018 by Eli Saslow:
'Nothing on this page is real': How lies become truth in online America
November 17 The only light in the house came from the glow of three computer monitors, and Christopher Blair, 46, sat down at a keyboard and started to type. His wife had left for work and his children were on their way to school, but waiting online was his other community, an unreality where nothing was exactly as it seemed.
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.
Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet. He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.
Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk
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Lead Stories uses the Trendolizer™ engine to detect the most trending stories from known fake news, satire and prank websites and tries to debunk them as fast as possible. Read more about how we work and how we select stories to check here.
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