NOVEMBER 30, 20203:17 PMUPDATED 6 HOURS AGO

Fact check: False article claims Barack Obama was ‘arrested for espionage’

By Reuters Staff

An article circulating on social media claims that President Barack Obama was arrested on Nov. 28 for espionage. This is false. The fabricated article includes segments of a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Aug. 17, on the arrest of a former CIA officer.

The article includes virtually the same statements by U.S. Attorney Price, Alan E. Kohler Jr., Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, Eli Miranda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Honolulu Division.

Several media outlets reported on Ma’s arrest ( here , here ,  here ,  here ). 

This fabricated article copied segments of a press release from the Department of Justice on the arrest of a former CIA official, not President Obama. Reuters found no credible news reports on the alleged arrest. An event of this kind would have widely been reported in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Reuters recently debunked the claim George Soros was arrested, also published by The Conservative Beaver ( here).  

VERDICT

False. President Barack Obama was not arrested. This fabricated article copied segments of a press release from the Department of Justice on the arrest of a former CIA official.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work    here    .        

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.