CLAIM: Former President Barack Obama removed 500,000 pedophiles from a background check database.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. That claim originated on an unreliable website that distorted the facts about a change to the federal background check system used for firearms sales. The change concerned the definition of a “fugitive from justice” and was put into effect during the Trump administration. It did not focus on individuals accused of pedophilia.

THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a years-old falsehood that misrepresents a change made to the FBI-operated database used for firearms background checks.

“Obama Removed 500,000 Pedophiles From Background Check Database,” reads a headline shared in a screenshot on Instagram.

The headline was published in 2018 on a website known for spreading misinformation and the underlying story doesn’t support that conclusion.

Instead, the story references a Washington Post report from 2017 that covered the fact that tens of thousands of names were removed from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. That purge occurred during former President Donald Trump’s administration, though the Obama administration reportedly played a role.

At issue was how the federal government defines a “fugitive from justice,” who are denied gun sales.

For years, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had disagreed about whether someone had to cross state lines to be considered a fugitive for NICS purposes, according to a 2016 report from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General.

The Post story cited law enforcement sources in reporting that, at the end of the Obama administration, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel reviewed the matter and agreed with the ATF that gun purchases should only be denied to fugitives who cross state lines.

In 2017, after Trump was inaugurated, the FBI issued a memo that put forward a more narrow definition. The memo said the “fugitive from justice” prohibitor would be applied to people who fled the state; did so to avoid prosecution for a crime or avoid providing testimony in a criminal proceeding; and are subject to a “current or imminent criminal prosecution or testimonial obligation.”

The purge did not occur during the Obama administration, as the false headline purports, nor did it center on people accused of pedophilia.

“The change to the interpretation of ‘fugitive from justice’ occurred after Trump took office, in February 2017. It involved people who were subject to arrest warrants for all kinds of crimes (not just pedophilia),” Lindsay Nichols, policy director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in an email. The center has advocated for reversing the narrow definition.

“Because of the Trump administration’s narrow interpretation of the law that prohibits fugitives from justice from purchasing or possessing guns, the names of 500,000 people who were subject to arrest warrants were removed from NICS,” Nichols added. “According to the FBI under the Trump administration, people subject to arrest warrants can only be included in NICS as ‘fugitives from justice’ if there is specific evidence that they fled from the state that issued the arrest warrant.”

The narrow definition put into place in 2017 remains, she added.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

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