Category: Fact Checking

Claim:

A dog was registered to vote by its owner, who submitted a ballot in the pet’s name in California’s 2021 gubernatorial recall election.

Rating:

Rumors that a dog in California was successfully registered to vote and cast a ballot in an election circulated online in mid-February 2026. 

The claim was popularized on the social media platform X after a post (archived) asserting the rumor was shared by X chairman Elon Musk (archived). 

Some users pointed to the story as an example of alleged rampant voter fraud in the United States electoral system. 

I wonder who he voted for? 🤣 https://t.co/3LwkkAmARW

— sunny madra (@sundeep) February 17, 2026

The claim that a dog voted in a California election was true. A boxer named Maya, owned by 62-year-old Laura Lee Yourex of Costa Mesa, California, was registered to vote and successfully cast a ballot in 2021.

The Orange County district attorney’s office announced it would be prosecuting Yourex on voter fraud charges in a news release dated Sept. 5, 2025.

According to the release, Yourex was charged with five felonies: one count of perjury, one count of procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, two counts of casting a ballot when not entitled to vote and one count of registering a nonexistent person to vote.

The dog had votes cast in California’s 2021 gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 gubernatorial election, but only the 2021 vote was counted. It joined the majority of California voters rejecting the attempt to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The 2022 vote was “challenged and rejected,” according to the district attorney’s office. 

An investigation reportedly uncovered a social media post from January 2022 in which Yourex posted a photo of the dog wearing an “I voted” sticker and another from October 2024 that showed a vote-by-mail ballot with the dog’s name and a caption that said “Maya is still getting her ballot” despite the dog having died. Snopes was unable to locate any social accounts for Yourex as of this writing.

A search of Orange County court records showed that the case remained active as of this writing, with a hearing scheduled for early March 2026.

According to local TV news station KABC, Yourex’s lawyers emphasized that their client had never been in trouble with the law previously and read from a statement in which she said she “regrets her unwise attempt to expose flaws in our state voting system, intending to improve it by demonstrating that even a dog can be registered to vote.”

Snopes reached out to the Orange County district attorney’s office for an update on the proceedings and will update this article if we receive a response. 

U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif, made reference to Yourex and Maya during remarks about California’s Proposition 50 during a session of the House of Representatives on Sept. 19, 2025. The proposition, which was an effort to redraw congressional district lines to favor Democrats and counteract similar efforts in Texas and elsewhere, passed with 64% of the vote.

Kiley brought up Yourex’s case as an example of voter fraud allegedly running rampant in California, beginning at the 3:08:33 timestamp of a C-SPAN video capturing the entire session. He accurately summarized the situation and speculated that Yourex “probably” would have gotten away with it had she not posted about it on social media. 

“To be clear, dogs are not allowed to vote in California. And yet in this case, the animal did,” Kiley said. “So the question we have to ask, Mr. Speaker, is how in the world do we have so few safeguards on our electoral process in California that such a thing could ever happen?”

Kiley later posted the clip of his remarks about Yourex on his Facebook page.

Sources

In February 2026, a video (archived) circulated online purportedly showing a “humanoid robot” in London. 

The clip, recorded in the Hoxton area of East London, showed the “robot” interacting with young people whom appeared to be students, answering questions about its name and creator.

One person who shared the footage on X wrote, “Meanwhile, in London.. an AI humanoid was seen walking the streets and was surrounding by intrigued school kids. Spooky.”

(X user @KieraDiss)

The video of the alleged robot also circulated on YouTube and TikTok.

Though the context of the footage was unclear as of this writing, it did not appear to show a “humanoid robot,” meaning a robot modeled after the human body. Rather, it appeared to show a woman in a costume, given that at around the 00:28 mark of the version circulating on X, the woman briefly broke character and laughed. 

The “robot” in the video appeared to be a version of “Joy” — an invention that AI company Joyous AI described as “The World’s First Indistinguishable from Human, Humanoid Robot.” Joyous’ Instagram profile posted several videos of their “robot” appearing across London.

Snopes contacted Callum Scott, who described himself as Joyous’ chief robotics officer on LinkedIn, for more information about “Joy.” When reached by phone, Scott deflected a question about whether “Joy” was actually a human and referred us to the company’s spokesperson, who had not commented by the provided deadline.

We also contacted the TikTok user Eduard Constantin, who recorded three videos of “Joy,” to ask for his assessment of the “humanoid robot.” We will update this article if he responds. One of Constantin’s videos showed “Joy” making more human-like movements (at around the 0:27 mark), such as rubbing her hands together.

Due to a lack of reliable confirmation about what the footage showed, we have left this claim unrated.

At the time of this writing, Joyous was advertising an event, titled “Joy In The Flesh” on Feb. 27, 2026, in London. It appeared the company would unveil “Joy” at this event.

It was unclear why the company decided to do a walkabout with “Joy” in Hoxton in February 2026. The videos circulating online showed the “robot” in Purcell Street and Pitfield Street.

In 2023, passersby also spotted “humanoid robots” at London Bridge train station (archived), also in the U.K. capital. These “robots” were humans in costume carrying out a promotion for the sci-fi movie “The Creator.”

In early February 2026, the tech publication “rest of the world” reported that 90% of the world’s humanoid robots are produced in China. The industry in the country is highly developed, with companies even putting on all-robot soccer matches. 

Sources

A claim (archived) that U.S. first lady Melania Trump and her son, Barron Trump, opened a free hospital for homeless people circulated online in mid-February 2026.

One such claim on Facebook began, “MELANIA & BARRON TRUMP JUST OPENED AMERICA’S FIRST 100% FREE HOMELESS HOSPITAL – ‘THIS IS THE LEGACY WE WANT TO LEAVE BEHIND.’”

The claim circulated mainly on Facebook (archived, archived, archived). The Facebook posts featured links in top comments leading to articles in advertisement-filled blogs — not reputable news media outlets.

The webpage mentioned above went live on Feb. 16, 2026. However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo for the alleged “Hope Medical Center” and the Trump name a day later found no credible news media outlets reporting on the pair opening a hospital (archived, archived, archived, archived), as the ad-filled story claimed. Prominent news media outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if it were true.

Rather, whoever authored the story fabricated the entire report as one of hundreds of inspirational tales that depicted celebrities, athletes and public figures performing inspiring acts of kindness. They aimed to earn advertising revenue on websites linked from the aforementioned Facebook posts. As we lay out below, the story about Melania and Barron Trump’s alleged free hospital amounted to fiction.

Snopes previously reported on this claim when it circulated online around Feb. 2, 2026. It was unclear who first posted the later claim about the Trumps’ alleged hospital. One Facebook page that posted the story toward the end of February also posted it earlier that month. 

Story used AI images and text

Regarding the image of Melania and Barron Trump that Facebook posts shared, Hive Moderation and Sightengine, two online AI detectors, found a higher-than-60% probability they were “likely” AI-generated. (Such AI detectors are fallible and, therefore, cannot be relied upon alone.) The purported Melania Trump also looked different from authentic pictures of the first lady from mid-February 2026.

(Sightengine/Hive Moderation/Snopes illustration)

The image that the Facebook page above used in its  post also appeared in similar forms on three other Facebook pages. It showed the Trumps in identical poses but wearing different clothes. It was highly unlikely that the pair would have posed in an identical manner so many times in different outfits. 

ZeroGPT, an online AI detector for text, found that AI was “100%” likely to have written parts of an ad-filled story that one Facebook page linked to.

For further reading, Snopes frequently checks online claims about both Melania and Barron Trump.

Claim:

An image posted online in early February 2026 shows sex offender Jeffrey Epstein posing with singer Courtney Love.

Rating:

In February 2026, social media users circulated a photograph they claimed showed convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein posing with singer Courtney Love.

One X post (archived) included a caption reading “I think I figured out what really happened to Kurt Cobain.  I mean come on, do you trust Courtney Love?”

(X user @MrViper)

The image also spread on Facebook and in Italian– and French-language X posts. In comments, many users appeared to believe it was real.

However, the image was not an authentic photo and originated from a satirical social media account.

The account that first shared the image included a bio emphasizing that its content was not real, reading “• It’s all fake • Laugh about it • No Dms • Check the highlights • GFL.” In the comments, the original poster also pointed users back to that bio.

We also ran the image through Google Gemini’s SynthID check, a tool that scans for embedded watermarks by artificial intelligence software. That scan detected a SynthID watermark and concluded “All or part of this image was created or edited using Google’s AI tools.”

(Google Gemini)

Below is a genuine Getty Images photograph showing Love in an outfit similar to the one depicted in the fake photo — showing how the manipulated image appears to have been based on real footage:

(Getty Images)

All in all, the photograph purportedly showing Epstein with Love does not document a real meeting or relationship. It was digitally fabricated and originated on a satirical account, and there is no verified evidence that it represents an actual moment in either person’s life.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.

Claim:

A man was arrested in Florida after he attempted to “baptize” an alligator inside a Waffle House.

Rating:

Rumors that a man in the state of Florida was arrested after trying to “baptize” an alligator in a Waffle House restaurant circulated online in mid-February 2026. 

Users on social media platforms like Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Instagram (archived) were eager to share the outrageous claim, spreading a purported mugshot of the man in question and an alleged post from Florida news outlet WFOR that said he attempted to use a “pitcher of iced tea” to perform the ritual. 

(The Dude Humor Report on Instagram)

There was no evidence that the claim was true or that the mugshot included in the social media posts was authentic. Instead, the rumor originated as a satirical post from an account that identified itself as “comedy.” 

A search of Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo returned no results for credible news outlets reporting on such a story.

A Google reverse image search of the purported social media post from WFOR’s account returned only other social media accounts posting the same alleged screenshot, all from mid-February. 

(Google)

WFOR is a broadcast channel in Miami, Florida, officially branded as CBS Miami. 

The social media accounts for the station are labeled as “CBS Miami” and not “WFOR4NEWS” as of this writing. A search of CBS Miami’s social accounts for a post matching the screenshot shared in the claim returned no relevant results. 

A search of newspaper archive Newspapers.com and the CBS Miami website also returned no results for such a story.

The image appeared to originate from a Facebook account that shared a multitude of alleged stories accompanied by fake imagery similar to the one shown in the claim. The account posted (archived) the claim about a Florida man baptizing an alligator on Feb. 12, 2026. 

However, the same account posted similar claims around the same time as the post in question, all allegedly from the same purported WFOR4NEWS account. Other purported headlines included a Florida woman arrested for starting a brush fire after “using a flamethrower to clear a spider web from her porch” and a man attempting to trade an alligator for beer at a store. 

Like the “baptizing” claim, these posts included alleged mugshots, but there was no evidence the reports or images were authentic. The mugshots appeared to be created using generative artificial intelligence, although Snopes has been unable to independently verify that. 

All of the above mentioned posts from the Facebook account in question were labeled with the hashtags “comedy,” “satire” and “for entertainment only,” indicating they were intended as a joke. 

Further, the page from which these posts originated featured a disclaimer that read, “This page features satire and parody stories that are exaggerated, developing fictional — created for entertainment purposes only.”

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.

Amid the rise of AI slop and deepfakes, fraudsters have more tools than ever to trick a good samaritan into handing over money for an apparent good cause.

Snopes has covered online scams for years: We have warned people away from illegitimate giveaways, a fake premium version of WhatsApp and phishing attempts. We have also debunked the authenticity of several viral GoFundMe pages, including a hoax page for a fake Powerball loser. 

However, crowdfunding scams — as well as real people asking for help — are prominent due to global crises like those in Ukraine and Gaza and it is impossible for Snopes to cover every single one.  

“Fraudsters, they’re opportunistic criminals,” Mason Wilder, a research director of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, said in a phone call. “They don’t let a good crisis go to waste.” 

We spoke with experts and put together this guide to help readers determine if they are donating money to people and charities in need or fraudsters trying to make a quick buck:

1. Do a reverse image search

Fraudsters often impersonate legitimate charities or real people in desperate circumstances. One of the simplest ways to check for impersonation is by doing a reverse image search of any pictures attached to a fundraiser, particularly of people. If the photo shows up in other, older fundraisers then that is a significant red flag. 

“Scammers are lazy,” Wilder said. “They’re just going to grab photos that exist or that they see on other people’s pages and try to pass it off as their own.” 

Wilder recommended the reverse image search engines TinEye, Yandex and Google Images, which we also reference in our explainer on how to perform a reverse image search.

2. Check for signs of AI 

Generative artificial intelligence has increasingly become more realistic and difficult to spot. According to Wilder, some scammers even use live AI tools to make someone sound and look completely different. At Snopes, we frequently use AI-detection tools like ZeroGPT and Hive Moderation, but they are not foolproof. 

There are a few indicators you can still look for, especially in content generated by less-sophisticated AI tools. In images, check for distorted hands and facial features, inconsistent lighting, exaggerated facial expressions and illegible text. In videos, listen for monotone voices without a natural rhythm, distortions and unnatural movement. 

3. Use charity rating tools, check for documentation

Sometimes, organizations get created and registered as actual charities, but they “only exist to capitalize on some recent theme or disaster,” Wilder said. Charity rating and legitimacy tools such as Charity Navigator, GuideStar and CharityWatch can provide insight into whether an organization is transparent about how donations are used and how much money actually goes to the cause in question. 

Looking for an organization’s news releases or reports from reputable news media outlets can also help to determine whether a charity has actually worked to benefit a cause. 

“If there’s no presence on the internet other than a basic webpage, that might be a bit of a red flag,” Wilder said. 

4. Validate the URL and consider the platform you’re on

Scammers often use fraudulent web addresses to steal sensitive information. Before clicking on a URL, try right-clicking, copying the full link and then pasting it into a tool that checks for malicious URLs. Bhupendra Acharya, a computer science professor at the University of Louisiana who researches cybercrime and fraudulent crowdfunding campaigns, recommended VirusTotal. Other detection tools include NordVPN‘s and Bitdefender‘s link checkers. 

Potential donors should also consider what platform the fundraiser uses. While smaller organizations and mutual aid groups may legitimately use crowdfunding platforms or mobile payment services like Venmo to raise money, if a fundraising campaign is supposedly for a major, established charity but is hosted on a third-party platform, that could be a clue that there is a fraudster behind the campaign, Wilder and Acharya said. 

Some platforms also have various protections for your money, which donors can look for before sending anything. GoFundMe, for example, has a “giving guarantee,” where the company promises a full refund for up to a year if a donor believes something is not right. (A spokesperson for GoFundMe, Leigh Lehman, said in a phone call that misuse on the platform is rare and GoFundMe has a “robust safety process” involving verification of personal and banking information.) 

5. Take a critical eye to the story you are being told

Experts recommended taking the time to read the story’s details, including the history of the fundraiser, whether the recipient has shared updates and how the funds are being used. 

“Fraudsters are always hasty. They want to make a lot of content creation, and they may not necessarily post all the relevant information,” Acharya said by phone. 

Some crowdfunding platforms, such as GoFundMe, have contact buttons for the organizer. Lehman recommended contacting the organizer for more information if there are insufficient details in the original call to action. 

6. Who is sharing the story?

Acharya’s research found that fraudsters often make multiple social media profiles to help boost one scam campaign and to create false credibility because victims, he said, are more likely to believe a campaign is legitimate if lots of people share it. If the accounts sharing the story do not seem to follow the rules in tip No. 5, they may be bots or fake accounts. 

Acharya said you can also sometimes tell if a social media account is not legitimate by looking at the profile’s interests. People usually have a limited number of interests and share posts from a certain perspective, he said. For example, if the account has shared posts from dozens of different sports, that may indicate that something is off. 

Fundraisers for individuals shared by people who you personally know — particularly those who explain their relationship to the person fundraising — are more likely to be legitimate, both Acharya and Lehman said. 

7. If you can, use a credit card

Wilder recommended using credit cards over debit cards because, he said, they have better fraud protections for customers than debit cards or peer-to-peer payment platforms. 

“If you use Venmo, that money is gone. You’re going to have to prove that it was fraud to get money back. If you use a credit card, you’ve got a billing cycle. They can just kind of freeze it,” Wilder said. 

(Payment apps often acknowledge that risk. Snopes contacted Venmo for a response and will update this story if we hear back.) 

8. Trust your gut

While these tips can help separate fact from fraud, there is no single, concrete way to determine the legitimacy of many crowdfunding campaigns. In some situations, legitimate fundraisers can also appear to be spam or scams — and skilled fraudsters often use slick designs and professional layouts to add credibility, Acharya said. 

Still, all of the experts Snopes spoke to emphasized that they did not want to warn people away from donating in general and that legitimate causes and communities still need support. For many people, Wilder pointed out, the risk of being scammed is worth it if they are helping others. 

“People who are in destitute situations because they’re from Gaza and their whole life has been destroyed, they’re not necessarily going to be able to demonstrate a long history of consistent habits as they’re trying to plea for any assistance while dying of starvation,” Wilder said, in reference to expert advice on checking a person’s social media page. “In some cases, you’re going to have to make a bit of a leap of faith.” 

Beware image showing Mamdani and his mom with Epstein, Clinton, Gates, Bezos

Feb. 3, 2026

Although Mamdani’s mother attended an afterparty at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house for a film she dir …

Read More

Claim:

Prince Andrew said in 2008, “We’re not allowed to play Monopoly at home. It gets too vicious.”

Rating:

In February 2026, British police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — formerly known as Prince Andrew, Duke of York — on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor is the first British royal to be arrested in nearly 400 years.

Following his arrest, a years-old anecdote about the royal family being unable to play Monopoly because “it gets too vicious” resurfaced online.

The quote is from Mountbatten-Windsor. He made the comment in 2008 at the Leeds Building Society’s newly-refurbished Albion Street headquarters, where he was presented with a version of the famous board game, ahead of the Christmas holidays. 

“We’re not allowed to play Monopoly at home. It gets too vicious,” he said. 

He did not elaborate on what game they did play. This statement was reported in The Telegraph and it was not clear whether he was joking or not, but it is safe to assume that he was making a lighthearted comment. A clip of Mountbatten-Windsor making this comment can be found in this 2011 video:

It is not known if this rule is still in place, or indeed if it was ever actually a family rule. 

Sources

Claim:

An email addressed to Jeffrey Epstein about a November 2013 party and “a dozen one-year-olds” referenced child sex trafficking or other illegal acts.

Rating:

In February 2026, online users discussed their concerns about an email that appeared in Jeffrey Epstein’s federal case files mentioning a party and “a dozen one-year-olds.” 

The email chain featured literary agent John Brockman corresponding with the convicted sex offender on Nov. 28, 2013, and included a message from Brockman that said, “p.s. You missed the big event on Saturday. A party with a dozen beautiful East Side girls (well, a dozen one-year olds!!).” Epstein had already spent years as a registered sex offender by that time.

On Feb. 13, 2026, a Reddit user posted (archived) a screenshot of the email to the r/conspiracy subreddit with the caption, “John Brockman emailing JE about a party with ‘a dozen one-year olds.’” According to the top-voted comments, users largely believed the email possibly referenced child sex trafficking or other illegal acts. Comments under other posts reflected the same thoughts, including on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived) and TikTok (archived).

(the_sauce_linker/Reddit)

Mario Nawfal — an X user with more 3 million followers who previously shared misinformation about the Epstein files’ references to jerky — posted (archived) a screenshot of the email next to a photo of Brockman. The user wrote, in part, “Who jokes like that to a convicted sex offender? Someone who knew exactly who Jeffrey Epstein was and didn’t care. The casual tone of this email is sickening.” Some commenters under Nawfal’s post indicated they believed Brockman was not, in fact, joking.

(Mario Nawfal/X)

In short, the rumor that the email referenced child sex trafficking or other illegal acts was false. Public-facing social media posts from Brockman’s family — as well as a statement from Brockman’s son, Max — confirmed the email to Epstein referenced, in a jocular manner, his granddaughter’s first birthday party.

Searches for information about John Brockman’s family led to a New York Times article reporting on the May 2011 marriage of Max Brockman. Snopes’ review of the couple’s public-facing social media content found photos, as well as comments from friends and followers, showing the couple welcomed a baby girl on Nov. 23, 2012. For example, the girl’s mother documented the child’s fifth birthday in an Instagram post on Nov. 23, 2017.

Max Brockman confirmed to Snopes via email, “My daughter was born on November 23, 2012, and the party my father referenced was, as you guessed, her first birthday party.”

We also contacted John Brockman to ask questions and will update this article if we receive more details.

The Brockman name appears in well over 3,000 Epstein files results on the U.S. Justice Department’s website. Officials have not charged John Brockman or Max Brockman with any crimes in relation to Epstein’s own charges.

For further reading, we previously investigated dozens of Epstein files rumors, including mentions of pizza and cream cheese that social media users claimed were code words, as well as claims of cannibalism and alleged ritualistic sacrifice.

Sources

Claim:

In January 1999, Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson praised Donald Trump, saying the future U.S. president embraced the “underserved communities.”

Rating:

In 1999, as future U.S. President Donald Trump was building a real estate empire, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was entrenched in international diplomacy and continuing to further civil rights domestically. Following Jackson’s death on Feb. 17, 2026, a claim spread online that Jackson once praised Trump for his commitment to underserved communities.

Users shared a video clip allegedly showing Jackson introducing Trump at a gathering in New York on multiple platforms, including Instagram, X (archived) and Facebook, racking up millions of views.

The clip was authentic and available on C-SPAN’s website, and it authentically showed Jackson introducing Trump with praise. Therefore we’ve rated this claim true.

The video was taken Jan. 14, 1999, during a New York gathering for an economic initiative headed by Jackson called the Wall Street Project. Trump, reportedly along with several other notable figures, was in attendance.

 

During his introductory remarks for Trump, Jackson said:

I now want to bring forth a friend who has — well he is deceptive in that his social style is of such, one can miss that his seriousness and just commitment for the success is beyond argument. When we opened this Wall Street Project and we talked about it, he gave us space at 40 Wall Street, which was to make a statement about our having a presence there. And beyond that, in terms of reaching out and being inclusive, he’s done that too. And created for many people a comfort zone when I ran for the presidency in ’84 and ’88. And many others thought it was either laughable or something to avoid, he came to our business meeting here in New York because he has this sense of the curious, and a will to risk to make things better. And so aside from all of his style and his pizzazz, he’s a serious person who is an effective builder … for the people. Last year he was a part of our workshop, of our panel workshop, on what are the challenges and opportunities. And so this, a year later, Donald Trump, for a few minutes. Challenges and opportunities to embrace the underserved communities. Donald Trump.

The New York Times reported on the event, though its story did not mention that Trump was present. This may be due to the fact that other notable figures, including then-President Bill Clinton, were also in attendance.

The 1999 gathering wasn’t the only time Jackson and Trump crossed paths. As mentioned by Jackson in his 1999 comments, during the Wall Street Project’s conference one year earlier, in January 1998, Trump spoke on a panel alongside Jackson. (C-SPAN footage of that is also available online.)

Dozens of images of the two also appear in Getty Images archives, most of them taken during a 1988 Mike Tyson boxing match.

Though Trump did not formally enter politics until he began running for president in 2015, he had teased a presidential bid as early as 1987. Jackson remained a Democrat throughout his life, criticizing Trump and his policies on multiple occasions. 

“He has a lot of reaching out to do,” Jackson wrote in a 2016 opinion piece following Trump’s presidential win. “For the sake of the country and the world, I pray his arms are long enough. Yet, reaching out is not enough. He must also embrace and include those he has pushed away.”

Sources

Andrew Friendly | German Marshall Fund of the United States. https://www.gmfus.org/find-experts/andrew-friendly. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Briceño, Maria. “Guthrie’s Husband’s Company Is Not Epstein ‘co-Conspirator’.” @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2026/feb/16/tweets/epstein-files-nancy-guthrie-feldman/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“EFTA00149963.Pdf.” Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00149963.pdf. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“EFTA00603608.Pdf.” Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00603608.pdf. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“EFTA01928921.Pdf.” Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01928921.pdf.

“EFTA01942632.Pdf.” Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01942632.pdf. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“EFTA02514269.Pdf.” Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02514269.pdf. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

” Epstein Library.” Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“Finsbury, The Glover Park Group and Hering Schuppener to Form One Global Firm.” Business Wire, 7 July 2020, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200707005391/en/Finsbury-The-Glover-Park-Group-and-Hering-Schuppener-to-Form-One-Global-Firm.

“Kelly Friendly.” Linkedin, https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-friendly-a5a30b16/.

“Michael Feldman.” FGS Global, https://fgsglobal.com/people/michael-feldman. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Office of Public Affairs | Department of Justice Publishes 3.5 Million Responsive Pages in Compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act | United States Department of Justice. 30 Jan. 2026, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-publishes-35-million-responsive-pages-compliance-epstein-files.

Peralta, Eyder. “CIA Director Petraeus Resigns, Citing Extramarital Affair.” NPR, 9 Nov. 2012. America. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/11/16/164810122/cia-director-david-petraeus-resigns.

Pohjanpalo, Kati, and Ott Ummelas. “How a Low-Key Norwegian Became Epstein’s Top Diplomatic Fixer.” Bloomberg, 18 Feb. 2026, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-18/how-a-low-key-norwegian-became-epstein-s-top-diplomatic-fixer.

“The Arabs Smitten by the Israeli Lobby – Opinion.” Ahram Online, https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/98578/Opinion/The-Arabs-smitten-by-the-Israeli-lobby.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“WEDDINGS; Kelly Crawford, Andrew Friendly.” New York Times, 20 June 1999, https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/20/style/weddings-kelly-crawford-andrew-friendly.html.

Claim:

A mention of singer Stevie Wonder’s refusal to play for the Israeli army appears in the documents related to the case of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Rating:

Context

Wonder appeared in the Epstein-related files the Department of Justice released because a newsletter Epstein seemingly subscribed to included him in a list of “anti-Israel celebrities” in 2014, citing Wonder’s refusal to perform at a 2012 fundraiser for the Israeli military. We could find no evidence the disgraced financier personally opined on the musician or his stance on Israel and its armed forces.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s release millions of documents related to the case of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sparked a rumor in February 2026 that singer Stevie Wonder appeared in the files for refusing to play for the Israeli army.

The claim appeared on Instagram as an image that relayed it (archived):

The image and its caption read:

Epstein Files name music legend Stevie Wonder “anti-Israel” for refusing to perform for Israeli army

Motown music legend Stevie Wonder was included in the #EpsteinFiles for not cooperating, and being “anti-Israel.” This comes after Wonder agreed not to perform for the Israeli Army after boycotts pushed him to do so. In 2012, after BDS placed pressure on Wonder, Wonder cancelled his performance at a benefit concert in Los Angeles for the Israeli military forces. Backing out of the show led to him being listed as “anti-Israel.”

The claim appeared on a separate Instagram post, sharing the screenshot of an X post that described Wonder as “the original Bob Vylan” (referring to the English punk duo who caused controversy in summer 2025 for leading the chant “death, death to the IDF” — the Israel Defense Forces — at the Glastonbury Festival). Another post on X made the same claim, listing other celebrities had been flagged as “anti-Israel” in Epstein’s files.

It is true that Wonder’s name appears in one 2014 email to Epstein. That email was not a piece of personal correspondence by or to Epstein, however.

Instead, it was a newsletter, titled “Anti-Israel celebrities and their brands,” from the Jewish News Syndicate, a news agency that covers “Israel and the Jewish world,” according to its website. 

On Aug. 6, 2014, JNS sent Epstein the newsletter with this list, in which Wonder appeared last. The section about him read:

Singer Stevie Wonder backed out of a performance at a Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) gala in Los Angeles in 2012 due to “a recommendation from the United Nations to withdraw.’ Prior to Wonders decision to cancel his performance. BDS activists posted a petition on change.org urging the singer to pull out. That petition garnered more than 4.600 signatures. 

In 2013, Wonder appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for Bud Light.

Other celebrities the newsletter singled out for allegedly being anti-Israel included actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem and comedian Russell Brand.

A Google search for the title of the newsletter revealed Epstein was not the only one who’d received it. For example, Crescent City Jewish News, a website dedicated to offering content for the Jewish community of New Orleans, published the text of the newsletter in full, crediting JNS.

Searching the DOJ’s online Epstein Library for the key words “JNS News” revealed multiple emails from the outlet, suggesting Epstein subscribed to the newsletter. Other newsletters and automated emails Epstein seemingly subscribed to also appeared in the files the DOJ released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act — for example, the DOJ’s Epstein Library also includes updates from streaming music service Spotify and social question-and-answer website Quora.

A search in the Epstein Library for the key words “Stevie Wonder” returned other mentions of Wonder, but none that touched on his relationship to Israel. For example, another newsletter Epstein received in 2013 recommended numerous songs including Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky.” (As a caveat, we must note that Epstein frequently mistyped his emails, creating the possibility that he did discuss Wonder in the context of Israel while misspelling the artist’s name.)

Context for the newsletter

A search for the alleged incident JNS wrote about revealed extensive reporting from multiple reputable news outlets in 2012 regarding Wonder backing out of the fundraiser. 

That year, hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza intensified, causing repeated clashes between the two that culminated in an eight-day war from Nov. 14 to Nov. 21 launched by Israel in Gaza under the label “Operation Pillar of Defense.”

According to several reports, the Friends of the IDF gala was set to take place in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 2012 — days after the war ended. The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, better known as the Jewish Journal, reported on the gala after it happened, discussing the fact Wonder backed out a week before and describing protests outside of the venue.

The New York Times, Reuters, The Guardian, the BBC and Miami’s WTVJ all published articles on Wonder’s reported decision to back out of performing at the gala between Nov. 30 and Dec. 3, 2012. All of them quoted the musician as saying, “Given the current and very delicate situation in the Middle East, and with a heart that has always cried out for world unity, I will not be performing at the FIDF Gala on December 6th.”

E! News reported Wonder signed off his statement with the words, “Hoping for one world, one people, one day, Stevie Wonder.”

In addition, all articles said Wonder would be donating money to charitable organizations dedicated to helping Israeli and Palestinian children with disabilities.

Snopes reached out to Wonder’s representatives asking them to confirm the statement the musician made at the time.

For further reading, Snopes has examined a number of claims related to the emails in the DOJ’s Epstein Library, including the rumor Epstein said babies taste of cream cheese.

Claim:

A video authentically shows attendees at a White House Black History Month reception in February 2026 chanting “Four more years!”

Rating:

In February 2026, a video (archived) spread online purportedly showing people chanting “Four more years!” during a White House reception for Black History Month. The footage showed U.S. President Donald Trump standing at a podium in front of the cheering audience. 

The above footage was authentic and was originally published by the White House. It was taken Feb. 18, 2026, during a reception for Black History Month. As such, we rate this claim as true.

The White House published the video on its official YouTube page and website (archived), with the headline “‘Four more years’ chant erupts at the White House Black History Month celebration.”

In the 12-second video, Trump is seen smiling at a podium as audience members chant “Four more years!” The Associated Press reported that during the event, Trump named several prominent Black entertainers who supported him, including boxer Mike Tyson and rapper Nicki Minaj.

The moment where the audience members chant “Four more years” also appears at the 10:11 mark in this livestream of the event:

Despite the chants, the Constitution bars Trump from serving a third presidential term, as we have previously reported.

In July 2024, Trump told a crowd during a campaign rally, “Get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore.” Critics framed his comments as evidence of an alleged plan to change constitutional provisions governing presidential terms. Trump later said he was trying to encourage Christians to vote for him in the 2024 presidential election, saying he doesn’t care if they “don’t want to vote” after that because “the country will be fixed, and we won’t need your vote anymore.”

Several weeks before the Black History Month event, we reported on Trump facing accusations of racism after his Truth Social account posted and later deleted a video depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as monkeys.

On Feb. 17, 2026, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post about the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s death that he had been “falsely and consistently called a Racist by the Scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left.” 

Sources

Claim:

Donald Trump once said, “Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective.”

Rating:

Context

Trump made the remarks about U.S. President Barack Obama in November 2011.

In February 2026, online users claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump once said the sitting president would “start a war with Iran” because he had “no ability to negotiate.” Users resurfaced the years-old remarks as a video or text quotes amid increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

For example, on Feb. 18, an X user posted (archived) a video showing Trump making the comments. The user’s joking caption read, “Donald Trump with a message for Donald Trump: ‘Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective.’” Other users shared the clip or quote on Bluesky (archived), Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok (archived) and X (archived). 

In short, Trump truly said these words in November 2011. He was referring to then-President Barack Obama, whose administration sought to ensure Iran did not develop nuclear weapons.

At the time, Trump tweeted (archived) his concerns (archived) about Iran. He also shared comments similar to the video, alleging Obama would try to start a war to win the 2012 election.

In September 2013, long after Obama won the 2012 election and had not started a war with Iran, Trump tweeted (archived), “Remember what I previously said–Obama will someday attack Iran in order to show how tough he is.”

During Trump’s first term in office, he withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Obama-negotiated nuclear accord with Iran. The Associated Press reported Trump’s move “deepened his isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility.”

Snopes contacted the White House by email to ask if it wished to comment on users’ posts that resurfaced the video and comments. In response, White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement that Trump “has been clear that the Iranian regime should make a deal or it will be very traumatic” for them, but did not address Trump’s 2011 remarks.

Full Trump video from 2011

On Nov. 16, 2011, Trump’s official YouTube channel published the video circulating online, titled “From The Desk Of Donald Trump: Iran and Occupy Wall Street.” In the months or years that followed, a user changed the video‘s visibility to “private.” An archived version of the page from December 2011 displayed around 13,000 views. At the time, Trump’s channel displayed as “trump” at youtube.com/user/trump — a website address that led to the official channel for The Trump Organization, a real estate conglomerate owned by the Trump family, in 2026.

The Roll Call Factbase Videos YouTube channel hosted a 2018 repost of the 2011 Trump video.

In the video, Trump spoke about Obama and Iran, as well as Occupy Wall Street, a late 2011 movement protesting economic inequality and the corruption of corporate law. The following is a transcript of his remarks (emphasis ours):

Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going to get reelected, and as sure as you’re sitting there, is to start a war with Iran. Now, I’m more militant and more militaristic than the president. I believe in strength. But to start a war in order to get elected, and I believe that’s going to happen, would be an outrage.

Iran can be taken down in many ways. Their population is in turmoil. They look at what’s happening in Syria and other countries where it looked like it was an impossibility. And it looks like that one is going to collapse also. So Iran can be taken.

I would never take the military card off the table and it’s possible that it’ll have to be used because Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but you’ve gotta exhaust other possibilities. And we’re in a great position to do it. They know, or they at least must know, that they’re in a little bit of heat because there’s a lot of pressure to attack. This is a great time to negotiate. Unfortunately, we have a president that doesn’t know the first thing about negotiation. We have a real problem in the White House. So, I believe that he will attack Iran sometime prior to the election because he thinks that’s the only way he can get elected. Isn’t it pathetic?

Well, they finally cleared out the protesters and it’s about time.

It’s great that the protesters are no longer allowed to put up their tents and have a lot of fun or whatever they were having. I don’t mind protesting, but you know what? You have to have a point of view. You go down there and they’re basically protesting everything. They don’t even know what they’re protesting. Some of them are real people that have real and legitimate complaints.

Others are down there for dating purposes, for having a good time, and maybe it’s working. And then some are down there for bad reasons, for evil reasons, and they started getting more and more of them. So, it’s great that it got broken up. It’ll probably come back in smaller forms but they’ve gotta know what they’re protesting first. You have some very good people there, but you also have some real lemons.

So, congratulations. It’s sort of over for now. Let’s see what happens in the future. But tents and living like that it should not…

For further reading about foreign policy, we previously reported that Trump’s first administration agreed to an exchange freeing 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The report also documented that Trump tweeted he once planned to secretly meet, days ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, with Taliban leaders at Camp David.

Sources

In February 2026, social media users wrote to Snopes on Instagram, asking about videos of internet users listening to an audio clip (archived) of an alleged transcript of a phone call between Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The transcript was supposedly a record of the two men discussing measures to ban abortion, stem immigration, create state-funded religious schools, bring back slavery and impregnate eighth graders.

One of the Instagram users who posted a video of themselves listening to the transcript wrote in text superimposed over the clip, “Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy talk about bringing slavery back & and making it mandatory for 8th graders to get pregnant in order to graduate.”

The claim also circulated on X (archived), Facebook (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived).

We found no evidence whatsoever that the audio clip or transcript represented an authentic conversation between McConnell and McCarthy. 

We found no reputable news sources reporting the “leaked” transcript (archived, archived, archived, archived), which would have been extremely newsworthy if true. Though McConnell and McCarthy both previously voted against federal protections for abortion, a common opinion for their party, neither had publicly expressed opinions or plans that aligned with the other supposed policy points like slavery and state-funded religious education allegedly discussed on the call. 

We reached out to representatives for McConnell and McCarthy to ask if the transcript read out in the videos was genuine and await replies to our queries. 

The full transcript of the alleged phone call, which an unidentified voice read out, was as follows: 

OK, so I got the transcripts.

Mitch: We have to bring slavery back. Those were the good old days.

Kevin: How will we do that, there’s no way we can do that.

Mitch: Black people won’t do it but white people will.

Kevin: How will we get white people to be slaves? That sounds ridiculous.

Mitch: We have to get rid of the separation of church and state. We must have state-funded religious schools.

Kevin: I don’t see where you’re getting at.

Mitch: Those schools will have work programs for fourth through eighth graders.

Kevin: Ah, I think I see where you’re going here. How is that going to work?

Mitch: We get the kids to be — to pick all the produce as a part of their work program to teach them the values of good, old-fashioned blue-collar labor and the bounty of God.

Kevin: I don’t think that anyone will go for that.

Mitch: It’s all about grooming, start in the first grade and by fourth grade they’ll be ready to do it.

Kevin: But we already have people to pick the produce.

Mitch: We have to finish the wall.

Kevin: No way that’s going to happen.

Mitch: We find better ways to get the immigrants out of the United States.

Kevin: Like doubling ICE?

Mitch: Yes.

Kevin: This will be too busy, too hard and we’ll be too busy trying to sustain this over long periods of time and generations.

Mitch: No, we get rid of the abortion laws in the United States and we make it mandatory that all eighth-grade females be impregnated in order to graduate.

Kevin: Oh, like replacing the crops. Ha ha ha. Pun intended. 

Also Kevin: I will work on getting the abortion ban, you work on state-funded religious schools.

Mitch: We don’t have to do either. Lindsey and I took care of that with the new SCOTUS. 

“Lindsey” was an apparent reference to Lindsey Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina and a fellow Republican. “SCOTUS” is a common abbreviation for the Supreme Court of the United States.

The versions of the alleged phone call shared online were scant on details about when the conversation supposedly took place. Some said the recording was from July 2022, but did not back up this claim. Online postings contained no further information about who leaked the alleged call or why. 

McConnell and McCarthy on abortion, slavery, school choice

As stated above, Snopes found no evidence that the alleged call between McConnell and McCarthy was real, nor did the call seem to reflect the politicians’ publicly expressed opinions. 

McConnell and McCarthy both voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would “prohibit governmental restrictions on the provision of and access to abortion services.” The bill passed the House in 2021 but failed in the Senate in 2022. 

Since then, McConnell has said that abortion should be dealt with at a state rather than a federal level. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce and ultimately end abortion in the U.S., rated both McConnell and McCarthy “A+.” 

Both McConnell and McCarthy have historically opposed slavery, a central theme of the alleged call, on their social media accounts. McCarthy spoke (archived) of the “evils” of slavery in 2019. That same year, McConnell wrote (archived) about “slavery’s stain on our history” on X. However, McConnell did previously oppose the idea of reparations for slavery, saying in 2019 he didn’t think “reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea.”

Lastly, McConnell allegedly advocated for “state funded religious schools” in the phone call transcript. These schools, he allegedly argued, would be the basis for the renewed slavery project, as students would participate in work programs. In reality, McConnell has historically been a strong advocate for school choice, co-authoring an opinion piece in 2013 that argued “Choice breeds competition — which is the best way to improve schools,” an opinion that would seemingly be at odds with advocating for forced attendance at state-funded schools.

This was not the first rumor Snopes has investigated about either McConnell or McCarthy. For example, we previously looked into claims that McConnell said he would not participate in 2020 election debates that included female moderators and that a photo authentically showed McCarthy watching himself lose a vote for speaker of the House.

Sources