Feds didn’t seize video of Hillary Clinton killing a child

A federal indictment alleging music magnate Sean “Diddy” Combs filmed sex acts at “freak off” parties led some social media users to revive an old debunked conspiracy theory about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“FBI seize Diddy tape showing Hillary Clinton killing child at ‘freak off’ party,” an Oct. 31 Instagram post reads. It also says, “Seized footage from Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ notorious parties allegedly feature Hillary Clinton in scenes that will upend the political establishment in Washington D.C.” It appears to be a screenshot from a video; there is a partially visible timestamp in the lower left corner. 

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

But this is an updated version of a years-old conspiracy theory, and there’s still no evidence to support it.

The Instagram post uses language identical to an Oct. 3 X post by Sean Adl-Tabatabai, cofounder of the website The People’s Voice. The X post had more than 5.5 million views as of Nov. 3.

The same headline and text appeared in an Oct. 3 article from The People’s Voice. PolitiFact has fact-checked multiple fabricated articles published on the site, which frequently publishes false or misleading stories. 

These claims recycle a baseless rumor PolitiFact already debunked: that a secret video exists that shows Clinton assaulting and killing a child in a sacrifice ritual. This conspiracy theory started circulating in 2018 as an outgrowth of the unfounded “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory.

There was no credible evidence for it then, and that is still the case. Despite the viral claims, no such video has ever turned up.

Federal investigators did reportedly seize video from Combs’ properties. A September 2024 federal indictment alleged that Combs “kept videos he filmed of victims engaging in sex acts with commercial sex workers.”

The New York Post reported it had viewed dozens of videos seized by federal investigators, purportedly taken at Combs’ parties, which showed him watching or engaging in sex acts between men and women.

However, court documents and reports by credible news outlets about these videos mention neither Clinton nor the killing of a child.

PolitiFact has investigated other false claims about the Combs case involving Vice President Kamala Harris, Beyoncé and Jay-Z and a supposed clone.

We rate the claim that the FBI seized a video of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton killing a child at a Combs party Pants on Fire!