Former President Donald Trump is in and out of court, and press coverage of his numerous legal cases is extensive. But one supposed headline that looks as if it appeared on CNN.com tells a fabricated story.
An April 20 Threads post shows what resembles a screenshot of an online story headlined, “Trump soils himself in court.” The post also includes what looks like CNN’s logo and digital interface.
The Threads 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, Threads, and Instagram.)
A reverse-image search shows an Agence France-Presse photojournalist took the former president’s photo. The photojournalist was covering Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan in which the former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
The same screenshot has been widely shared on X.
PolitiFact found no evidence of this report on CNN’s website and a CNN representative said the screenshot was fake.
“The image is fabricated and it’s not something CNN reported,” Emily Kuhn, senior vice president of communications, wrote to PolitFact in an email.
PolitiFact also found no evidence for the Threads claim by any other news organization covering the trial.
We rate the claim that CNN reported Trump soiled himself in court Pants on Fire!
RELATED: A fact-checker’s guide to Trump’s first criminal trial: business records, hush money and a gag order
