Crosscheck — latest fact-checks and analysis
3 of 6 Misleading Latest fact-check · 6 claims
Trump’s “Decoy Dan” Posts: Six Claims on Alaska’s Senate Spoiler Controversy
The NYT recruitment report is real; the DOJ investigation is real. But “election-rigging,” Sullivan’s “disappearance,” confirmed crimes, and Norm Eisen’s alleged role are unsupported by the evidence.
Photo: Shealeah Craighead / Public domain
The Democrats’ Epstein report cites 11 women; five accuse Trump of assault, not 11
A House Judiciary Democrats report collects accounts tied to 11 women. Five directly accuse Trump of rape or assault, and three never came forward. The White House denies all of it.
A real plan to refuse House seats exists; it targets individuals, not Democrats as a bloc
A Center for Renewing America paper lays out how a House majority could refuse to swear in a member-elect. It needs that majority, and nothing ties it to Trump’s “surprises.”
More fact-checks
Tennessee voters’ touchscreen mix-ups are real; there’s no evidence machines are flipping votes
Tennessee voters say touchscreens picked Blackburn when they chose Green. Each caught it before casting, and votes are counted from paper the voter can check.
Ukraine’s Starlink cap was real; four official accounts of it cannot all be true
Ukraine’s military Starlink lost its link above about 100 mph on Oct. 14. Musk says the U.S. government sets such limits. Trump, Rubio and Hegseth say the government set none.
Witkoff’s praise of Putin as a humanitarian clashes with the ICC and UN record
Witkoff told Putin, “You are a humanitarian also, sir,” after Russia freed a wrongfully detained American. An ICC warrant and UN findings on deported children say otherwise.
London Economic: Did Yandex Strikes Silence Reform UK’s Bots?
Ukraine struck three Yandex data centres and Cloudflare traffic crashed, but every research team tracking actual influence accounts found no significant decline.
Public Citizen’s count of Trump’s canceled corporate cases holds up; its math and $3.1B figure do not
Trump’s agencies did drop cases and pardon companies, as Public Citizen says. But its totals don’t add up, and most of its $3.1 billion figure was cut by a judge under Biden.
“I Can Do Whatever I Want”: What the Viral Trump Quote Card Omitted, and Where Democracy Docket Overreached
The viral quote card drops Trump’s stated restraint with an ellipsis; Democracy Docket then extracts one clause and leaps to election control. Both presentations: Misleading.
Trump Declines OSCE Election Observers for the First Time in 24 Years
The Trump administration declined OSCE/ODIHR election observers for the first time in 24 years. Six explicit claims rated; the Russia-Belarus comparison assessed.
Trump’s Bayer Ohio Announcement: One True Fact, Four Problems
Trump’s Bayer claim: the $2.2B plant is real, but 600 permanent jobs beat ‘thousands,’ tariffs didn’t drive it, and $600B is savings, not investment.
Iowa steel plant builder is Indian-owned and files H-1B visas, as Greene said
Mesabi Metallics is owned by India’s Essar Group and has filed for H-1B workers in Minnesota. It is not new to the U.S., and its Iowa plant is still only a plan.
The America.gov chatbot dodged political questions, then answered them again
America.gov’s chatbot swapped fact-checks for refusals on Sept. 30, then answered again within hours. Nothing shows who changed it or why, and TNR misstated a CBO figure.
NRC plan drops ALARA and raises emissions benchmark; public dose limit unchanged
A proposed NRC rule would scrap ALARA and lift a reactor emissions benchmark from 10 to 25 mrem a year. The 100 mrem public dose limit stays, and nothing is final yet.
DOJ complained about seven Minnesota judges; it is not investigating them
The Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint and asked the Eighth Circuit to investigate seven Minnesota judges. It is not running an investigation itself.
Analysis
The Pentagon’s new religion office is likely legal; how it is used is the test
Courts have upheld the military chaplaincy for 40 years, so Hegseth’s office is on firm ground. Coercion and favoring one faith are the limits, and parts of his record press on both.
The Footnotes Were the New Part
A federal judge found HHS built its teen pregnancy policy on citations that do not exist. The fabrications sit exactly where the law demanded evidence and none was available.
Who Owns America’s Media? A 2026 Ownership Map
The “six companies control 90% of media” shorthand is a rough cut. Here is who actually owns what in 2026, and why the local picture is far worse.
FedEx Paid Out Executive Bonuses the Same Year It Cut Hub Workers’ Hours
FedEx’s board approved a bonus pool of undisclosed size for 1,100 executives, plus richer severance, the same stretch its Indianapolis hub capped full-time hours at 35 a week.
The Text Said “Friends for Peace.” The Paper Trail Says Something Else.
A $9 million foreign-agent contract, a former Trump campaign manager, and a rift inside the Trump administration itself — traced through the government’s own filings.
From MAGA Queen to Party Exile: The Greene–Trump Rupture, Chronicled
Trump’s fiercest loyalist lost his endorsement over the Epstein files, resigned Congress 7 days later, spent 2026 fighting his Iran war, and quit the GOP entirely.
The $1.5 Trillion Rocket: Inside the SpaceX IPO Valuation
SpaceX is not a zero-profit company. It posts a $4.9 billion loss because it absorbed xAI; the rocket-and-Starlink business makes money. The $1.75 trillion price is a bet on the future.
The Sign Was Right: What the Data Actually Says About Predators
Peer-reviewed research consistently shows clergy and religious authority figures are documented sex offenders at rates of 4-7%, while no credible study has ever linked LGBTQ+ identity to child…