As fans of the QAnon conspiracy theory make unsubstantiated allegations linking Ever Ever, a giant container ship stranded in the Egyptian Suez Canal for nearly a week linked to the Clintons. refugees and smuggling were raided at the port of Baltimore. Although the reports shared screenshots from a satirical article that was a few years old, it appears that social media users are taking the claims in it seriously.
Examples of Facebook users sharing the claim out of context can be found here, here and here. Comments on the posts include: ‘Criminal bullshit’, ‘Wow. It should be all over the world news. Unfortunately, it will not be, “and” Hope this is the beginning of the developing public. “
One person shared the screenshot with the following caption: “March 30, 2021: ‘Human and Drug Dealers Killery & Willy Clinton … why the shock? They were involved in these businesses in Arkansas when Willy was governor … ever heard of the Dixie Mafia? It’s time for these criminals to be brought to justice !!! #JailClintons! ”(Here).
The text in the reports says that the Clinton ship carried 460 refugees “from places like Yemen and Syria, and none had any documentation.” It also says authorities seize crates containing ‘illegal fruit that could potentially carry foreign insects and foodborne diseases, weapons without serial numbers on them and no less than 30 pounds of marijuana’. ‘
Filed here, the article has been circulating in the reports since at least May 15, 2017, according to screenshots of the web-based tool Way Back Machine (here).
The article, which is shared as a screenshot in the reports, comes from a satirical article previously posted on a website by the group ‘America’s Last Line of Defense’, which describes itself on a subsidiary website as ” a network of parody, satire and nonsense ”And warn that“ everything on this site is fiction. This is not a lie and it’s not fake news because it’s not really. If you believe this is true, you should have your investigation investigated ”(here).
In May 2017, the Port of Baltimore issued a statement on Twitter confirming that the story was false (here).
Reuters could not find any reports from reliable sources about any ships being owned by or linked to Bill, Hillary or other members of the Clinton family being apprehended or raided.
In addition, a spokesman for the Clinton Foundation emailed Reuters that the foundation did not own any ships.
Other fact-checkers have published articles exposing their conspiracy over the Ever given here, here and here.
VERDICT
Satire. An article alleging that a cargo ship of the Clinton Foundation was smashed with refugees and smuggled goods in the Port of Baltimore was intended as satire and is several years old.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.