Led by Facebook in its efforts to curb online information, posts leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20 claim that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Italy for the alleged arrest of Italian President Sergio Mattarella. These allegations are false and form part of an unfounded conspiracy theory alleging that Italy interfered in the US presidential election in 2020 to secure Biden’s victory. The images in these reports show how Pompeo was on a state visit to New Delhi, India, in October 2020 with US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster.
Examples of postings that make this claim can be found here, here and here.
The #ItaliaGate and #ItaliaDidIt claims, thoroughly reviewed and uncovered by Reuters in a previous fact check visible here, are part of a conspiracy theory intended to sow doubt in the US electoral system and the allegations by Trump and his allies to strengthen the election knee-jerk reaction. .
The posts claiming that the Italian president has been arrested claim that they show an image of Pompeo walking with police officers in Italy as a man with his hands behind his back (here). The caption on one report reads: ‘Italian president arrested for his part in interfering in our election. He worked with Obama to sabotage Trump’s re-election “(here).
The image does not show the Foreign Minister in Italy, but rather in New Delhi, India on October 27, 2020. That day, Pompeo tweeted a series of images from the same scene with the caption: ‘A solemn moment around a wreath at the National War Memorial in New Delhi with US Secretary of Defense @EsperDoD. We will never forget the brave men and women who gave their lives to defend the greatest democracy in the world ”(here).
Reuters images of Pompeo and US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper arriving at the National War Memorial in New Delhi can be found here, here and here.
On January 7, 2021, Secretary Pompeo tweeted the exact image posted on social media here with the caption, “Posting #AmericaFirst means our friends and partners need to help defend themselves. Defense trade between the United States and India grew from near zero to> $ 20 billion in 2008, including sales of C-17 transports, Apache and MH-60R helicopters and P-8 maritime patrol aircraft. ”
The man in the background, standing to the left of Pompeo, wearing a black mask, a blue suit, an orange tie, brown shoes and glasses, is not the Italian president, as the posts claim, but Kenneth Yesterday, the US Ambassador to India since 2017 (here). In a video available here, you can see how Juster will give his farewell speech on January 5th.
Reuters footage taken on October 26, 2020, the day before Pompeo, Esper, Juster and others attended the wreath-laying, shows Pompeo and Juster greeting each other at an airport in New Delhi, India (here, here).
The image does not show Italian President Sergio Mattarella (seen here), whose alleged arrest has not been reported by any credible Italian or international media sources.
On January 13, 2021, President Mattarella attended a political meeting in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, as reported here and here.
According to Secretary Pompeo’s public schedule, he was in Washington, DC every day between January 4th and January 8th to attend meetings and briefings of the Department (here, here, here, here, here).
On Monday, January 11, the Secretary of State was still in the U.S. capital for meetings with the Department of State (here), followed by an event at the National Press Club the next day (here). The secretary had no public appointments on 13 and 14 January (here, here).
Some of the posts also contain an alleged statement (here) which is discussed in Reuters’ fact check on #ItalyGate here.
VERDICT
Untrue. Reports claiming US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is being prosecuted in Italy for alleged arrest of Italian President Sergio Mattarella shows Pompeo with US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster during a state visit to New Delhi , India in October 2020. False claim that Mattarella was arrested is part of an unfounded conspiracy theory known as #ItalyGate.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.