The DEA just raided a United States senator — Dems in a panic.
A fake news story that claimed a senator from New Jersey was being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency is another tall tale concocted by a well-known website run by a self-described liberal troll. "The DEA just raided a United States senator — Dems in a panic," read the headline on a June 10, 2017, post on NewsFeedHunter.com. Facebook users flagged the post as being potentially fabricated, as part of the social media website’s efforts to cut down on fake news. The post says U.S. Sen. Hal Lindsay, D-N.J., owned a Wyoming ranch that was just raided by the agency, which seized "more than 400 marijuana plants, 2 greenhouses full of opium-producing poppies and a small lab that was pumping out massive amounts of refined, finished product." The story said Lindsay was released on $10 million bail and faced more than 70 years in prison just for the opium. Except Lindsay isn’t in any trouble, because he doesn’t exist. New Jersey’s two senators are Democrats Cory Booker and Bob Menendez. There also was no bust, because the story was made up and posted on June 10 at TheLastLineOfDefense.org, a site run by Christopher Blair, a fake news operator whom we have profiled in the past. TheLastLineOfDefense.org runs fake news stories written by Blair in an attempt to fool conservative readers. These stories often are posted on other websites without attribution or indication they are fake. The site’s disclaimer said that it "is a satirical publication that may sometimes appear to be telling the truth. We assure you that’s not the case. We present fiction as fact and our sources don’t actually exist." The story about the drug bust continued on Blair’s website, with the fictional Lindsay agreeing in a followup story also posted on June 10 to flip on his business partner, Lester Malroney. The saga telegraphed it’s contrived premise, calling Malroney "an obviously fictitious name" and suddenly referred to Lindsay as a senator from Wyoming, not just having a ranch in Wyoming (the state’s senators are actually Republicans Mike Enzi and John Barrasso). The fictitious saga led to the pretend senator's death and more, including implicating Chelsea Clinton and tying the DEA raid to a previous fake yarn about the Clinton Foundation smuggling contraband and refugees. We attempted to reach NewsFeedHunter.com through their website contact form to ask if they knew the story was fake, but didn’t receive a reply. The site’s registration information is private. But we know the story is contrived, because all the articles at TheLastLineOfDefense.org are made up. We rate this statement Pants On Fire! See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com
['United_States', 'Democratic_Party_(United_States)']