Fact Check: No, a judge did not slap White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

1 day ago 16

Claim:

Videos accurately reported that a justice slapped White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt successful court.

Rating:

In April and May 2025, claims that a justice slapped White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dispersed online.

For example, a YouTube video (archived) that had 75,000 views arsenic of this penning made the assertion that the justice supposedly slapped Leavitt and past his "corrupt empire began to crumble":

This was not the lone video making those claims. At slightest three more YouTube videos of varying lengths repeated the aforesaid allegations, arsenic did a fewer TikTok videos.

This assertion was false.

Three of the YouTube videos said the judge's was Edward Hargrove of Washington, D.C., portion the 4th claimed helium sanction was Richard Franklin of Boston. The connection was akin successful each of the expected reports, though the dependable and representation changed. All voices had a mechanical quality, suggesting they were generated by artificial intelligence. Further, Snopes ran surface captures of the videos into AI detectors SightEngine and WasItAI and confirmed they were AI-made.

Thorough Google and Google News searches revealed nary study of specified an incident. Searches utilizing keywords "Edward Hargrove" and "Richard Franklin" besides revealed nary specified story.

Further, one of the YouTube videos included a disclaimer, which appeared for a fraction of a 2nd astatine the beginning, that work arsenic follows (emphasis ours):

(YouTube idiosyncratic Mythos Unveiled)

DISCLAIMER

ALL INFORMATION IN THIS VIDEO IS COMPILED FROM REPUTABLE AND RELIABLE NEWS SOURCES. HOWEVER, THE CONTENT IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES TO HELP VIEWERS GAIN A BROADER UNDERSTANDING AND PERSPECTIVE ON FAMOUS FIGURES. THIS CONTENT IS NOT INTENDED TO OFFEND OR HARM ANYONE.

WE DO NOT CLAIM THAT ALL THE INFORMATION IN THE VIDEO IS ENTIRELY ACCURATE OR COMPLETE. HOWEVER, WE DO NOT DISTORT OR MISREPRESENT THE ORIGINS OF THE INFORMATION WE PRESENT.

THEREFORE, VIEWERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CONSULT MULTIPLE SOURCES FOR THE MOST WELL-ROUNDED PERSPECTIVE.

THANK YOU

By mixing existent and misleading information arsenic good arsenic utilizing emotionally charged language, specified videos astir baseless personage rumors often make hundreds oregon thousands of comments from YouTube users. Some of those messages bespeak that radical construe the videos to beryllium existent news.

Snopes has verified several specified videos, including 1 that claimed Oprah Winfrey had fled the country pursuing Sean Combs' arrest and different that claimed Jennifer Lopez had near the U.S. for akin reasons.

Sources:

Dobrin, Nikki. "Rumors Jennifer Lopez Fled the US aft 'Massive Threat' from Diddy Are False." Snopes, Snopes.com, 13 Nov. 2024, www.snopes.com/fact-check/jennifer-lopez-fled-us-diddy-threat/. Accessed 9 May 2025.

Rascouët-Paz, Anna. "FBI Revealed Oprah Fled US aft 'Diddy Footage' Leak?" Snopes, Snopes.com, 15 Nov. 2024, www.snopes.com/fact-check/oprah-diddy-youtube-tiktok/. Accessed 9 May 2025.

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