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Hoax wrongly claims Malia Obama arrested for cocaine
Former President Barack Obama’s older daughter Malia Obama was not arrested for buying $1,240 worth of cocaine from a "known drug dealer" who happens to share a name with a doctor from the TV show Scrubs.
Malia’s court date for this imaginary charge is not Sept. 31. For one thing, she didn’t get arrested. For another, Sept. 31 doesn’t exist.
The preposterous claim, published on TheAmericanNews.co, is among the latest of many false news stories about Obama’s two daughters, Malia and Sasha. Recently, we’ve fact-checked claims that Malia was suspended from Harvard and that Sasha was expelled from school. We rated both Pants on Fire.
This story was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The image that accompanies the false article can be traced to a story we debunked last year. That Pants on Fire post claimed Malia was arrested for drinking, drugs and dog-fighting. At the time, Malia was edited into a collection of mugshots from an actual dog-fighting incident in South Carolina in 2013.
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A cropped version of that altered image appears with the new false claim.
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We found no evidence of the existence of a "notorious" drug dealer Christopher Turk mentioned in the story. A doctor named Christopher Turk is, however, a main character on the sitcom Scrubs.
Malia is currently attending Harvard University, and Sasha is a senior at Sidwell Friends School in Washington. Neither has been suspended or expelled, and neither has been charged with cocaine possession.
We rate this claim Pants on Fire!
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Our Sources
TheAmericanNews.co, "BREAKING: "Malia Obama just got arrested buying cocaine," Sept. 8, 2018
TheLastLineOfDefense.org, "BREAKING: Malia Obama Arrested With A Gang Of Thugs In Chicago," May 5, 2017
PolitiFact, "Fake story says Malia Obama suspended from Harvard," April 10, 2018
PolitiFact, "No, Sasha Obama wasn’t expelled for racism," Sept. 4, 2018
PolitiFact, "This time fake news says Malia Obama arrested for drugs, dog fighting in Chicago," May 8, 2017
IMDb, "Scrubs," accessed Sept. 13, 2018
WMBF News, "FCSO arrest 8 in connection to alleged dog fighting ring" Oct. 13, 2013
Business Insider, "'First kid' Barron Trump is heading to a $40,000 private school in Maryland — here's where the other first kids went to school," July 14, 2017
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Hoax wrongly claims Malia Obama arrested for cocaine
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