Unrelated clips falsely shared as Trump supporters breaking into an FBI building

 

Screenshot of the tweet. 

 

News Brief 

A video was shared Aug. 16, 2022 on Facebook. The Chinese-language subtitles in the video translate as, “Trump’s home was ransacked. Angry Trump supporters raided an FBI building with their own weapons, and a seven-hour gunfight broke out.” 

 On Aug. 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The search warrant for the operation says that Trump was suspected of violating three different federal laws, including one that governs gathering, transmitting or losing defense information under the Espionage Act. The caption of the Facebook video, therefore, claims that Trump supporters have raided an FBI building with guns after the FBI searched Trump’s residence. 

As of the publication of this report, the Facebook post had been shared 219 times, and it had received 49 comments as well as 242 likes or reactions. Similar claims had been circulating on Facebook here and here. 

Fact-checking 

1. The zero to 15-second mark of the Facebook video shows the protest and confrontations in St. Louis, Missouri in 2020. The protest was against the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. 

Reverse image searches have been conducted to find the source of the video. A YouTube video published June 4, 2020, by KSDK News, a subsidiary of NBC, has been found. The zero to 15-second mark of the Facebook video corresponds to the 33-second mark of the video released by KSDK News. 

According to the description of the KSDK News video, in the early morning of Tuesday, June 2, St. Louis Police Commissioner John Hayden told reporters that four officers of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department were shot and injured. The mayor of St. Louis announced that the curfew would be in place until further notice, which would begin at 9 p.m. on June 2, until 6 a.m. every day. 

According to an article published June 1 by KSDK News, a large number of protesters gathered in downtown St. Louis on June 1 following the death of George Floyd, who had been killed by a police officer kneeling on his neck. The protest turned violent in the evening. Some protesters threw several fireworks. The police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. 

KMOV, a television station in St. Louis, quoted the same clip in a report broadcast June 2. The Associated Press also reported the incident. 

To sum up, the zero to 15-second mark of the Facebook video actually shows the confrontations triggered by the protest over Floyd’s death in 2020. It does not show Trump supporters raiding an FBI building and is not relevant to the recent search of Trump’s residence by FBI. 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (left) and the videos released by KSDK News (top right) and KMOV St. Louis (bottom right).

2. The 16- to 19-second mark and the one-minute-and-56-second mark of the viral video show the conflicts in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2020 during a protest over Floyd’s death. 

The New York Times published a YouTube video on May 30, 2020. The description of the video stated that it was shot at the Third Precinct in Minneapolis. The peaceful demonstrations following Floyd’s death turned into violent confrontations, with protesters set the police building on fire. The two-minute-and-46-second mark of the video released by The New York Times shows a similar scene to the 16- to 19-second mark and the one-minute-and-56-second mark of the viral video, which captured the incident at the Minneapolis Police Department. 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (top) and the video published by The New York Times (bottom). 

3. The one-minute-and–30-second to one-minute-and-50-second mark of the viral video shows a shooting incident in Houston, Texas in 2022. 

KHOU 11, a television station in Houston, Texas owned by CBS, released a YouTube video on April 13, 2022. The one-minute-and-30-second to one-minute-and-50-second mark of the viral video corresponds to the 33-second mark of the KHOU 11 video. 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (top) and the KHOU 11 video (bottom). 

4. The one-minute-and-54-second to one-minute-and-55-second mark of the viral video shows the confrontations in Dallas, Texas in 2020, which was related to a protest over Floyd’s death.  

A YouTube video published June 3, 2020 has been found. The one-minute-and-54-second to one-minute-and-55-second mark of the viral video corresponds to the YouTube video. The description of the YouTube video claims that the incident is related to a protest following Floyd’s death. 

It can be seen from the second half of the YouTube video that a police car with the number plate “119-3235” was being vandalized. In a video published May 30, 2020 by NBC News, it was reported that stores and police cars in downtown Dallas were vandalized by protestors after Floyd’s death. The destroyed police car with the number plate “119-3235” can also be seen in the NBC News video. 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (top), the YouTube video (middle) and the NBC News video (bottom). 

5. The one-minute-and-57-second to two-minute mark of the viral video shows the conflicts around the Ohio Statehouse in 2022, which were triggered by the death of Floyd. 

A video, titled “Protesters smash windows of Ohio statehouse in night of protest,” was published May 29, 2020 by Reuters. The one-minute-and-57-second to two-minute mark of the viral video corresponds to the Reuters video. 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (left) and the Reuters video (right). 

The description of the Reuters video states, “crowds in Columbus protest over police shooting George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis.” According to a news article published the Associated Press, a protest over Floyd’s death took place in Columbus, Ohio on May 29, 2020. During the protest, the windows of the Ohio Statehouse and shops on the surrounding streets were smashed. The shattered windows shown in the photo published by the Associated Press look similar to those in the viral video. 

Similar shattered windows can be seen in the viral video (left) and the photo released by the Associated Press (right). 

6. The two-minute to two-minute-and-two-second mark of the viral video shows the confrontations in the CNN Center building in Atlanta, Georgia in 2020, which was related to the protests over Floyd’s death. 

A YouTube video was published June 3, 2020 by CNN. The two-minute to two-minute-and-two-second mark of the viral video corresponds to the 12-minute-and-45-second mark of the video released by CNN. 

In the video description, CNN said its reporter was doing live reporting from inside the CNN Center in Atlanta where the demonstrations over Floyd’s death turned violent. The CNN logo can be clearly seen on the glass door in the video. 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (top) and the CNN video (bottom). 

7. The two-minute-and-two-second to two-minute-and-five-second mark of the viral video shows other confrontations in Minneapolis in 2020, which were related to the protests over Floyd’s death.  

Another video was published May 30, 2020 on Twitter. The two-minute-and-two-second to two-minute-and-five-second mark of the viral video corresponds to the Twitter video.  

An article published by Jewish News Syndicate also reports this incident. The Jewish News Syndicate article includes photos showing similar scenes as in the viral video. The caption of a photo shared in the article by states, “multiple buildings burn during riots in Minneapolis, May 29, 2020, four days after the death of African-American George Floyd.” 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (top) and the Twitter video (middle), and the photo published by Jewish News Syndicate (bottom). 

8. A suspected Trump supporter did break into an FBI building, but it has not resulted in a seven-hour gunfight. 

According to the news articles published by the Associated Press and BBC, after the FBI searched Trump’s residence, on August 11, 2022, a suspected Trump supporter attempted to break into the FBI office in Ohio with a weapon, and was killed during a confrontation with police. Keyword searches on the U.S. mainstream media and international news agencies produced no results related to the “seven hours of gunfight” as proclaimed in the viral video. 

In conclusion, although it is true that a suspected Trump supporter breached the FBI building, a large part of the viral video actually shows the protests and conflicts over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. The video is not related to the recent FBI’s search of Trump’s residence and the break-in of the FBI building by the suspected Trump supporter.