A roundup of some of the week’s most popular but completely false stories and images. None of this is legitimate, although it has been shared widely on social media. The Associated Press verified them.
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The questions revolve around whether Trump can vote for himself in the 2024 election
CLAIM: Former President Donald Trump will not be able to vote for himself in the 2024 presidential election because he was convicted in his silent trial.
THE FACTS: Trump, a Florida residentwill be able to vote in elections if he stays out of prison in New York like he did in Florida postpone for Other states’ disenfranchisement rules for residents convicted of out-of-state crimes. New York law it only removes the right to vote from people convicted of crimes when they are incarcerated – once they are released from prison, their rights are automatically restored, even if they are on parole.
After a jury trial in New York on Thursday found Trump guilty of all 34 criminal charges in his secret trial, social media users claimed the decision will prevent the former president from voting for himself in the upcoming elections.
“The guy who ran his 2016 campaign about ‘LOCK HER UP’ is about to be arrested,” reads one Instagram post. “It’s also worth noting that, as a conflicted felon, Trump can no longer vote for his own home state, himself, or anyone else.”
The post, which misspelled the word “condemned,” had received more than 18,900 likes as of Friday.
“Trump can’t legally vote for himself now!!!” reads a post X that had received approximately 9,200 likes and 5,800 shares as of Friday. “I love Karma! It’s a good day for America!”
But Trump’s ability to vote in the 2024 race will depend on his sentence.
That’s because Florida – where Trump established residence while president in 2019 – defers to other states’ disenfranchisement laws when it comes to residents convicted of out-of-state crimes. In Trump’s case, New York law states that people convicted of crimes cannot vote only when they are incarcerated. Once out of prison, their rights are automatically restored, even if they are on parole, under a 2021 law passed by the state’s Democratic legislature.
Therefore, as long as Trump is not arrested, he will be able to vote for himself in Florida in the November elections. From him sentence date is July 11, four days before the opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where GOP leaders are expected to formally nominate him.
His conviction, and even prison, would not stop Trump from continuing his quest for the White House. Convention rules adopted last year it does not include any specific provisions about what happens if your presumptive nominee is convicted of a crime.
Delegates could change the rules before formalizing Trump’s nomination, but there is no evidence that a significant faction of the party would seek to replace the former president on the Republican ticket. Trump demands loyalty across the Republican Party base, and the Republican National Committee is run by his supporters, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-president.
Trump Was sentenced on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a secret payment to a porn star who said the two had sex. The former president is expected to appeal the verdict.
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Posts Misrepresent New York Judge’s Instructions to Jury in Trump Trial to Silence the Money
CLAIM: New York Judge Juan M. Merchan told the jury in former President Donald Trump’s secret trial that they do not need a unanimous verdict to convict Trump.
THE FACTS: Merchan said that to convict Trump the jury would have to decide unanimously, in each of the 34 criminal chargesthat he falsified business records and did so with the intent to conceal another crime — in this case, violating a state election law during his 2016 campaign. The judge said jurors could consider three different ways the law may have been violated and that they do not need to be unanimous in this decision.
As jury deliberations started Wednesday in Trump’s trialSocial media users spread false information about Merchan’s instructions to the seven men and five women who will determine the outcome of the first criminal trial of a former US president.
“How is this a fair trial?” reads an Instagram post that had received more than 13,500 likes as of Thursday. “The judge just announced that the jury does not even need to be unanimous in their decision to convict President Trump! This entire process was rigged from the beginning.”
An X post says: “Judge Merchan told the jury they DO NOT NEED unanimity to convict. They don’t all need to agree on what happened. 4 can agree on one crime, 4 on another and the other 4 on another. He will treat 4-4-4 as a UNANIMOUS verdict.”
But these demands, which were echoed by Trump in Social Truth, distort Merchan’s instructions.
The judge told the jury that to convict Trump on any charge, they will have to decide unanimously — that is, all 12 jurors must agree — that the former president created a fraudulent entry in his company’s records or caused someone else to did it. and that he did it with the intention to commit or conceal a crime.
Prosecutors said the crime Trump committed or concealed was a violation of a New York election law that makes it illegal for two or more conspirators to “promote or impede the election of any person to public office by unlawful means.”
Merchan gave the jurors three possible “illegal means” they could apply to Trump’s charges: falsifying other business records, violating the Federal Election Campaign Act or submitting false information on a tax return.
For a conviction, each juror had to find that at least one of these three things happened, but did not have to unanimously agree on which it was.
Trump was loaded with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could harm his 2016 campaign, especially since his reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made. made about women. He was convicted of all charges on Thursday.
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CLAIM: An image shows a sculpture similar to the Statue of Liberty, built by a Syrian artist from the ruins of his home. “This is the freedom they brought us,” states a slogan associated with the image.
THE FACTS: The image is a digital photomontage per Tammam Azam, a Syrian artist now based in Berlin. Azzam told the Associated Press that he created the image in 2012 using Photoshop to combine fragments of photographs showing destroyed buildings in Syria. He said it represents the freedom sought by the Syrian people.
Social media posts are breathing new life into old claims that misrepresent the image by using erroneous details about its origin and meaning.
“This was built by a Syrian artist from the ruins of his house,” says an X post that included the image and received approximately 31,000 likes and more than 10,200 shares as of Thursday. “With the slogan: ‘This is the freedom they brought us.’”
Others shared similar posts along with the Palestinian flag emoji, appearing to compare the impact of the Israel-Hamas war on Palestinians with the ongoing civil war in Syria. One such Facebook post received more than 9,700 reactions and 3,600 shares.
But the image, titled “Statue of Liberty,” was created digitally and has nothing to do with the supposed slogan spread online.
“I created the image using Photoshop, scanning and piecing together various fragments of photographs of destroyed buildings in Syria,” Azzam told the AP in an email. “As for the misrepresentation, it is unfortunate that the image was falsely attributed to a specific narrative. It was not built from the ruins of any house, nor does it carry the slogan attributed to it.”
The photomontage “intended to comment on the themes of freedom and oppression”, according to Azzam. He said he created it in 2012 “as a symbol of the freedom that the Syrian people have sought and continue to seek in a country that has been devastated by the regime’s response to their demonstrations.”
Azzam posted the image in your Facebook account as part of what he described as a “broader series” he worked on while living in Dubai. He wrote that it “has not been printed or displayed in a gallery or similar venue, although it has been widely shared and discussed online.”
Syria’s civil war, now in its 14th year, has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. It began with peaceful protests against the government of President Bashar Assad in March 2011, part of the Arab Spring popular uprisings that spread across the Middle East that year.
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