Fact Check

Were Democratic Congressmen Busted for Planning to Assassinate Trump?

A fake news site concocted a story blaming two non-existent lawmakers for a plan to attack the president.

Published Feb. 24, 2017

 (Action Sports Photography/Shutterstock)
Image Via Action Sports Photography/Shutterstock
Claim:
Two Democratic Party congressmen were arrested for "plotting to murder the president."

The website The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense published an article describing what it claimed was a plan by two Democratic congressmen to kill President Donald Trump.

According to the "report," the two lawmakers were among several people arrested in connection with the plot to attack the president "during one of his trips to Florida:"

These aren’t some off-the-hook left wing extremists, they’re typical men with what seem like typical lives but liberalism has turned them insane with jealousy and rage.

Rep. Harold Spunkmeyer (D-Illinois) and Rep. Johnathon Leominster Jr (D-Massachusetts) were taken to a military holding facility under suspicion of terrorism for plotting to murder the President. Several of their closest aides as well as their families have also been detained. As we speak, a special unit of the Secret Service is closing the net on all of their friends and anyone else who could potentially cause harm to President Trump.

No such congressmen by those names exist. The Resistance's story also names NBC News and ABC News as "sources," but fails to provide any links that would actually support its premise.

The site has a history of peddling false claims, though it also includes this disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER: The Resistance may include information from sources that may or may not be reliable and facts that don’t necessarily exist. All articles should be considered satirical and any and all quotes attributed to actual people complete and total baloney. Pictures that represent actual people should be considered altered and not in any way real.

Arturo Garcia is a former writer for Snopes.

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