Fact Check

Did a New Hampshire Congressman Deface Donald Trump's Limousine?

A prolific producer of fake news publishes yet another false meme about an 'Arnim Zola'.

Published June 18, 2018

Claim:
In June 2018, a New Hampshire Congressman named Arnim Zola was arrested for defacing President Donald Trump's limousine.

A  notorious purveyor of fake news managed to trick some readers using a Facebook meme with the claim that a Democratic New Hampshire Congressman had been arrested for vandalizing President Donald Trump's limousine.

On 16 June 2018, the "America's Last Line of Defense" Facebook page published the following story:

This is New Hampshire Congressman Arnim Zola (D). He was arrested Thursday when caught by Capitol police defacing the presidential limousine with swastikas.

This is completely fabricated. "Arnim Zola" is the name of a villain in Marvel comic books and a character played by the English actor Toby Jones. Furthermore, both New Hampshire's members of the United States House of Representatives are women as of June 2018. (It's not clear who the man shown in the photograph is, but his image has been used in memes since at least October 2017.)

America's Last Line of Defense is run by Christopher Blair, a producer of often inflammatory fake news which he styles as satire. He operates social media accounts and web sites including Reagan Was Right, Freedum Junkshun and Daily World Update.

Dan Mac Guill is a former writer for Snopes.