Our rating: Manipulated media
The video is a fabrication that wasn't reported or published by E! News, a company spokesperson said. The video is consistent with material created by a Russia-aligned influence campaign, disinformation experts said.
WHAT WAS CLAIMED: E! News published a video stating celebrities received funds from USAID to visit Ukraine.
OUR VERDICT: False. The video is fake and there's no evidence USAID funded the visits.
The E!News portal never published such a story, and the widely circulated news is fake, debunked by both the media and the celebrities who visited Ukraine.
Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr and other prominent conservatives are sharing a video that claims to show E! News reporting that the US's humanitarian agency paid millions of dollars to celebrities including Angelina Jolie and Ben Stiller to visit Ukraine and help boost President Volodymyr Zelensky's popularity amid the country's war with Russia. But the clip is not an authentic report, a spokesperson for the entertainment news channel told AFP, and Stiller has publicly rejected the allegations as false.
PolitiFact found nothing to substantiate claims that a Burisma accountant was "found dead" before she could provide incriminating evidence on the Biden family.
We traced this viral headline to a site known for publishing misinformation. The narrative appears to have stemmed from an unclear comment made by Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's former attorney.
Claim: "FBI director Wray confirms Joe Biden is under criminal investigation for Ukrainian bribes by the U.S. attorney in Delaware then tries to backpedal."
Verdict: FBI director didn't confirm Joe Biden bribery investigation.
There is a continuing investigation in Delaware into Hunter Biden, the president's son. Wray did not say that Joe Biden is also being investigated. He said he would not say who is or isn't being investigated, or for what, as part of the FBI's long-standing policy.
A video shared on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, claims to show a French villa that was bought by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov for his daughter.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that Reznikov bought this house.
The above photograph does not show Zelenskyy's home. Using Google's reverse-image search tool, we found the same photograph on a number of real estate websites showing luxury properties in France and Monaco.
Given that the author of the original tweet pulled the photo from real estate profiles of a house in France, without providing any evidence of its ownership, we rate this photograph as "Miscaptioned."
Did the Ukrainian president embezzle Western aid money to buy Highgrove House, the family residence of King Charles III? No, but pro-Russian social media accounts have been spreading that rumour. They want people in the United States and Europe to question how aid being sent to Ukraine is being used ahead of upcoming elections. However, this rumour is based on fake testimony and, what's more, this sale is legally impossible.
Because the photograph was digitally edited to include Zelenskyy and Zelenska, we have rated this claim as "Fake."
The TinEye reverse-image search tool showed that the original photograph [with stacks of money] depicted Floyd Mayweather, a former professional boxer.
