No, US Attorney Matthew Graves was not arrested by Delta Force | Fact check

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·3 min read
21

The claim: US Attorney Matthew Graves was arrested for treason

A Jan. 20 post on Real Raw News claims a senior U.S. government official was arrested by the military.

"Delta Force Arrests D.C. District Attorney for TREASON," reads the article's headline.

The opening line states: “United States Delta Force on Thursday brazenly arrested the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in Breckenridge, Colorado, charging the odious Deep Stater with treason for unlawfully prosecuting J6ers and sentencing them to periods of incarceration, a source in General Eric M. Smith’s office told Real Raw News."

The post was shared nearly 200 times in a week, according to the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.

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Our rating: False

This did not happen. Graves has been interviewed by media outlets and quoted in announcements from his office multiple times since the supposed arrest. The website making the claim has a long history of fabricating stories of public figures being arrested by the military.

DC DA still free, running office

Graves, who serves as both the top local and federal prosecutor for D.C., has been heavily involved in the prosecution of rioters who participated in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

While Graves’s office did not respond to a request for comment, he has been seen in public and quoted in news releases multiple times since his supposed arrest on Jan. 18.

Graves was interviewed for stories running Jan. 26 in The Washington Post and WTOP-TV after the Justice Department pledged more resources to fight violent crime in D.C.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has also cited him more than 10 times since Jan. 24 in news releases, including announcements of fentanyl trafficking arrests, murder charges filed in the death of a Maryland boxer and the sentencing of ex-White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress.

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No reliable news outlet has reported on Graves being arrested, let alone anything resembling the circumstances described in the Real Raw News post. Such an arrest would also be out of the purview of Delta Force, a secretive special mission group that focuses on counterterrorism missions abroad.

Real Raw News is a serial spreader of misinformation that often publishes fabricated stories about “white hats” trying to undermine “the deep state” and arresting government officials and other high-profile people. USA TODAY has recently debunked “reports” from Real Raw News of the arrests of a staffer for Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, a Colorado Supreme Court justice who ruled against Donald Trump staying on the ballot and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

USA TODAY reached out to Real Raw News for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories and Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim US attorney for DC was arrested | Fact check