Can I get a fact check on these "fact checks"? Qanon gets a mention in the Schiff "fact check"
Pants on Fire!
Facebook posts
Says Adam Schiff used taxpayer money to "reach a sexual harassment settlement with a 19-year-old male."
— Facebook posts on Thursday, March 21st, 2019 in a post
No, Adam Schiff did not use taxpayer funds for a sexual harassment settlement
By Samantha Putterman on Wednesday, March 27th, 2019 at 2:43 p.m.
Politicians are known to be frequent targets for conspiracy rumors and scandals.
Lately, conspiracy theory peddlers have set their sights on U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who represents California’s 28th Congressional District and recently took over as chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
A March 21 Facebook post displays a picture of Schiff with wide eyes and says: "Adam Schiff used taxpayer money to reach sexual harassment settlement with a 19 year old male. Retweet if you are sick of this disgraceful hypocrite trashing our president."
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
There is no evidence that Schiff paid off anyone over sexual harassment allegations, let alone used taxpayer funds to do it.
We found the rumor posted all over Twitter, and one December 9, 2018 tweet in particular from a QAnon conspiracy theory account, which simply claimed the information came from "congressional sources," was picked up and retweeted tens of thousands of times. The rumor seems have emerged as Congress worked toward the bipartisan passage of a bill that requires members to pay their own sex misconduct settlements.
The rumor stretched so far that it was found in a Letter to the Editor in the Washington Times on Dec. 13, 2018. That account also failed to list any sources to back up the allegation.
A spokesperson for Schiff told PolitiFact the conspiracy theory is completely false: "This false smear originated four months ago on a QAnon conspiracy account. It is obviously and categorically untrue."
Dossier Not What ‘Started All of This’
By Lori Robertson
Posted on March 27, 2019
In an interview about the special counsel’s report, Rep. John Ratcliffe said that what “started all of this” was “a fake, phony dossier.” But a House Republican intelligence committee memo said it was information about a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser that sparked the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the election.