False claim Army arrested Nikki Haley staffer for giving debit cards to Iowa voters | Fact check

The claim: Nikki Haley staffer arrested in Iowa for giving voters $1,000 debit cards

A Jan. 15 Real Raw News article claims the military arrested a staffer for a Republican presidential candidate.

“White Hats Arrest Campaign Staffer for Nikki Haley in Iowa,” reads the story’s headline.

The story states the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division took the staffer into custody for “offering voters $1,000 prepaid debit cards in exchange for casting a ballot for her boss.”

It was shared more than 100 times in a day, according to the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.

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Our rating: False

A spokesperson for the Army Criminal Investigation Division said the claim is false. The agency that conducted the supposed arrest investigates violations of military law, not election fraud. The claim originated on a website that routinely publishes misinformation.

No evidence, no credible reports of arrest

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, finished third in the Iowa Caucuses behind the only other two remaining Republican presidential candidates – former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – after former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out.

But the claim is false, and the Army Criminal Investigation Division has made no such arrest, Keith Smith, a spokesperson for the Criminal Investigation Division, told USA TODAY.

There is no credible evidence anyone on Haley’s staff has been accused of giving voters campaign brochures with prepaid debit cards, as the article claimed.

Real Raw News responded to USA TODAY’s request for evidence by pointing to the “About Us” page of its website. It includes a disclaimer that states it contains “humor, parody and satire.” That notice, however, is not included in the article, which cites unidentified sources and claims the unidentified staffer was arrested by the Army Criminal Investigation Division.

While the arrest purportedly took place Jan. 14 in Des Moines, Iowa, there is no mention of it in any legitimate news outlets.

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Nor is it mentioned on the website where the Army Criminal Investigation Division announces its highest-profile arrests. In fact, nowhere on that site are there any mentions of any arrests for election fraud.

Investigations handled by that agency involve war crimes, terrorism, criminal intelligence and other violations that “impact the operational readiness of the Army,” according to its mission statement.

The FBI’s public corruption unit investigates federal allegations of election fraud. It specifically lists the distribution of money or items of value in exchange for voting as one of the crimes in its purview.

At the state level, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office collects reports of potential fraud, and the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board administers the state’s campaign laws.

Ashley Hunt, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office, told USA TODAY her office is not aware of any such reports. Zach Goodrich, the board’s executive director, said in an email to USA TODAY that his organization has not received any information about such an allegation and does not have jurisdiction over federal campaigns anyway.

USA TODAY reached out to the FBI’s field office in Omaha, Nebraska, which covers Iowa but did not immediately receive a response.

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 previously debunked numerous other claims about the arrests of notable public figures stemming from Real Raw News.

Haley has been a target of misinformation in the past. Among the false claims debunked by USA TODAY include assertions that Haley is ineligible to run for president and that the former South Carolina governor “white-washed” her name.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, Army did not arrest Nikki Haley staffer in Iowa | Fact check