False claim that a male prostitute was found in Nancy Pelosi’s home reemerges after Trump indictment

Sep 20, 2023

FILE - Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband, Paul Pelosi, arrive at the State Department for the Kennedy Center Honors State Department Dinner, on Dec. 7, 2019, in Washington. The Associated Press on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023 reported on social media posts falsely claiming a male prostitute was found in the couple’s home in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)

CLAIM: A male prostitute was found in the home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Law enforcement officials confirm that the man who attacked Pelosi’s husband in their San Francisco home late last year was neither a prostitute nor an acquaintance of the family.

THE FACTS: As former President Donald Trump faces his third criminal indictment this year, some social media users are complaining that Democratic leaders never seem to get their comeuppance.

Many are sharing a meme that ticks off a number of recent incidents as supposed evidence.

“Cocaine was found at Biden’s house. A dead body was found at Obama’s house,” the meme reads. “A male prostitute was found at Pelosi’s house. An illegal server was found at Clinton’s house. And the FBI raided Trump’s house.”

“Trump was Indicted yet again while #clinton #obama #biden #pelosi #fbi are #criminals #saveamerica,” wrote an Instagram user who shared the meme this week after Trump was indicted on felony charges for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But the meme, at best, plays fast and loose with what actually transpired in many of the incidents involving top Democrats. And in the case of the claim that a prostitute was found at Pelosi’s home, that’s just plain false.

That particular claim references homophobic conspiracy theories that arose following the vicious attack on Pelosi’s husband Paul last fall.

At the time, conservative pundits, politicians and even Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, shared posts baselessly suggesting there was a personal relationship between the victim and his assailant.

But authorities have consistently said David DePape, then 42, struck Pelosi with a hammer after breaking into the couple’s home with the intention of kidnapping Speaker Pelosi using zip ties and other supplies he’d brought.

The longtime lawmaker wasn’t in the house at the time, but the attack landed the then- 82-year-old businessman in the hospital with a skull fracture and other serious injuries.

On Thursday, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office reiterated, as it has done previously, that DePape was not a prostitute and not known to Paul Pelosi.

“Mr. Pelosi was NOT acquainted with the suspect,” the agency responded in an email.

As for the other claims in the widely shared meme, it’s certainly accurate that the FBI scoured Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort where he lives in order to reclaim classified documents and other sensitive government records that the Republican had refused to relinquish after losing his reelection bid.

It’s also true that Hillary Rodham Clinton had a private email server running in the basement of her house during her tenure as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama.

The FBI spent roughly a year investigating the server before ultimately deciding not to recommend charges against her after determining she didn’t intend to break the law.

However, the notion that cocaine was found in President Joe Biden’s “home” is misleading.

The drugs were found in the White House last month by Secret Service agents in a heavily trafficked lobby where tour groups gather to drop their phones and other belongings.

Authorities have been unable to identify who brought the baggie into the building, but they’ve suggested it was likely one of the hundreds of people who visited over the July 4 weekend.

The Bidens were at Camp David, the presidential retreat in rural Maryland, at the time.

The claim that a body was found at Obama’s home is also not quite accurate.

Obama’s personal chef, Tafari Campbell, was found in a pond near the former president’s waterfront property on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last week.

Authorities say the Virginia resident drowned after falling off his paddleboard and struggling to stay afloat.___This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.