Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to step down as prime minister and the Liberal party leader on Monday after weeks of pressure from within his party. After his announcement, some social media posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a headline that tried to tie Trudeau's resignation to the sex trafficking investigation into music mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs. This is false. Trudeau's name is not mentioned in any of the publicly available court documents filed in the Combs case, there are no sources provided to support the claim and the story comes from a website that's well known for printing fake news.
"The real reason Trudeau is stepping down," an X user on Monday, with a screenshot of a headline reading, "Justin Trudeau to Resign This Week As Child Sex Crime Investigation Closes In on Him."
As of Friday, the post was viewed 2.2 million times, reshared at least 12,000 times and had more than 1,300 comments.
The claim was also shared on and .
Rating: False
The narrative circulating online is rehashed from a previous story, published in the People's Voice, an American website known for posting fake news and conspiracy theories. The story alleged that "seized footage" from Sean (Diddy) Combs's "notorious parties allegedly featured Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in scenes that will rock the political establishment in Canada."
Sean Adl-Tabatabai, the site's founder and person credited with writing the story, doesn't provide sources to support the claims.
The story alleges: "Unfortunately for Trudeau, he has been named in court documents connected to Sean 'Diddy' Combs and victims and whistleblowers are coming forward to ensure justice is served."
ºÃÉ«tvreached out to Adl-Tabatabai to ask about the sources for the claim but did not receive a response.
Combs revealed in an released last September. There are also alleging sexual assault.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and denies the claims made in the lawsuits against him, and is currently being held in a New York federal jail while he awaits trial.
ºÃÉ«tvreviewed the publicly available court documents, looking for mentions of Justin Trudeau, Canada, ºÃÉ«tv prime minister and leader, and found no mention of Trudeau in any of the court filings.
No credible media has reported on Trudeau's alleged relation to the Combs case.
ºÃÉ«tvreached out to the Prime Minister's Office for comment but did not receive a response.
Audio from unnamed source a likely fake
The Nov. 18 article was accompanied by a newscast-style video of Adl-Tabatabai, where he claims the prime minister was at a Combs party. He introduces an over a photo of Trudeau: "Now a tidal wave of truth is crashing down as victims and whistleblowers step forward in numbers, determined to expose the dark secrets, these elites thought would stay buried forever. The reckoning has begun."
Adl-Tabatabai doesn't mention the source of the clip or who is speaking in it. In the clip, an unknown man alleges that Trudeau was at a Combs party in New York in 2015, describing him as a "world leader" at the time, and was caught on camera "doing some illegal dirt" that could "put him behind bars for life."
Trudeau became Prime Minister after the Liberal party won the federal election on Oct. 19, 2015. Trudeau's first couple months in office included to Turkey, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Malta and France. He did not visit the United States during that time.
ºÃÉ«tvran the audio through, which found likely to be AI-generated.
Another tool for detecting manipulated media, the , returned , with four metrics classifying the clip as AI-generated (with a likelihood of 83.7 per cent to 100 per cent), while two metrics detecting nearly zero AI influence.
AI audio detectors are not completely reliable and can produce false positives.
No investigation into Trudeau
The lawyer who is representing more than 150 victims who alleged sexual abuse and exploitation at the hands of Combs said there will be more names linked to the case, but there has been no mention of the ºÃÉ«tv prime minister.
"The day will come when we will name names other than Sean Combs and there are a lot of names," said Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee at .
Buzbee filed a case against in December, accusing the record executive as well as Combs of sexually assaulting a minor. There are no other famous figures accused in the lawsuits yet.
In a refreshed , the People's Voice repeated the claims that Trudeau was resigning "amid an ongoing criminal investigation into his ties to an international pedophile ring."
It adds: "The news was first reported by the Globe and Mail on Sunday, citing three sources."
While it is true the Globe and Mail published an quoting three sources, on the then-anticipated resignation, there was no mention of a criminal investigation into Trudeau.
Established fake news site
The People's Voice, formerly known as Your News Wire and NewsPunch, has a long history of posting fake news and conspiracy theories.
ºÃÉ«tvhas previously debunked articles published on the People's Voice website, including false claims that "LGBTQ+ leaders" are accepting pedophiles and fake news about a proposed ethical global famine.
Sources
Claim van be found on X ere (), on Facebook () and Reddit ()
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Sean Comb's publicly available court cases
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John Doe v. Sean Combs, filed Dec. 12, 2024 ()
John Doe v. Sean Combs, filed Oct. 28, 2024 ()
John Doe v. Sean Combs, filed Oct. 28, 2024 ()
John Doe v. Sean Combs, filed Oct. 20, 2024 ()
John Doe v. Sean Combs, filed Oct. 20, 2024 ()
DEWITT GILMORE V. SEAN COMBS ()
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