Fact Check: Was Janet Yellen arrested for treason? Viral claim debunked

A claim that the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, was arrested for treason recently went viral on social media. The claim can be traced back to September 14, 2023, when a website, Real Raw News posted an article with the title “Janet Yellen Arrested for Treason.”

Fake news being spread about Janet's arrest: More details explored. (Image via Real Raw News)

The news was then shared by multiple users on various social media platforms. However, no reliable publication or media house has reported the matter thus far. Even Janet Yellen’s representatives have not spoken about any such arrest, thereby making the authenticity of the news questionable.

Futhermore, the "About" section on the Real Raw News website clearly states that it contains "humor, parody, and satire."

Hence, the news about Janet Yellen being arrested for treason is fake and untrue.

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All about Janet Yellen as misleading news regarding her arrest takes over social media

Fake news regarding Yellen is now circulating on social media (Image via Facebook)

The article about Yellen on Real Raw News claimed that she was charged for “defrauding the United States of America.” Part of the article read:

“Investigators from the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) on Tuesday arrested Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen at a Maryland hotel, alleging that the Deep State despot had engineered a diabolical scheme that clandestinely sent hundreds of billions of American tax dollars to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, far more than the $75bn the criminal Biden Regime has admitted to giving its felonious collaborator in Ukraine.”

However, given the lack of credible sources reporting on the matter, the news can be deemed as fake. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the Real Raw News website posts satirical pieces, as is made clear in the "About" section of their site, which reads:

“Information on this website is for informational educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice of legal counsel.”

As the misleading news about Janet Yellen’s arrest spread on social media, many were left shocked and surprised, while others questioned the authenticity of the information.

Janet Yellen was born in 1946 and was appointed as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in January 2021. However, prior to that, she was serving as the chair of the Federal Reserve, a post that she held for four years.

Yellen was born and brought up in Brooklyn and then graduated from Brown University in 1967. She then started off her career as an assistant professor at Harvard University and soon shifted to the London School of Economics.

She was also named one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time and was also in the list of the World’s 100 most powerful women by Forbes.

She is married to George Akerlof, who is a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. The couple share a son.

The fake news about Yellen's arrest yet again sheds light on the importance of verifying information available on social media from credible sources before circulating them online.