NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week for Sunday, August 20, 2023

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

No, Georgia officials didn’t err in releasing Trump indictment with grand jurors’ names

CLAIM: Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, forgot to redact the names of the grand jurors who indicted former President Donald Trump this week in relation to his actions following the 2020 election.

THE FACTS: It is standard that indictments in Georgia include the names of the grand jurors, in part because it provides defendants the opportunity to challenge the composition of the grand jury, legal experts told the AP. But after a grand jury indicted Trump as well as 18 others on Monday for their alleged efforts to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss in the state, some quickly spread a claim that officials erred in releasing the indictment by including the jurors’ names. “First they ‘leak’ the indictment before the jury even voted, then they forget to redact juror names,” reads one popular post on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, seemingly referencing the fact that the court accidentally posted a list of criminal charges against Trump before he was actually indicted. But experts say including the jurors’ names, unredacted, is standard in Georgia. “In every felony case that I have handled in Georgia both as a former prosecutor and now defense lawyer, the names of the grand jurors have appeared on the Indictment,” Gabe Banks, a former Fulton County deputy district attorney, said in an email. Banks noted that indictments will usually show some names that are struck through, indicating jurors who were not present or didn’t vote. Adam Hames, a former Georgia assistant attorney general, likewise said that it’s “common practice to list the names of the grand jurors on the indictment.” Even though grand jury proceedings are generally secret, he said, including the grand jurors’ names allows the defense to present a challenge if necessary. In fact, the Georgia Supreme Court has consistently held that an indictment without the names of grand jurors is considered “defective,” said Elizabeth Taxel, an assistant clinical professor of law at the University of Georgia. Though there isn’t a Georgia statute that explicitly states that the names of the grand jurors must be written in the indictment, “that requirement is both inferred from the statutes governing the grand jury process and is established through hundred years of case law,” Taxel said in an email. The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that it, along with other agencies, is investigating threats targeting members of the jury.

— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in New Jerseya contributed this report.

Conspiracy theories falsely tie Maui wildfires to ‘smart cities’ and tech conferences

CLAIM: Maui hosted a conference about making the entire island into a “smart city” in January and will host another summit next month about using artificial intelligence to govern the island, proving recent wildfires were deliberately set to transform these ideas into reality.

THE FACTS: The Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in January was not about turning Maui into a “smart island.” It is an annual gathering focused on emerging issues in the information technology sector globally. Next month’s Hawaii Digital Government Summit, similarly, is not specifically focused on using AI on Maui, but about how governments across the state can better adapt emerging technologies. It also takes place on another Hawaiian island, not Maui. But as authorities continue to probe what sparked the wildfires in Maui this month, social media users are suggesting the conferences were indicative of a plan to raze the island in order to realize their vision for a so-called “smart” city. “What they don’t talk about is in January how they had in Maui a smart city conference to turn Maui into an entire smart island, changing everything to electric, renewables, solar panels and pushing everybody into electric vehicles — 15-minute smart cities,” a man says in one widely shared video. He also mentions an upcoming “digital government summit, utilizing AI to govern the island,” before concluding, “It’s almost like they’re resetting something to start rebuilding for this.” But the posts not only misrepresent the concepts of “smart cities” and “15-minute cities,” but also make false assertions about the conferences themselves. “Smart cities” generally refer to communities that utilize new technologies to improve operations while “15-minute cities” is an urban design principle that emphasizes building more compact communities where everyday needs can be found within a 15-minute walk. They aren’t designed to restrict people’s movements or freedoms. The conferences in Hawaii, meanwhile, are broad in scope and not focused solely on smart cities, 15-minute cities, Maui or even the state of Hawaii. “There is no truth to the horrendous assertion that the fires were deliberately set to raze the historic town of Lahaina, which was the first Capitoll of the Hawaiian Kingdom,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green’s office wrote in an emailed statement, referring to the Maui community at the epicenter of the destruction. At the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in January, thousands of researchers presented their work on a wide range of information technology issues, not just on smart city-type concepts, explained Tung Bui, an IT professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who chairs the conference. Nearly 1,500 papers were submitted as part of the world’s oldest and largest IT conference of its kind, he said. About a dozen were related to smart cities, and none were focused on Maui. “The idea of resorting to destructive measures, causing harm to a historic landmark and resulting in numerous fatalities, all in an attempt to transform Maui into a smart island, stretches the boundaries of my imagination,” Bui wrote in an email. Philip Bertolini, a senior vice president at e.Republic, which is organizing next month’s Hawaii Digital Government Summit, said the gathering isn’t focused exclusively on using AI in the public sector — and the notion of turning Maui into a city run by AI isn’t on the agenda, either. “AI may be a topic there, but it’s all about getting the public sector together so they can engage, share best practices and also bring the private sector in to share and engage in best practices around government technology,” he said. Indeed the only mention of AI on the official agenda is a talk from technology expert Jack Shaw that focuses on “unlocking the power of emerging technologies” — of which AI is one example — in order to improve government. But Shaw said Wednesday he wouldn’t be speaking at the conference after all, due to a scheduling conflict. In either case, similar presentations he’s given at other events haven’t touched on Maui. The upcoming summit also takes place for its 13th year in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu.

— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

Trees and poles standing amid Maui fire wreckage aren’t unusual, contrary to conspiracy theories

CLAIM: Scenes from the Maui wildfires show cars and buildings badly damaged near trees and poles that remain standing, suggesting a wildfire wasn’t the cause.

THE FACTS: Such observations from the fires on the Hawaiian island are not unusual, experts say. Wildfires often spew fiery embers that hit larger targets like homes and cars. Trees that catch fire are typically not completely vaporized, in part because of their water content — contrary to suggestions online. “The powers that be are at work again. This was no wildfire,” a voiceover on one Facebook video states, showing photos of Maui wreckage. “A wildfire that demolishes buildings, leaving trees standing, leaving restaurant umbrellas and trees untouched – yet having the power to destroy a boat in the middle of the ocean … What we are seeing here is definitely no wildfire. Wildfires do not completely burn out vehicles, glass and all, yet leaving nearby trees and utility poles still standing upright.” But Michael Gollner, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who leads a fire research lab, said “it’s actually very common that wildfires will burn out structures and vehicles but leave surrounding trees, utility poles, and other vegetation unscathed.” Wildfires are often spread to homes and other structures via embers — small, burning particles that break from vegetation or structures, Gollner told the AP in an email. He pointed to a 2008 federal report about a fire in Lake Arrowhead, California, that found that a wildfire initially showered a neighborhood with fiery debris, igniting several homes and vegetation. But it was the subsequent spread between houses that accounted for most of the residential damage, the report said, not the wildfire itself engulfing homes. Photos in the report show homes destroyed amid trees that remain standing. Christopher Dunn, an Oregon State University assistant professor of wildfire risk science, also said the Maui images were not unusual, providing photos from a 2020 fire in southern Oregon in which homes were destroyed while neighboring trees remained upright, despite some charring. While small pieces of wood burn easily, the sheer size of large trees, some protection from their bark and the water they contain make it so they don’t simply vaporize during a fire, he said, which explains the fact that some salvage trees for lumber after a forest fire. Arnaud Trouvé, a professor of fire protection engineering at the University of Maryland, noted that fires can spread through flame contact, radiation or the flying embers, also known as “firebrands.” “A fire that spreads through flame contact and/or radiation will typically attack all fuel sources on its path. Under those conditions, you would not expect to find unburnt trees,” he said in an email. “But fire spread in the wildland urban interface (WUI) has been shown to be often controlled by firebrands. Under those conditions, you can find patches of unburnt vegetation and structures. This has been observed in previous WUI fires on the West Coast of the US.” He added that structures, decks and fences are susceptible to accumulating flying embers, making them particularly vulnerable — whereas the wind may blow such embers past trees and poles. The Maui wildfires are the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.

— Angelo Fichera

Pfizer’s CEO has not been arrested by the US Marine Corps

CLAIM: The U.S. Marine Corps arrested Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and killed his bodyguards.

THE FACTS: Bourla has not been arrested, Pfizer confirmed in a statement to the AP. The claim was made in a post by a website that says it publishes “humor, parody, and satire” and has previously published similar false stories. Social media users nevertheless shared the false claim this week. “United States Marines on Monday captured Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and killed his two bodyguards during a military-sanctioned operation to apprehend the fiendish clot shot manufacturer following his return to the United States,” reads the post, which was published last week on the website Real Raw News and has since been deleted. Real Raw News frequently publishes fabricated stories that use anonymous military sources. Many of its posts are about made-up arrests. The site includes a disclaimer stating that it “contains humor, parody, and satire.” Neither the site nor the Marine Corps returned a request for comment. The post about Bourla’s supposed capture also did not provide any credible evidence for its claim, citing only one alleged anonymous “source in General Eric M. Smith’s office” — the same thing it has said on numerous prior false arrest claims. It falsely stated that Bourla was arrested the morning of Aug. 7, but the executive tweeted that evening about his experience mentoring a college sophomore. He tweeted again on Monday about a treatment for multiple myeloma, an aggressive blood cancer. The AP has previously debunked multiple false claims about Bourla, including that he was arrested by the FBI.

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.