Trump's Jan. 6 falsehood on troops yet again debunked It's the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol today. Former president Donald Trump and his defenders have repeatedly claimed that the violence two years ago would have been prevented if only his order for 10,000 troops had been heeded. We have explored this claim twice before and debunked it, each time awarding Four Pinocchios. That has not stopped Trump from repeating the false claim. "The highly partisan Unselect Committee Report purposely fails to mention the failure of Pelosi to heed my recommendation for troops to be used in D.C.," he said on Truth Social on Dec. 22, after the Jan. 6 committee released its report. Actually, the report and dozens of transcribed interviews released by the committee provide new details on the meetings in which Trump claims he requested troops at the Capitol. The committee report says it found "no evidence" to support the claim that he ordered 10,000 troops. Moreover, the committee said that when he referenced so many troops, it was not because he wanted to protect the Capitol. He "floated the idea of having 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by left-wing counterprotesters," the report said. The report says that Trump brought up the issue on at least three occasions but in such vague and obtuse ways that no senior official regarded his words as an order. We dug through the interviews and, as a service to readers, provided details on what we know about Trump's statements at the time. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Some of the most popular fact checks of 2022 Happy new year! Before we shut down for the holidays, we posted a list of ten of the most popular fact checks of 2022. During the second year of the Biden presidency, readers appeared most interested in fact checks that re-litigate aspects of the 2020 election, especially allegations about Hunter Biden, the president's son. Moreover, only one fact check about President Biden's utterances made it among our most-read fact checks this year. By a large margin, our coverage of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his voting record especially captivated readers, with three of our articles on Meadows among the most popular. The Fact Checker's reporting showed that in 2020 Debra Meadows, wife of the former chief of staff, signed at least two forms — a voter registration form and the one-stop application — that warned of legal consequences if falsely completed and signed. Yet Debra Meadows certified that she had resided at a 14-by-62-foot mountaintop mobile home for at least 30 days — even though she did not live there. Our disclosure of this form was the latest in a string of revelations concerning the former chief of staff — who echoed President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud in 2020 — and his wife. (Late on the Friday before New Year's Eve, North Carolina prosecutors quietly announced they had decided not to bring any charges.) We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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