Trump Indictment, Revealed 

The indictment of former President Donald Trump was unsealed on April 4, revealing that the Manhattan district attorney's office had charged the former president with 34 counts of violating New York state law by falsifying business records in the first degree, a Class E felony.

It was, as Trump said, "surreal."

Trump pleaded not guilty in the Manhattan courtroom in the afternoon, and then flew back to Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where he delivered a relatively short and subdued speech to his supporters. 

In their story "What's in Trump's Indictment," FactCheck.org staffers Rob Farley and D'Angelo Gore wrote that the 16-page indictment itself is short on specifics. But the accompanying 13-page Statement of Facts laid out the details and legal basis for the charges against Trump.

In New York, in order for the charge of falsifying business records to be bumped up to a felony, one must commit the crime of falsifying business records when the “intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg summarized the criminal case against Trump in the first two paragraphs of the Statement of Facts, alleging that Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election."

“From August 2015 to December 2017, the Defendant [Trump] orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects,” according to the statement. “In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York. The participants also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in furtherance of the scheme.” 

In his speech from Mar-a-Lago and in social media posts that day, Trump called the case against him "unfair." In a separate story -- "Examining Trump’s Claims on His Arrest and Arraignment" -- staffers Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson and Farley explained Trump's attacks on the prosecutor, judge and venue. We also updated "Q&A on Grand Jury Indictment of Trump in New York" with new details.

Reader: Is glyphosate a carcinogen? I find that the World Health Organization has not stated glyphosate is a carcinogen, only that a subcommittee of WHO has put it on a list of possible carcinogens. 

FactCheck.org Staff Writer Kate Yandell: We've written about glyphosate and cancer before and go into the WHO classifications in detail. [See "Does Glyphosate Cause Cancer?" Aug. 28, 2017.]

The International Agency for Research on Cancer -- which is part of WHO -- classifies glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. This means that a group of experts associated with WHO judged that glyphosate probably causes cancer at a high enough dose. As we explain in our article, this doesn't mean glyphosate causes cancer at doses typically found in food.

Since we published our article, there have been a couple of new developments.

In 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency published an interim decision on glyphosate, as part of a process in which it reviews registered pesticides every 15 years. The agency concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in humans and that with appropriate use, there "are no risks of concern to human health."

A court vacated part of this interim decision in 2022 and the EPA withdrew the decision, none of which affects glyphosate products on the market. The EPA says this does not change the underlying scientific findings behind the decision and that it will now focus on completing a revised final decision. 

The EPA said: "EPA’s underlying scientific findings regarding glyphosate, including its finding that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans, remain the same. In accordance with the court’s decision, the Agency intends to revisit and better explain its evaluation of the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate and to consider whether to do so for other aspects of its human health analysis."

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Taking Folic Acid, Not Other Folates, Is Recommended to Reduce Risk of Birth Defects": A folic acid supplement is recommended during pregnancy and prior to conception because it reduces the risk of neural tube defects in babies. Social media posts have claimed that people should avoid folic acid in favor of a different form of the vitamin, but folic acid is the only one that has been established to help prevent birth defects. 
• "No Evidence Offshore Wind Development Killing Whales": Ask SciCheck answers ths question: Is the development of offshore wind energy farms in the U.S. killing whales? 
• "Early Release of 'QAnon Shaman' Due to Plea and Prison Protocols, Contrary to Online Claims": Jacob Chansley, also known as the "QAnon Shaman," was sentenced to 41 months in prison for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, but he was released early to a halfway house on March 28 because of his plea agreement and prison protocols. Social media posts falsely claim that his release was due to videos shown by Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.
• "Bogus Norm Macdonald Tweet Circulates in Aftermath of Nashville Shooting": A tweet posted years ago by the late comedian Norm Macdonald has been altered to falsely claim that he’d commented on the possibility of a transgender school shooter back in 2016. A search of Macdonald’s account shows he didn’t write that transphobic tweet. 
• "Biden’s 2022 Remarks Not Related to Trump Indictment, Contrary to Online Posts": Social media posts and former President Donald Trump are sharing an edited video of President Joe Biden to make the unfounded claim that Biden “is coordinating these Trump indictments.” Biden’s comments, made in 2022, were related to international concerns about American democracy, not Trump’s legal battles.

• "Recomiendan tomar ácido fólico, no otros tipos de folato, para reducir el riesgo de malformaciones congénitas": Se recomienda tomar un suplemento de ácido fólico durante el embarazo y antes de la concepción porque reduce el riesgo de malformación del tubo neural en los bebés. Publicaciones en las redes sociales afirman que las personas deberian evitar el ácido fólico en favor de una modalidad distinta de la vitamina, pero el ácido fólico es el único que se ha establecido para ayudar a prevenir defectos de nacimiento.