A viral video shared on TikTok claims Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s vineyard purportedly received $14 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
@real.estate.agent If you are in government, you have no business collecting government money for private ventures #usa #fyp ♬ BioTekal Folsom Prison Blues Wrath of man – Gatsby
Verdict: False
The claim is false and originally stems from a Feb. 23 post shared by “America’s Last Line of Defense,” which is a satirical Facebook page.
Fact Check:
Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff for New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, announced he would challenge Pelosi for her House seat back in February, according to Politico. Chakrabarti, 39, also previously worked for Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, the outlet reported.
The TikTok video, which has received nearly 14,000 likes as of writing, claims Pelosi’s vineyard purportedly received $14 million from the USAID.
“Nancy Pelosi’s vineyard received $14 million in USAID funding,” text superimposed on the video reads. “In case you were wondering why she’s opposed to Congressional auditing,” a second set of text follows.
“If you are in government, you have no business collecting government money for private ventures,” the video’s caption adds.
The claim is false and originally stems from a Feb. 23 post shared by “America’s Last Line of Defense,” which is a satirical Facebook page. The Facebook page describes itself as “the flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash” before reiterating that “nothing on this page is real.”
Likewise, Check Your Fact did not find a press release on Pelosi’s website or a statement shared via her verified social media accounts responding to the claim. The USAID’s website has been down since Feb. 23, when many direct hire personnel were put on administrative leave globally, and the agency’s LinkedIn page does not appear to reference the claim. President Donald Trump does not appear to have commented on the claim, either.
In addition, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. Actually, the opposite is true. On March 7, PolitiFact debunked the claim, tracing its origin to the same satirical Facebook page. Snopes also debunked the claim.
There is a vineyard associated with Pelosi’s estate on Zinfandel Lane in California, according to a November 2015 article from the Los Angeles Times. The outlet indicated that Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, made “between $5,001 and $15,000 in income from the sale of grapes grown at the vineyard.”
Pelosi’s 2024 financial disclosure form filed with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives shows she made between $100,001 and $1,000,000 in grape sales at the same vineyard. (RELATED: Claim That Pam Bondi Has Petitioned The Courts To Vacate Anthony Fauci’s Pardon Is Satire)
A Pelosi spokesperson directed Check Your Fact to Snopes’ debunk when asked to comment on the claim.
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