Associated Incidents
A false report about U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris having been involved in a 2011 hit-and-run accident in San Francisco originated from an unreliable website.
There is no evidence the incident described ever happened and an analysis by Microsoft released on Tuesday identified the article and website as part of a Russia-based disinformation campaign ahead of the U.S. election.
A screenshot, opens new tab of an article being shared online said: "Kamala Harris hit a 13-year-old girl with a car and left the crime scene."
However, the San Francisco Police Department told Reuters in an email that there is "no merit" to the report.
There is also no credible reporting on Harris ever being in a road accident involving a pedestrian.
Harris was involved in a minor, opens new tab car, opens new tab accident, opens new tab in 2022 in Washington, D.C. that did not cause any casualties.
Archives, opens new tab of the now-defunct web page describing the purported hit-and-run identify the site as belonging to "KBSF-San Francisco News."
But there is no evidence of KBSF ever having been a credible news outlet based in San Francisco. According to online, opens new tab tools, opens new tab that show registration data for domain names, the KBSF website was created on Aug. 20, 2024, in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The first paragraph of the fake story says in part: "In June, 2011 Kamala Harris was driving a car when she hit two pedestrians and left the scene of the incident in San Francisco."
The article featured a video report that included what were claimed to be the victim's x-ray scans, opens new tab showing injuries to the chest and pelvis.
However, the chest and pelvic x-rays in the video report feature in unrelated academic, opens new tab studies, opens new tab published in 2010, opens new tab and 2017, opens new tab, respectively. The date stamp partially visible on the top-right corner of the chest x-ray in the video states that it was taken in 2004.
A report released on Sept. 17 by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, opens new tab described the fake hit-and-run article as an example of a recent pivot by Russian "cyber influence operations" toward the Harris-Walz campaign.
VERDICT
False. There is no credible evidence that Harris was involved in a hit-and-run accident in San Francisco in 2011 and a video report describing the incident is hosted on an unreliable website.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.