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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke July 11, 2023

Political adviser John Podesta was named after his father (who is not Laurance Rockefeller)

If Your Time is short

  • John Podesta is not Laurance Rockefeller’s son.

John Podesta, an adviser to President Joe Biden, and Laurance Rockefeller, the late businessman and philanthropist, often feature in unfounded conspiracy theories. A new one claims that they are father and son. 

"This is Lawrence Rockefeller, his son is John Podesta," begins a July 10 Instagram post that misspells Rockefeller’s first name before going on to explore debunked misinformation about celebrities killed while they were working on a documentary about pedophilia.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Featured Fact-check

Rockefeller, the grandson of business magnate John D. Rockefeller, had three daughters and a son, whose name is Larry Rockefeller — not John Podesta.

Podesta, meanwhile, is the son and namesake of John Podesta Sr.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

 

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Political adviser John Podesta was named after his father (who is not Laurance Rockefeller)

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