CLAIM: The Obama family’s personal chef had been writing a tell-all book when he was found dead with injuries to his head in less than 4 feet of water. The 911 call also didn’t go out until his body washed up on shore and Obama’s “personal coroner” conducted the autopsy.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Massachusetts State Police reiterated Monday that Tafari Campbell did not sustain any head wounds and was found in nearly 8 feet of water, not in less than 4 feet of water, when he drowned last Sunday. In addition, the 911 call came in shortly after he fell off his paddleboard, not hours later, and Obama’s physician didn’t do the autopsy, the state medical examiner’s office did, police said. Meanwhile, no evidence has been presented to support the claim that the former White House sous chef was working on a book about the Obamas. The notion originated from a social media account known to spread misinformation.
THE FACTS: Social media users are continuing to spread conspiracy theories following the July 23 drowning near the former first family’s waterfront estate on Martha’s Vineyard.
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One popular video on Instagram baselessly claims Campbell was writing a book about the Obamas when he was “found with head trauma in 3 to 4 feet of water on the Obama estate.”
The video also goes on to claim that no one called 911 for hours until the 45-year-old Virginia resident’s body washed up on shore and that “Obama’s own personal coroner” was being flown from Washington, D.C. to conduct the autopsy.
“That’s the actual update to the case,” the man in the video clip says. “And you wonder why we see conspiracy in everything. It’s because you’re all lying. That’s why.”
But almost nothing purported as fact in the post is accurate.
There is no indication that Campbell was developing a book. The claim can be traced back to a Twitter account known to spread misinformation, which claimed without evidence on July 24 that he was preparing a “tell all.”
The same account also fabricated the false notion that Campbell’s body bore signs of head trauma when it was discovered last Monday — a claim that Massachusetts State Police debunked last week.
Campbell’s family and spokespersons for the Obamas didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Monday, but a review of his Instagram account before it was made private in recent days showed nothing suggesting he was working on a book along the lines of what social media users claim.
At least one of Campbell’s former colleagues in the Obama White House has gone on to become an author. But Sam Kass’s “Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World” was a cookbook published in 2018.
State police spokesperson David Procopio on Monday also rejected claims that Obama’s own personal doctor conducted the autopsy, citing the agency’s prior statements on the investigation.
State police said last week that a post mortem examination by the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner “found no evidence that the death was suspicious,” including any head injuries on Campbell’s body.
Procopio said it was also patently untrue that the 911 call was made only when Campbell’s body was recovered last Monday.
Campbell went out on Edgartown Great Pond with another paddleboarder at around 7 p.m. Sunday. The 911 call was made at 7:46 p.m., shortly after he went under the water, Procopio said.
His body was found about 100 feet from shore in the area of Turkeyland Cove Road, which is where the Obama’s summer home is located. And while the pond has an average depth of 3 to 4 feet, it was recovered in waters roughly 7 to 8 feet deep, Procopio confirmed Monday.
“They were on the paddleboards for a short while before he fell in,” he wrote in an email, echoing prior statements provided by state police on the investigation. “After he fell in the other paddleboarder swam a short distance to where he had gone in and tried to locate him. When that was unsuccessful, the other paddleboarder swam to shore and ran up to land and located and told what had happened to the person who ultimately called 911.”
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
