A post shared on Facebook more than 4,100 times claims Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is the niece of billionaire investor George Soros.

“How many of you are aware that the female governor of Michigan is the niece of George Soros?” reads the post.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that Whitmer is Soros’s niece. Chelsea Lewis, the deputy press secretary for Whitmer’s office, confirmed the claim was false.

Fact Check:

Whitmer gained national attention in March after criticizing the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and drawing President Donald Trump’s ire on Twitter, according to The Washington Post. Since then, she has been a popular target for misinformation. This particular Facebook post claims Soros, who has been the subject of conspiracy theories for years, is her uncle.

But the Daily Caller News Foundation found no evidence to corroborate the claim. Soros appears to only have two nephews — Peter and Jeffrey — by way of his late older brother Paul, per the biography “Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire.” Soros’s brother had one daughter, Linda, but she died in an accident at 18 months old, according to his obituary.

“This is completely false,” Lewis said in an email to the DCNF. (RELATED: Does George Soros Own The Voting Technology Firm Smartmatic?)

This isn’t the first time social media users have attempted to link someone to Soros through an erroneous familial relationship. In 2019, Check Your Fact debunked claims that Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff is his in-law and that Chelsea Clinton is married to one of Soros’s nephews.

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