A rumor that circulated online in May 2025 claimed U.S. military officers sentenced Gen. James "Jim" Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force, to hang to death on May 12. According to the story, the sentencing followed a treason conviction in February brought by both the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps and Office of Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay.
For example, users copied and pasted several paragraphs of text that promoted the rumor on Facebook (archived), Truth Social (archived) and X (archived). The claim mainly appeared on Facebook. The posts' text, naming former U.S. President Barack Obama, began as follows:
AIR FORCE TRAITOR SENTENCED TO HANG — GITMO GOES LIVE
May 2025 — Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunal: Former Air Force Vice Chief James C. "Jim" Slife has been convicted of TREASON and sentenced to DEATH BY HANGING. Slife's betrayal traces back to 2013, when he attempted to MASSACRE the Michigan Militia using an AC-130 gunship loaded with live ordnance — under direct orders from Obama's regime.
The illegal op, posing as a counterterror mission, targeted innocent American men, women, and children. Slife's objective? Wipe out a constitutional militia defending the 1st and 2nd Amendments. At the last second, a heroic pilot aborted the mission — refusing to commit mass murder.
CID arrested Slife on February 23. At his March arraignment, he pled not guilty, claiming he was "just following orders." But that didn't stop the tribunal from moving forward. On May 7, after just TWO HOURS, the JAG panel found him guilty of mutiny, insurrection, conspiracy, and attempted mass murder.
The copied-and-pasted text also said, "The execution is set for May 12. The Deep State's military puppets are being flushed — one traitor at a time."
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google found no news media outlets or political blogs reporting on Slife's supposed arrest, conviction or sentencing. Similar searches also failed to location any credible reports — including from conservative blogs — about the supposed story of the Obama administration ordering the deployment of an AC-130 gunship on Michigan militia members. Rather, Real Raw News, the website originating the rumor, albeit with different text, features an "About Us" page specifying its reporting as "humor, parody and satire" — meaning they made up the rumor. A disclaimer on the page reads in part, "Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel."
By email, Ronald Flesvig, public affairs director for the Office of Military Commissions, told Snopes the rumor was not true. Flesvig said, "The Military Commissions at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Cuba were specifically established to try alien, unlawful, enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the United States for violations of the law of war and other offenses triable by military commission. The Military Commissions has never tried a case against U.S. Air Force Gen. James Slife or any U.S. citizen. Under the Military Commissions Act of 2009 and USC 948 Section 10, the commission cannot try cases against U.S. civilians." The Military Commissions Act of 2009 and Title 10 of the U.S. Code confirmed Flesvig's assertion.
Representatives for the Department of Defense and the Navy did not yet respond to emailed requests for statements, nor did Slife himself return a message asking whether he wished to comment. Real Raw News also has yet to reply to an email inquiring about its content.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, speaks after taking command of AFSOC during a Change of Command ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Florida, June 28, 2019. (Image courtesy of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Marleah Cabano)
How the Slife rumor started
On Feb. 21, one month into U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, The Associated Press reported Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had announced Slife's firing. The article also told of firings of other senior military officials.
Four days later, on Feb. 25, Real Raw News published an article reporting a made-up story about Slife's arrest, with the headline "Army CID Arrests former Air Force Vice Chief of Staff James C. 'Jim' Slife After Trump Fires Him."
Then, on May 8, Real Raw News reported the story that later spawned the copied-and-pasted text on social media. That article's headline read "Former Air Force Honcho Who Wanted to Kill Citizen Militia in 2013 Convicted of Treason and Sentenced to Hang to Death." The story began:
The US Navy Judge Advocate General's Corp and Office of Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay convicted former Air Force Vice Chief of Staff James C. "Jim" Slife of mutiny, insurrection, and other high crimes Tuesday afternoon. Military officers serving as jurors, or panelists, recommended he face the strictest punishment: death.
For further reading, a previous fact check examined a similar Real Raw News article promoting the made-up story of the U.S. military sentencing former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., to hang to death.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.