Claim misrepresents removal of 500,000 fugitives from background check database

An Instagram post claimed that 500,000 pedophiles are no longer included in a background check database following a directive from former President Barack Obama. That would be alarming if it were accurate, but it is not.

The July 27 post included a screenshot of an article dated March 15, 2018, headlined, "Obama removed 500,000 pedophiles from background check database."

The screenshot also contained text that said, "Barack Obama ordered the FBI to remove over 500,000 names of potential murderers and pedophiles from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, acting FBI director David Bowdich testified Wednesday."

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This claim misrepresented a 2017 Washington Post report about an FBI directive removing hundreds of thousands of "fugitives from justice" from the background check database for gun purchases. The removal occurred during the administration of former President Donald Trump, and there was no indication that the fugitives removed were only pedophiles.

The article in the screenshot was published by The People’s Voice and authored by Sean Adl-Tabatabai, who has been known to run misinformation websites. PolitiFact has debunked multiple claims from the site.

The story cited the Daily Caller, which in turn cited a Nov. 22, 2017, report by The Washington Post about the FBI purging tens of thousands of people from its criminal background check database that prohibits "fugitives from justice" from buying guns. Neither The Daily Caller nor The Washington Post article mentioned pedophiles.

Federal firearms licensees such as gun shop owners, pawn shop dealers and retailers use the FBI-operated National Instant Criminal Background Check System to determine whether someone can legally buy or own a firearm. The database was developed with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.

The FBI and ATF previously had different definitions of who was considered a fugitive from justice. 

In late 2016, while Obama was still president, the Justice Department agreed to use ATF’s definition, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous law enforcement sources. This decision narrowed the prohibition of gun purchases only to fugitives who cross state lines.

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After Trump’s inauguration, the definition of fugitive from justice was further narrowed to people who have fled across state lines to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid testifying in a criminal proceeding, and are subject to a current or imminent criminal prosecution or testimonial obligation.

The Washington Post reported that on Feb. 15, 2017, the FBI said fugitives from justice must be removed from the background check database and future entries under that category should be restricted until further notice. 

Before the directive, there were 500,000 people in the database identified as fugitives, and by November 2017, there were 788.

The People’s Voice screenshot mentioned congressional testimony from David Bowdich, whom it wrongly identified as the "acting FBI director." At the time of his March 2018 testimony, Bowdich was the FBI’s acting deputy director. In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Bowdich about the Justice Department’s decision to remove more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the background check database.

Bowdich said, "That was a decision that was made under the previous administration. It was the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel that reviewed the law and believed that it needed to be interpreted so that if someone was a fugitive in a state, there had to be indications that they had crossed state lines. Otherwise, they were not known to be a fugitive under the law in the way it was interpreted."

Although he said this happened during the previous administration, he did not say Obama ordered the removal, as the social media posts claimed.

An Instagram post claimed Obama removed 500,000 pedophiles from a background check database.

This misrepresents an FBI directive that purged hundreds of thousands of names from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System because the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel adopted a new definition of "fugitives from justice." The directive was issued after Trump became president. 

The Washington Post reported that there were 500,000 fugitives identified in the database before the February 2017 directive and the number decreased to 788 by November of that year.

However, the fugitives’ criminal background was not specified, so we found no evidence the fugitives were composed only of pedophiles.

We rate this claim False.