A rumor that circulated online in October 2025 claimed (archived) the American singer-songwriter Joan Baez sued White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for $50 million. According to the story, Baez sued Leavitt for defamation following an “ambush” on “The Tonight Show.”
On Oct. 23, the Facebook page Echoes of Joan posted the story. The post began, “‘YOU THINK I’M DONE? THINK AGAIN!’ Joan Baez Hits Karoline Leavitt with a $50 Million Lawsuit After Shocking Live Ambush!”
Other Facebook users also shared the same claim, with some posts dating back to September 2025 (archived, archived, archived). Some of those posts also featured links in top comments leading to articles hosted by WordPress blogs, such as one advertisement-filled story hosted on the sport.feji.io website.
The claim was false. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting about the alleged lawsuit (archived, archived, archived, archived). Prominent news media outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if true. Neither Baez nor Leavitt had appeared on “The Tonight Show” since the claim started circulating in September, according to the program’s website.
The person or people who authored the story fabricated the entire tale as one of many about celebrities, actors, and other famous figures suing each other. They aimed to earn advertising revenue on websites linked from the aforementioned Facebook posts.
A Facebook search for “YOU THINK I’M DONE? THINK AGAIN,” the first line of Echoes of Joan’s post, surfaced many more stories about alleged celebrity lawsuits. One early claim used the initial line, “YOU WERE BEATEN — PAY NOW!” Snopes previously debunked other stories about alleged lawsuits that used this same first line.
An examination of the Echoes of Joan page’s stories found multiple indications of artificial intelligence-generated (AI) images and text. The image Echoes of Joan used alongside its post also appeared to be generated by AI, as evidenced by the unnaturally smooth skin and Baez’s ears, which were pixelated in an unnatural way. Leavitt also appeared to have one front tooth that was visibly darker than the other, something that did not feature in authentic photos.
Snopes contacted a manager of the Vibesverse Facebook page that shared the claim in September to ask about the fictional story, and will update this story if we receive more information.
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on other stories claiming celebrities like Robert Irwin or Tiger Woods filed lawsuits against U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
