Amy Acton was removed from her mother's custody at age twelve after her stepfather was criminally charged with raping her.
Posted by The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Checked
- Sources
- 4 support
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 90%
The Briefing with Jen PsakiOct 23, 2026
Multiple tier1 sources (Snopes, FactCheck.org, AP) and court records reported by NBC4, PEOPLE and others confirm Acton was removed from her mother's custody at age 12 after her stepfather was charged with raping her; the claim's 'criminally charged' element is supported by court documents, and the extraction faithfully tracks the passage.
What was said
… That shows this ad shows, of course, Amy Acton's mother calling her a liar, but leaves out the very, very key, important context that Acton was removed from her mother's custody at age twelve when her stepfather was criminally charged with raping her. Even Ohio's sitting Republican governor has now called on Ramaswamy to take the ad off the air, but today, visibly angry Donald Trump decided he would stop dipping his toes in the water and instead just go absolutely all in on defending the ad and attacking …
The Briefing with Jen Psaki · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Snopes rates the claim True, reporting that court records show Acton's stepfather Cledith Arthur was charged with raping her when she was 12, and that she and her brother were removed from their mother's custody after his arrest.[1]
Supports. FactCheck.org reports court documents and contemporaneous news corroborate that Acton was removed from her mother's custody at age 12 after her stepfather was charged with raping her.[2]
Supports. AP reports, citing police and court documents, that Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of Acton, and that she and her brother were removed from their mother's custody as children.[3]
Supports. CBS News quotes Acton stating she was removed from custody and that her stepfather was indicted on a rape charge involving her, with the abuse alleged to have occurred from December 1976 to April 1978.[4]
Context. Snopes notes the stepfather was never tried and died in 2004 without facing the charges, so a conviction-based confirmation of the rape is not available; the claim concerns the charge, which sources document.[1]
Sources
4 sources: 3 fact-checkers, 1 tier 2
- 1Court records prove Amy Acton accurately described abusive ...snopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 2Controversial Ohio Ad Calls Acton a 'Liar,' But Records Back Her ...factcheck.org · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 3Democrat in Ohio governor's race pushes back against unattributed ad featuring her estranged motherapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 4In Ohio rally, Obama blasts Ramaswamy, GOP over controversial ...cbsnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
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