Online posts erroneously tie Senate minority leader’s late sister

CLAIM: Angela Chao, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law, who died in February, had been CEO of the company that owns Dali, the container ship that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Chao was the chair and CEO of her family’s shipping business, New York-based Foremost Group. Dali is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and managed by Synergy Marine Group, both of which are based in Singapore. Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel.

THE FACTS: Social media users are falsely claiming that Chao, who died in Texas after driving into a pond on Feb. 10 while intoxicated, is connected to the collapse of the Key Bridge, suggesting that her death appears suspicious in light of the incident in Baltimore.

One X post states that Chao “was the CEO of the shipping company that owned the massive cargo ship that hit the Key Bridge & caused its collapse just 24+ hours ago.”