Former congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican candidate for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, said in a fundraising email that he saw Osama bin Laden’s dead body. He described his service as a U.S. army officer and FBI special agent. The email, shared online by former Washington Post reporter Azi Paybarah, included a bold passage stating “I saw the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes.” Rogers said he learned of the raid by phone from CIA director Leon Panetta while serving as chair of the House intelligence committee. He was at home in Washington, D.C., on May 1, 2011, when the raid took place in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Rogers supported President Barack Obama’s decision not to release graphic images of the raid, saying the risks outweighed the benefits and could fuel conspiracy theories. Since the 2011 raid, Rogers has repeatedly referenced his role in the war on Islamist terrorism and cited his service in funding for intelligence agencies. He has described his opponent, Abdul El‑Sayed, as representing ideological fanaticism and said he spent years hunting terrorists and bringing bin Laden to justice. A New York Times fact‑check noted that Rogers’s claim about seeing the body was inaccurate; he was not present at the raid and did not view the body in person. El‑Sayed has publicly condemned the September 11 attacks and said he does not represent a vision of ideological fanaticism. The Rogers campaign did not respond to requests for comment. The claim remains unverified.