Sunday’s presidential debate once again showed Hillary Clinton directing the fact-checkers to get to work, almost as if they were employed by her campaign as staffers. She does seem awfully confident turning over the heavy lifting to the media when challenged on the facts on live TV.
And why not? PolitiFact was busy running its fact check during the debate and published its findings not long after. Among the verdicts was a half-true rating for Donald Trump’s claim that Hillary Clinton had deleted 33,000 emails after they had been subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
Half True for Trump claim that Clinton deleted 33,000 emails after getting a subpoena https://t.co/N0XmbD0yIG pic.twitter.com/uPDfEfSsVe
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) October 10, 2016
Trump: Hillary deleted 33K emails after she was subpoenaed@PolitiFact: yes, she deleted 33K emails after the subpoena
Rating: Half-True— PoliMath (@politicalmath) October 10, 2016
How is that half true? Did she delete 33,000 emails after the subpoena or not?
how do you half delete? Get it right boys
— Deal Talk Podcast (@Dealtalkpod) October 10, 2016
hmmm the emails belonged to Hillary, the emails were deleted after the subpoena, what's to figure out?
— MyViewOnIt (@anotherviewofit) October 10, 2016
In its analysis, PolitiFact confirms not only that the emails were deleted, but also that a staffer from Platte River Networks scrubbed the email archive using a software called BleachBit that renders the data unrecoverable.
“However,” the analysis continues, “the implication — that Clinton deleted emails relevant to the subpoena in order to avoid scrutiny — is unprovable if not flat wrong.” Got that? Yes, the emails were scrubbed after being subpoenaed by Congress, but PolitiFact’s rating of “half true” is based not on what Donald Trump actually said, but on his implication.
You left out Cheryl Mills had a conversation with the private contractor about the subpoena and refuses to discuss it nature.
— Jack Murrell (@iu70us) October 10, 2016
The fact-check relies heavily — really heavily — on testimony provided by FBI Director James Comey, who concluded that the staffer who scrubbed the server “made that decision on his own.”
That might be true, but no one from Platte River, even after being granted immunity, is willing to talk about a conference call with Hillary Clinton’s lawyers just days before the emails were scrubbed, to the point where Clinton IT aide Bryan Pagliano blew off two subpoenas to appear before the House Oversight Committee.
Since we’re relying on Comey for the facts, what about his tacit admission before the House Oversight Committee that a Platte River techie was indeed the same person who turned to Reddit for advice on altering the To and From fields on emails that had already been archived by a VERY VIP client?
lmao https://t.co/Qke2CspRI6 "B-but it was unintentional!!"
Nah. Besides, if I unintentionally kill some1 do i get out if jail?
— Jim Rustles (@jim_Rust) October 10, 2016
Seriously? You have now gone rogue. Whitey Bolger only killed 2/3 the people accused of? One is accident..more is intent
— janet l (@winojanet) October 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/conservestud1/status/785601276226723840
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Related:
Come ON! NBC News journo spotted moving the ‘fact check’ goal posts (coincidentally in favor of Hillary) https://t.co/tQCZ1wLv2K
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 10, 2016
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