Donald Trump, and running mate Gov. Mike Pence, earned the Washington Post's lowest marks for truthfulness this week for statements insinuating Hillary Clinton's emails were involved in the execution of a former Iranian defector.
Trump took to Twitter to claim "many people" were linking the execution of nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri on Sunday to a private email server maintained by Clinton during her time as secretary of state.
Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2016
According to the Post, Pence repeated those allegations Monday on Sean Hannity's radio show:
“It is heartbreaking to think that someone who would have cooperated, as reports indicated, with the United States and with our interests, to the security of our nation, would have lost their life because of the recklessness and carelessness of Hillary Clinton using a private server. We don’t know that that’s the case, it’s being reported, but we absolutely have to get to the bottom of it. The American people have a right to know.”
The FBI has said there is no evidence Clinton's private email server was hacked, and, as the Post points out, the details of Amiri's apparent defection to the U.S. were widely reported on by the Post and other outlets.
WASHINGTON POST | Iran says it executed a nuclear scientist for spying
"The defection and then return of Amiri was widely covered in the news media in 2009 and 2010. Iranian officials could have learned everything they needed to know about Amiri’s defection from reading The Post," wrote Post reporter Glenn Kessler, who writes the paper's "Fact Checker" column. "Moreover, Iran first publicly raised questions about his disappearance. There was little to be learned from the cryptic messages in Clinton’s emails, even if Iran had somehow gained access to Clinton’s server."
For their unsubstantiated claims, the Post gave Trump and Pence four Pinocchios – its lowest mark for truthfulness, given only to "whoppers."
"Truly, this is among the stupidest claims made so far in this campaign," Kessler wrote.
Clinton earned four Pinocchios herself last Sunday for claims on Fox News that FBI Director James Comey had described her answers about her email server as truthful.
WASHINGTON POST | Hillary Clinton gets four Pinocchios for claim FBI director said her email answers were 'truthful'
In fact, as "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace said: "After a long investigation, FBI Director James Comey said none of those things that you told the American public were true."
