Correction request submitted to Snopes.com, July 16, 2023

In a December 2022 fact check, Snopes.com claimed PolitiFact debunked the claim that a diary for a time in the possession of Project Veritas was authentic. That claim was false. We know the diary is authentic even if alleged contents of the diary have not been confirmed. PolitiFact’s fact check “debunked” claims about the contents of the diary, not the authenticity of the diary itself.

Your Dec. 8, 2022 article on one aspect of the alleged Ashley Biden diary ends with a false statement:

“Note: In regard to the alleged authenticity of the diary itself, some have claimed that the FBI has issued statements confirming it is real. Fact-checking website PolitiFact has debunked this claim, issuing a rating of ‘False.'”

1) The PolitiFact fact check does not touch on the authenticity of the diary. It deals only with alleged contents of the diary.

2) We know the diary is authentic even if we don’t know that any particular claimed content of the diary is authentic. We know this because the FBI prosecuted for the theft of Ashley Biden’s diary, making statements to that effect. It would make zero sense for the FBI to prosecute for a diary merely alleged to belong to Biden.

Please correct the false claim that PolitiFact debunked claims that the diary is real.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ashley-biden-diary-afraid/

“Two Florida residents pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in New York in connection with the theft and sale of the diary and other items belonging to Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Joe Biden, court records show.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/guilty-pleas-in-theft-of-diary-of-ashley-biden-daughter-of-president.html

“Michael J. Driscoll, an assistant director of the FBI, said in a statement that the two defendants ‘conspired to steal an individual’s personal property, which they subsequently sold to a third party and delivered across state lines.'”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/ashley-biden-diary-project-veritas/

If it’s not confirmed as Biden’s diary, then why are NBC and the Post reporting it that way? Will you fact check them? Will PolitiFact fact check them?

Separately, we’re publishing some comments on Snopes’ method of receiving submitted corrections.