On July 24, 2019 PolitiFact published a fact check of Republican John Ratcliffe’s claim that Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not follow the special counsel regulations. The PolitiFact fact check, by Jon Greenberg, said PolitiFact found no legal scholar who agreed with Ratcliffe.
Before reading Greenberg’s fact check, we were aware that respected author and former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy shared Ratcliffe’s view.
We wondered how Greenberg had conducted his research into the legal scholarship on special counsel regulations. The text of our email outreach to Greenberg follows in .pdf format.
Note: This example is not among those we submitted to the International Fact-Checking Network as an example of PolitiFact failing to uphold IFCN standards, at least up through now.
Dear Mr. Jon Greenberg,
The fact check you wrote regarding Ratcliffe’s claim about the Mueller Report includes the claim that you found no legal scholar who agreed with Ratcliffe.
You interviewed three legal experts.
What else did you do?
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/robert-muellers-preposterous-rationale-for-tainting-the-president-with obstruction-allegations/