Washington Post Fact Checker Gets Major Fact Wrong: ‘Yikes’

A man walks into the Washington Post's building in Washington on March 3, 2016. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

A Washington Post fact checker got a major fact wrong while reporting on the impeachment hearing on Nov. 15.

Glenn Kessler, editor and chief writer of the paper’s “Fact Checker,” wrote on Twitter on Friday morning that House Intelligence Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) “keeps bringing up Alexandra Chalupa.”

Linking to an article about the Democratic National Committee (DNC) contractor, Kessler added, “She says she is eager to testify that GOP theories about her alleged involvement are bunk but for some reason the GOP doesn’t call her testify?”

In fact, Republicans listed Chalupa as one of the eight witnesses they want to testify in the impeachment hearings in a letter Nunes sent to House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Nov. 9.

“Given President Trump’s documented belief that the Ukrainian government meddled in the 2016 election to oppose his candidacy, which forms the basis for a reasonable desire for Ukraine to investigate the circumstances surrounding the election and any potential Ukrainian involvement, Ms. Chalupa is a prime fact witness who can assist Congress and the American public in better understanding the facts and circumstances surrounding Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election,” Nunes wrote.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) previously told then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a letter that “Chalupa’s actions appear to show that she was simultaneously working on behalf of a foreign government, Ukraine, and on behalf of the DNC and Clinton campaign, in an effort to influence not only the U.S. voting population but U.S. government officials.”

Democrats have agreed to none of the witnesses the GOP requested that have not already testified behind closed doors.

Kessler’s tweet containing misinformation remained live for over three hours on Friday befor he corrected it, writing: “Yikes, deleting this tweet as I just realized it was wrong. The GOP has requested her testimony. Apologies for the error.”

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) was among those spotting Kessler’s post, writing, “Did you read the GOP witness list? Alexandra Chalupa is on it. We'd love to have her testify. Democrats blocked it.”

Chalupa said this week that she wants to testify in the impeachment probe.

Chalupa, founder of the political consulting firm Chalupa & Associates and a co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Ethnic Council, has admitted she met with Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on Paul Manafort, a former chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but denied doing anything nefarious.

According to recently publicized visitor logs, Chalupa often visited the Obama White House during her time working with the DNC.