Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

$
John Podesta
John Podesta
stated on December 18, 2016 an interview on "Meet the Press":

“On Oct. 7, the Access Hollywood tape comes out. One hour later, WikiLeaks starts dropping my emails.”

True
By Aaron Sharockman
December 18, 2016

It’s True: WikiLeaks dumped Podesta emails hour after Trump video surfaced

So many extraordinary things happened in the 2016 presidential campaign that it can be hard sometimes to remember the sequence of events.

When Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman described the events of Oct. 7, 2016, during a post-election interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, we had to rewind the clock.

“On Oct. 7, the Access Hollywood tape comes out. One hour later, WikiLeaks starts dropping my emails,” Podesta told Chuck Todd on Dec. 18, 2016. “One could say that those things might not have been a coincidence.”

The Access Hollywood tape Podesta referenced showed Donald Trump making lewd comments about women during a 2005 interview. “I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump tells interviewer Billy Bush. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

The tape was discovered and first published by the Washington Post‘s David Fahrenthold right around 4 p.m. ET on Oct. 7. Fahrenthold shared a link to his story on Twitter.

Less than an hour later, WikiLeaks revealed that it had received 50,000 of Podesta’s emails. It released 2,050 initially. It, too, shared the news via Twitter.

We authenticated the time of each tweet using the Twitter source code and this very helpful blog post. We obviously cannot assess if the two events were connected, as Podesta suggested, but on the timeline he’s right on.

Here’s how Time described the events in an article published that day.

“The bombshell dropped on the Washington Post’s website just after 4 p.m.: a video of Donald Trump, in 2005, using extremely vulgar language to describe women, detailing his attempt to bed a married woman and bragging that he can grope women because he is a celebrity. Less than an hour later, Wikileaks published more than 2,000 emails from what appeared to be the personal account of the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.”

Podesta’s claim rates True.

https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/4e5f0b67-694b-461a-91a7-b98f4e164d74

Correction: WikiLeaks’ first post of Twitter was around 4:30 p.m. An earlier version of this fact-check referred to a subsequent tweet.

Our Sources

Time, How a Leaked Tape of Donald Trump Bragging About Groping Women Changed the 2016 Race, Oct. 7, 2016

Meet the Press, Dec. 18, 2016

David Fahrenthold Twitter account, Oct. 7, 2016

WikiLeaks Twitter account, Oct. 7, 2016

 

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Aaron Sharockman
Jason MIller
stated on October 4, 2020 comments on ABC's "This Week":
Says Joe Biden stays in his basement.
False
Amy Klobuchar
stated on December 20, 2019 the sixth Democratic presidential debate:
Says Pete Buttigieg ran statewide in Indiana and "lost by 20 points."
True

It’s True: WikiLeaks dumped Podesta emails hour after Trump video surfaced





Donald Trump
stated on May 4, 2026 a White House event:








Donald Trump
stated on April 23, 2026 remarks at the White House:







Chris Wright
stated on April 19, 2026 an interview on CNN's "State of the Union":