Cliff Owen/AP
The Associated Press blew up the Virginia gubernatorial campaign Wednesday night when the agency posted, then retracted, a story that claimed Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe had lied to a federal official. An alert for the story was sent out at 9:45 p.m., but it was replaced by a rare retraction notice at 11:25 p.m. The story was based on documents from a case against a Rhode Island man who was convicted of identity theft and wire fraud. The AP reported that the documents said a “T.M.” had deliberately lied to a post-office official about a check from the fraud, but did not initially acknowledge that T.M. was not named in the documents, and was not McAuliffe. McAuliffe’s campaign says he was one of many passive investors and had no idea about the scheme.