After a conversation with two local journalists, and talking to some people in Adam Laxalt’s team, we have removed the story about rape allegations as it did not meet an editorial standard for such allegations.
What concerned me the most is that several outlets did indeed speak to the accuser and found her not to be credible — and she failed a polygraph given by an attorney.
While I am far from a fan of polygraphs, I feel that not enough research and editorial discretion was done in this story — and that in the “rush” to bring out the truth, we may have failed to seek it completely.
We are not claiming anything about the people who wrote about the accusations, or interviewed the accuser. We just feel that we aren’t in the place to be able to verify this independently at this time.
Again my personal apologies to Adam Laxalt and his family.
