Vox explains chapter and verse of the fake controversy ginned up by nationally televised remarks by Sen. Tom Cotton translated by the Drudge Report, Donald Trump and the local Cotton sycophancy chorus into the asssertion that Hillary Clinton’s emails led to Iran’s execution of a scientist, Shahram Amiri, believed to have provided intelligence to the U.S.

There is one big problem with Trump’s tweet, though — namely that there is “no reasonable connection between the discussion of Amiri’s case on email by Clinton’s staff to Amiri’s eventual execution,” writes the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin, who first started covering Amiri’s story six years ago:

One big thing is that Amiri’s defection and return to Iran, after being identified in news accounts as cooperating with the U.S., occurred in 2010, well before anyone had forced release of any Clinton e-mails. There remains no evidence the e-mail was hacked. But, in any case, the limited discussion in her emails about an unnamed person revealed nothing Iran didn’t already know from reading U.S. news sources.

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There are many chapters in Tom Cotton’s book of fables, including one about the money paid to Iran in settlement of a long outstanding claim last January at the time of release of a U.S. hostage in Iran. Cotton is stepping up peddling of this fiction, already well rebutted by President Obama, using the payment of the debt in cash as some kind of indication of skulduggery. Because of banking sanctions against Iran, it’s the only means available to transfer money to the country. Vox has explained this Cotton fable, too. Not that facts matter much to the junior senator from Arkansas.

As a reader notes, the Washington Post gives this Cotton theory the “four Pinocchio” rating. Perfect for a Trump apologist.

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