On Tuesday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham made the bizarre assertion that aides to President Barack Obama left taunting notes in the White House during the transition between administrations.

“We came into the White House, I’ll tell you something,” Grisham said, according to CNN’s Abby Phillip. “Every office was filled with Obama books, and we had notes left behind that said, ‘You will fail,’ ‘You aren’t going to make it.’ ”

The claim was met with skepticism, as the odds that reports of such behavior from a rival party’s administration would be withheld for nearly three years are low.

Those who worked in the White House at the time were quick to mock Grisham’s claim and accuse her of lying.

A former special assistant to the president and senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council:

This is an outrageous lie. I know. I handed over the nuclear office at the NSC. Shameless and disgusting. @PressSec should be fired. https://t.co/6sXIqMnmJY — Jon B. Wolfsthal - aka a Globalist (@JBWolfsthal) November 19, 2019

A former special assistant to the president and a spokesman for the National Security Council:

She's right about one point. I left a note -- tucked away in my desk -- for my successor. I wished him success and encouraged him not to grow jaded despite the pace and obstacles. I also left my personal email in case he wished to seek candid advice.



I never heard from him. https://t.co/KWbzG4yLNI — Ned Price (@nedprice) November 19, 2019

A former White House attorney:

I was there. This is a complete and utter lie. Quite the opposite -- we left them briefing books to try to help with the transition as much as possible. https://t.co/WxMNIiwBuV — Daniel Jacobson (@Dan_F_Jacobson) November 19, 2019

The former deputy secretary for the Labor Department and White House Cabinet secretary:

This is absolutely not true.



Obama repeatedly and publicly praised Bush cooperation during 2009 transition, and pledged we would provide same cooperation to whoever followed us. And that’s what we did.



If Grisham is correct, why has it taken 3 years to come out? https://t.co/QpN4JAGxhq — Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) November 19, 2019

A former White House press aide:

This is the note I left my successor. Really dispiriting to hear this from @PressSec, a person with whom I spent a couple amicable hours with during the the 2016 transition where I wished her nothing but institutional knowledge, good luck and all our support. https://t.co/kGb0pa59fp pic.twitter.com/Jtis9TEZK1 — Peter Velz (@petervelz) November 19, 2019

A former press secretary:

NEW: Read the note that former Obama press secretary Josh Earnest left on his desk for Sean Spicer.



He wrote it wasn't hard to set aside his political views "and genuinely root for you to success in this role."https://t.co/FqrJdEz8cI pic.twitter.com/FcP8ZzHKOY — Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) November 19, 2019

A former assistant to the president and director of the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House:

.@PressSec is absolutely lying. My team occupied almost an entire hallway of offices in the EEOB. Before I turned off the lights on Jan. 19, I did a walk-thru of every one of them to make sure all federal records (or other notes) were appropriately archived. — Rudy Mehrbani (@RudyMehrbani) November 19, 2019

A former senior adviser to Obama:

Produce the notes that back this up. I cannot imagine a single one of my former colleagues who would do this. From @BarackObama on down, we all tried to help facilitate a smooth and orderly transition just as President Bush and his team had done for us. https://t.co/tjY3zGdRX8 — Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) November 19, 2019

A former national security adviser:

This is another bald faced lie. https://t.co/E1U9KtdL77 — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) November 19, 2019

The former director of speechwriting for Obama:

It's appalling that she thinks our notes would have been that lame. https://t.co/EZWFZYBgDA — Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 19, 2019

In a statement to NBC News, Grisham later said she had exaggerated.

“I certainly wasn’t implying every office had that issue,” Grisham wrote, according to NBC. “In fact, I had a lovely note left for me in the East Wing, and I tracked the woman down and thanked her. I was talking specifically about our experience in the lower press office—nowhere else. I don’t know why everyone is so sensitive!”

Technically, it would be very difficult to prove that someone, somewhere, did not leave an unpleasant note in the White House. But no one has yet come forward to back up Grisham’s assertion, and several reporters have said that they saw no evidence of letters in the press area:

I was in the West Wing on the evening of January 20, 2017, talking to several incoming Trump officials as they moved into their offices. I saw no offices "filled with Obama books" and nobody mentioned "you will fail" notes. Here are photos I took at the WH that night pic.twitter.com/TUZhbO6QbN — Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) November 19, 2019

Closing the loop, the former press secretary to Michelle Obama provided the letter she says she left for the next first lady’s communications director: Stephanie Grisham.