This one comes straight out of the “you just can’t make this stuff up” file.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders stepped in to set the record straight when Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro made the most outrageous allegations against the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Without any evidence to corroborate his statements, Castro accused Kushner of helping to facilitate the murder of Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi.

Video: Here’s the video of Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro stating without evidence that Kushner may have given the Saudis a hit list that had Khashoggi’s name on it and thus the Saudis had him killed. Incredibly irresponsible. pic.twitter.com/9mossq4Cdt — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 19, 2018

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Castro made the unsubstantiated claim in an interview on CNN with Poppy Harlow on Friday: “The reporting that Jared Kushner may have, with U.S. intelligence, delivered a hit list, an enemies list, to the crown prince, to MBS in Saudi Arabia, and that the prince then may have acted on that and one of the people he took action against was Mr. Khashoggi.”

Tensions have been high between the White House and the Saudis since Khashoggi’s disappearance and suspected death was reported widely in the media, and unvetted claims like these from a congressman certainly don’t help the situation.

Sanders, with her trademark precision and stinging accuracy, shot down Castro’s claim and took a swipe at CNN’s legitimacy as well for airing it.

.@JoaquinCastrotx’s allegation is an outrageous slanderous lie without a shred of proof, it’s reprehensible for a sitting Congressman and supposed “news” outlets to continue citing an article that used unnamed sources and was completely debunked.https://t.co/xf2Zhitg8B — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) October 19, 2018

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“Castro’s allegation is an outrageous slanderous lie without a shred of proof, it’s reprehensible for a sitting Congressman and supposed “news” outlets to continue citing an article that used unnamed sources and was completely debunked,” Sanders wrote.

On Friday The Daily Beast tried to provide some cover: “Castro said in a statement that he ‘did not intend to accuse Jared Kushner of orchestrating the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.’ He tweet-stormed several pieces of reporting on Kushner’s extensive ties to MBS, including a March dispatch from the Intercept reporting that Kushner passed on material from the CIA-compiled President’s Daily Brief containing names of anti-MBS Saudi royals to the crown prince — though Khashoggi was not royalty.”

In an attempt to walk the comments back, Castro tried to clarify that he wanted Congress to investigate Kushner “or any other administration official shared any U.S. intelligence with the Saudis that led to any political persecution, including the killing of Jamal Khashoggl,” The Daily Beast reported.

Unfortunately for Castro, his attempt to walk back his claim proved little more than the fact that he doesn’t know the difference between credible journalism and fake news.

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To be clear, I did not intend to accuse @jaredkushner of orchestrating anything. Based on press reporting, I’m asking for Congress to open an investigation of whether any US Intelligence was shared with Saudi Arabia that led to political persecution or killing of #Khashoggi (1/7) https://t.co/31vUT7bEUc — Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) October 19, 2018

There has been broad skepticism in the US intelligence community of @jaredkushner’s relationship with #MBS. See here from @nytimes: https://t.co/QRHwQNLQyu (2/7) — Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) October 19, 2018

For these reasons, Congress should open an investigation to see whether @jaredkushner or any other Admin official shared any US intelligence with the Saudis that led to any political persecution, including the killing of #JamalKhashoggi. (7/7) — Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) October 19, 2018

Twitter doesn’t seem to be buying his arguments, though.

Elizabeth, so far I’ve read the first 2 articles that he referenced. Neither of the 2 say anything about a hit list as he mentioned in the segment. He crapped the bed and he is trying to get out of it by insulting our intelligence. — DFCO-Miami (@dfcomia) October 19, 2018

I went back to check and you are absolutely right. — Elizabeth Gutierrez (@Elizabe85628656) October 20, 2018

On the other hand, Castro may just be carrying water for the left to push for yet another fishing expedition against the Trump administration just before the midterm elections.

Sanders was right in her response. Accusations like those are harsh, and unless he has more information than he’s disclosing — and he doesn’t, or he would have disclosed it — he should face some pretty severe consequences for spouting off a bunch of fake news.

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