Former President Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau took to Twitter to express his concerns. | AP Photo Former Obama speechwriter to Ari Fleischer: Stop lying

Former President Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau on Friday accused Ari Fleischer of knowingly lying about Hillary Clinton's role in starting the birther conspiracy movement.

“You're lying, Ari — and you're smart enough to know you're lying, which makes it even worse,” Favreau tweeted at Fleischer, a former press secretary to former President George W. Bush.


Favreau was responding to a Fleischer tweet in which the Republican asked if Clinton would apologize for "her staff spreading that rumor when she ran vs Obama in '08?"

Trump accused Clinton of starting the rumor in a speech Friday. The speech also marked the first time that Trump personally stated that he believed Obama was born in the U.S.

Multiple fact-checkers have found no connection between Clinton's campaign and the birther movement, saying instead that some Clinton supporters furthered those claims while Clinton was losing to Obama in the primary.

.@AriFleischer I was there, and you weren't, so I know it's not true. And every fact-checker and journalist in America says it's not true. — Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 16, 2016

Trump had spent years suggesting otherwise, leading a "birther" movement that falsely claimed Obama is ineligible for the White House.

Fleischer later tried to claim that a September 2015 comment from John Heilemann, the co-author of the 2008 campaign chronicle Game Change, proved his point.

Steve Heilemann, author of the 2008 election Game Change, said it was the case that Clinton spread the rumors. “It was the case,” he said. — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 16, 2016





But during the segment on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Heilemann said that "it was the case" when asked if the Clinton team spread the notion that Obama might not be a Christian, not whether he was born in the U.S.

Hours later, Fleischer corrected himself in a subsequent tweet to reflect the actual context of Heilemann's remark.

I earlier tweeted that @jheil said Hillary's staff spread the birther rumor. Correction: Hill's staff spread rumor O was Muslim. — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 16, 2016