A new political group is spending $700,000 airing a television ad that paints Colorado gubernatorial candidate Democrat Jared Polis as the bad guy in a workforce dispute that happened nearly 20 years ago.

Little is known about the group behind the ad, Colorado Citizens for Truth. The independent expenditure committee, which can spend an unlimited amount of money as long as it doesn’t coordinate with candidates, was formed Oct. 9, days before the ad went on television Saturday.

The ad is based on a 1999 Boulder police report, and it appears to be inspired in part by the #MeToo movement. However, the ad cherry-picks from the report and leaves out important facts regarding the decades-old incident, including that the woman mentioned in the ad pleaded guilty to stealing from Polis.

Here’s a closer look at the ad.

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The ad’s basics

The ad opens up with snippets of the 1999 police report flashing on the screen. Some words are underlined in red; others such as “she tried calling 911” are highlighted in yellow. The narrator, a woman, recounts the tale of an “angry CEO” who confronts a departing employee. She tries to leave, but he shoves her into a filing cabinet. The ad then says the courts provided the woman with a restraining order. “There’s no good reason to assault a woman,” the narrator says.

The ad’s narrative twist is that the CEO is Jared Schutz, the millionaire turned politician, who changed his name to Jared Polis in 2000. “Jared Polis changed his name,” the ad concludes. “But he cannot change his past.”

Evaluating the claims of the ad

Claim 1: Polis prevented an employee from leaving her office, stopped her from calling 911 and pushed her into a filing cabinet

Verdict: Mostly true, but lacking important context

June 23, 1999, was supposed to be Patricia Hughes’ last day working for Polis as his personal assistant. In an afternoon phone call, according to police reports, Hughes said she’d “go after him” if her exit didn’t go smoothly.

Shortly thereafter, Polis arrived at his office to witness, according to police reports, Hughes deleting files and attempting to steal other documents such as business contracts valued between $25,000 and $75,000.

Polis’ and Hughes’ reports to the police begin to contradict here.

According to Hughes’ statement to police, she attempted to leave, but Polis shoved her into a filing cabinet. She then attempted to call 911 three times, but Polis stopped her from connecting twice.

Polis admitted blocking Hughes from leaving, but only after he called 911. Hughes then hit him with one of her bags. Polis told police after he was hit, he grabbed Hughes by the shoulder and pushed her back to prevent her from leaving again.

Police were unable to substantiate that bruises on Hughes’ arms came from Polis. However, a welt on her thigh matched Hughes’ story that Polis shoved her into a filing cabinet that had a key protruding.

Police did find company documents in Hughes’ bags and required her to leave them. Police also stopped Hughes from leaving with keys to the office that Hughes suggested were not those keys.

Claim 2: The courts imposed a restraining order, but Polis and his lawyers put the blame on Hughes.

Verdict: Misleading

It’s true that a court granted Hughes a temporary restraining order against Polis. However, it was vacated.

It was Hughes who was later ordered to stay away from Polis after she pleaded guilty to theft of trade secrets, charges brought by the Boulder district attorney. Hughes’ sentence was deferred with 18 months’ probation. She has since died.

Claim 3: Jared Polis changed his name after this incident

Verdict: True but misleading

The ad hints Polis might have changed his name a year after the incident to distance himself from it. It’s been a popular conspiracy among Republicans since the police report first came to light after a right-wing news outlet first published the police report.

Polis has said he changed his name to honor his mother’s maiden name. He also used the occasion to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He charged $100 per ticket to an event where he formally announced the name change.