Ted Cruz faces fresh allegations of 'dirty tricks'



Keep clicking for 15 things you may not know about Cruz. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is pictured in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.

Keep clicking for 15 things you may not know about Cruz. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is pictured in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. Photo: Andrew Harnik, STF Photo: Andrew Harnik, STF Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Ted Cruz faces fresh allegations of 'dirty tricks' 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

It's déjà vu for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as his campaign once again faces allegations of "dirty tricks" for disseminating a misleading CNN story with the aim of driving rivals' supporters away from the polls.

CNN also took heavy fire for the report, which suggested the campaign of Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio was toying with abandoning its bid. Rubio's communication director called the report "100 percent false." CNN stood by the report.

This time the message was sent to a Cruz supporter mailing list in Hawaii, which votes Tuesday, and the Cruz campaign blamed the episode on volunteers acting without official approval. The incident, however, is strongly reminiscent of the time in Iowa when the Cruz campaign spread rumors that Ben Carson was leaving the race, and it builds on the narrative that the Houston-based campaign employs sleazy tactics.

Cruz Campaign sent out a release to Hawaii voters LATE last night, even after CNN story was debunked. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/WL09Bx9igI — Ellen L. Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) March 8, 2016

RELATED: Rivals aim to dog Cruz over tactics

"Senator Cruz is up to his dirty tricks again spreading false rumors and lies," Rubio campaign spokesman Joe Pounder wrote on the campaign website.

It started Monday with a message, posted later to Twitter, headlined "WASTED VOTE," which quoted a fresh CNN report that said, "Most of [Rubio's] advisers agree he does not have a path to the nomination and some are advising him to get out ahead of the March 15 primary."

The email attributed that info to "multiple news sources."

The report only originated on CNN. After a Rubio spokesman called it false and complained that CNN had not contacted the campaign before publishing the report, CNN revealed that the information came from a single source.

"The at-issue email and social media posting was not sanctioned by the Cruz for President Campaign," Cruz spokeswoman Alice Stewart told The New York Times. "The campaign became aware of the email this morning by press accounts, and upon investigation learned that some volunteers in Hawaii were involved in the posting."

National media reported the incident under the label of "dirty tricks" — one regularly used by rivals to characterize the Cruz campaign for a string of campaign tactics widely condemned as dishonest.