Why is this still a thing?

You may recall that last week, all the right wing media sites and blogs blew up over a report from the Washington Post that the FBI had 147 agents currently investigating Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. The conservative universe went nuts over this report, seeing it as evidence that Clinton would soon be in prison — something they’re very much in favor of.

Well, have a look at the correction now posted way at the bottom of this lengthy WaPo article:

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Clinton used two different email addresses, sometimes interchangeably, as secretary of state. She used only hdr22@clintonemail.com as secretary of state. Also, an earlier version of this article reported that 147 FBI agents had been detailed to the investigation, according to a lawmaker briefed by FBI Director James B. Comey. Two U.S. law enforcement officials have since told The Washington Post that figure is too high. The FBI will not provide an exact figure, but the officials say the number of FBI personnel involved is fewer than 50.

But even that “corrected” number is wildly inflated!

Ari Melber at NBC News reported on Wednesday:

A former federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the Clinton investigation tells MSNBC an estimate anywhere near 50 agents is also off base. “There are currently about 12 FBI agents working full-time on the case,” says the source, who would only speak anonymously about an open investigation. A former FBI official, also speaking anonymously, says many in the law enforcement community view the large estimates of people assigned to the case as completely improbable. “147 was such a ridiculous number,” said the source, adding that 50 also sounded unrealistic for this kind of inquiry. “You need an act of terrorism to get 50 agents working on something,” said the former FBI official.

This would be comical if it weren’t so deadly serious, during a hotly contested presidential election, for such blatantly false information to be pushed out there by no less a source than the Washington Post. The question becomes, who are these “FBI sources” and “lawmakers” speading disinformation about Hillary Clinton, and why?