Pursuant to a public records request filed by The Federalist, the University of Virginia (UVA) released 104 pages worth of correspondence between Rolling Stone and UVA late this afternoon. The e-mails comprise everything from interview and scheduling details to specific fact-checking requests from Rolling Stone editors.
In one e-mail between Elisabeth Garber-Paul, a Rolling Stone fact-checker, and Anthony Paul de Bruyn, a UVA official, de Bruyn told the fact-checker point-blank that several of Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s claims were “in fact objectively false.” The specific claims were regarding a 2014 assault case that occurred in Spring of 2014.
“It has been brought to our attention by a few students that Sabrina [Rubin Erdely] has spoken to that she is referencing an incident where a male student raped three different women and received a one-year suspension” de Bruyn wrote. “That is in fact objectively false.”
“As I told Sabrina at the time, federal privacy laws prohibit us from disclosing details of any sexual assault report, so we can’t say more,” he concluded.
Wow. In one e-mail, a UVA official said Erdely's characterization of a 2014 assault case was "objectively false." pic.twitter.com/WUxB5WhSDv
Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 19, 2014
In other e-mails, Erdely bristled when told she would not be given a private, one-on-one meeting with Teresa Sullivan, the UVA president.
“I do hope that my interview with President Sullivan will be one-on-one,” she wrote, “as I don’t generally conduct interviews with PR people sitting in.”
Her complaints continued in a separate e-mail to UVA officials.
“As for the presence of other people during the interview: If that’s the only way I’ll be allowed to talk to President Sullivan, then so be it,” Erdely wrote. “But I imagine a university president is fully capable of getting through a phone conversation on her own, without help.”
Another e-mail from Erdely to UVA administrators, again whining about lack of private, one-on-one access to UVA pres. pic.twitter.com/xkAIt68V0n
Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 19, 2014
And Rolling Stone’s readers probably imagined that the magazine was capable of confirming whether an alleged rapist actually existed before writing a 9,000-word expose about his exploits.
You can read through the full correspondence between Rolling Stone and UVA officials here. The documents are also embedded below.
