CNN is reporting that a fake email was sent Thursday morning claiming that the former House Speaker pressured his ex-wife to have an abortion.
At least one person here at WPDE received the email, the text of which appears below.
CNN Political Reporter Peter Hamby called the email "a last ditch attempt to halt Newt Gingrich's late momentum in South Carolina."
You can read his blog post here.
The fake email was sent to someone in our newsroom from an account that read: CNN Breaking News.
The email reads:
"A source close to Marianne Gingrich tells CNN that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich forced her to abort a pregnancy conceived during the affair that preceeded her marriage to Gingrich. An ABC News interview with the Speaker's ex-wife aired Thursday evening which detailed the candidate's request for an open marriage and their subsequent divorce."
Hamby says in his article that CNN did not send the alert. They were informed of it by two members of the South Carolina GOP who also received the email.
Another fake email, sent later in the day and appearing to come from the Gingrich 2012 campaign, has Gingrich taking responsibility for the allegation.
