Email, Chris Evans, communications director, Beto O’Rourke campaign, Aug. 22, 2018

From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin)
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2018 4:09 PM
To: Chris Evans

Chris:

We posted this fact-check today.

Separately, readers have asked us about Beto O’Rourke’s arrests and record. Does he or the campaign have relevant records to share? I’d be happy to visit with him by phone or email.

We are fact-checking the statement that O’Rourke has a criminal history including a DUI.

In addition, some inquiries we field include an image described as O’Rourke’s mug shot (example attached). Is this an actual O’Rourke photo or mugshot? If not, what is it?

Anything else seem relevant?

Other recommended resources or experts?

We hope to complete this review soon. As ever, we rely on attributable on-the-record information for our stories.

Thanks,

g.

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W. Gardner Selby
Reporter / News
Austin American-Statesman
PolitiFact Texas

5:43 p.m.

Aug. 20, 2018

This 2012 image comes from an ad presented by Sylvestre Reyes at the time. It looks to me like this might be the source of the image readers have sent us.

g.

1:53 p.m.

Aug. 22, 2018

As the Dallas Morning News reported back in March, "the Democrat has long publicly acknowledged that he was arrested twice in his 20s in the 1990s — once for attempted forcible entry after jumping a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso, which O’Rourke has called a prank gone awry, and once for drunken driving, something for which the Democrat has said there’s no excuse."

While charges were dismissed, this is something that Beto has always publicly addressed -- during his initial run for the city council, his run for Congress, in profiles written about him, during dozens of interviews, and at town halls across the state during this campaign.

Here are a few of the many examples of Beto talking about this publicly in his own words across Texas:

Paris TX, 2/28/18: https://www.facebook.com/betoorourke/videos/1571660692883635/ (time stamp 53:00)

Houston TX, 8/22/18: https://www.facebook.com/betoorourke/videos/2135017660074721/ (time stamp 4:20)

San Antonio TX, 8/6/18: https://www.facebook.com/betoorourke/videos/1762459257137110/ (time stamp 3:40)

Sunnyside TX, 4/29/18: https://www.facebook.com/betoorourke/videos/1634441119938925/ (time stamp 1:15:40)

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Chris

--

Chris Evans

Communications Director