At a White House press briefing today, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about the Treasury Department’s review of Austan Goolsbee’s comments on Koch Industries’ tax status. Gibbs says Goolsbee’s comments were “not in any way based on any review of tax filings,” and added: “I don’t think he’d use that example or examples like that in the future. And I think the fact that he was wrong might also give you an indication that what is ultimately being alleged isn’t the case.”

“I don’t know if he got it wrong, don’t know if he stretched things a bit,” Koch Industries lawyer Mark Holden told me two weeks ago when asked if Goolsbee’s alleged error indicated he didn’t review tax information. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t look at our income tax returns and doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t access our confidential information improperly.”