There are lots of ways to (intentionally or inadvertently) confirm an otherwise unproven assertion without passing the information directly.
Back in the 90s, I was completely in the dark about the role someone (whom I never spoke with in private) had played. So I boldly posted an assertion about her for which I had not a shred of evidence.
She immediately became incensed and demanded to know who had told me that, strongly hinting that it must have been leaked by the single person whom everyone knew was friends with both of us.
I responded that the person who told me was none other than the subject herself, who had confirmed my otherwise ungrounded theory by falsely claiming our mutual friend must have leaked it.
Oddly enough, she never let go of that erroneous indictment, notwithstanding the truth of the matter, that I had just made a good guess and published it as if I knew it for a fact.
It was a little like Claudius in Hamlet becoming visibly shaken when the play-within-a-play exactly mirrors his own nefarious misdeeds. Had Claudius been innocent, the scene would have gone by without him betraying the slightest hint of recognition.
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