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Ryan Lochte: robbery victim or lying douchebag? Or both? As the news kept pouring in throughout Thursday, I honestly thought that it felt like Ryan Lochte and the other swimmers were victims of one of the most egregious international smear campaigns that I’ve ever seen in my life. As more information has come out, I tend to believe that some drunk Americans behaved badly, got rolled for it and didn’t understand what was happening. So many headlines about this case have been published over the past 24 hours, and it seems like many people are basing their opinions on incomplete and misleading information from anonymous police sources.

Throughout Thursday, “unnamed sources” close to the Brazilian police’s investigation into Lochte’s alleged mugging were leaking damaging information without evidence to back it up. Most every legitimate media outlet ran with the headline provided to them by the unnamed sources: Lochte & Swimmers Brawled With Security, Brazilian Police Have Evidence That Lochte Lied, Video Shows Lochte Is Lying, US Swimmers Being Investigated For Vandalism & Lying to Authorities, Brazilian Police Say Swimmers Admitted to Fabricating the Robbery Story. From what we know now, many of those stories are not backed up with sufficient evidence to prove they happened.

Then the Brazilian police came out and admitted that Lochte and three swimmers were held at gunpoint by security and demanded to pay money, but that it was because swimmers urinated on a wall, kicked a door and tore a poster. The police claimed to have proof, but the proof is a video of the four swimmers casually exiting a passage way beside a gas station. The only thing that you can see on the video is that a poster was pulled down. The police confirmed that at least one security guard was armed and did want money from the swimmers “to pay for the damages.” The proof offered for this was a video of the four swimmers sauntering around, trying to find their taxi, looking sort of drunk and unbothered. Then the video changes to another angle and you can see the guys with their hands up, looking like they’re being held at gunpoint.

Lochte did lie when he originally spoke to Billy Bush, which was not an official witness statement to the police. Lochte later clarified his story when speaking to Matt Lauer Wednesday night, saying that the taxi wasn’t pulled over, that they were already stopped at the gas station, and there were still men forcing them out of the taxi at gunpoint. So, Lochte should apologize for lying to the press initially, but the basics of his story are unchanged: he and the other swimmers were robbed at gunpoint. TMZ now has a photo of the cracked sign which Lochte and the swimmers allegedly damaged. This is not evidence of the original police-source story that they destroyed a bathroom.

After the Brazilian police did their big press conference, Team Lochte went to both TMZ and People Magazine last night. TMZ says that Lochte maintains that he was held at gunpoint and robbed, and that the surveillance video being distributed by the police is missing about three minutes where he and the other swimmers were removed from the taxi at gunpoint. A source tells People: “The video backs up what they’re saying. There are three minutes in the middle of the video that are missing, that no one has picked up on. The video does not show them running out of the bathroom – if they had trashed it don’t you think they’d be running? There is no footage that has been released that has them smashing up a bathroom.” Sources admit that Lochte and the swimmers likely mistook a security guard’s uniform for a policeman’s uniform, but even in Lochte’s original telling of the story, he only said that the muggers were dressed up like cops. Lochte’s lawyer also told People that the Brazilian police’s story even confirms that “a gun was pointed at the swimmers and they were forced to get out of their cab and give up their money. No matter what happened at that gas station, the swimmers were robbed by people with a gun appearing to be law enforcement. No matter what country you are in that is robbery and robbery is a serious crime.”

Jimmy Feigen also spoke out yesterday. Feigen, along with Lochte, was the recipient of a judge’s order for their passports to be confiscated during the investigation. Lochte had already left Brazil, but Feigen was still stuck in Rio, because as USOC authorities confirmed to People, Brazilian authorities still have his passport. Now E! reports that Feigen is paying Brazilian authorities $11,000 for the return of his passport, which isn’t shady at all. Feigen spoke to his hometown San Antonio newspaper yesterday, reaffirming his original story: “We were robbed at gunpoint. It sounds like people assume we’re guilty.” Late last night, the other two swimmers, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, were finally allowed to leave Brazil. Bentz and Conger were the two swimmers yanked off a plane by Brazilian authorities on Wednesday evening. As Bentz and Conger were released, the USOC released an apology for the swimmers’ behavior, which seemed like the tit-for-tat for getting those two swimmers out of Brazil.

To make matters worse, “sources” in Brazil are now confirming that Lochte and Feigen are being “recommended for indictment in Rio on charges of false reporting of a crime.” There were so many other alleged Olympic muggings but yet this is the one we’re hearing about because the details are unclear and it involves athletes allegedly behaving badly. Apparently, a member of Team GB was robbed at gunpoint this week. Aussie rowing coaches claimed they were robbed at knifepoint last week. That wasn’t the only story from Team Australia: an Aussie swimmer claimed he was forced at gunpoint to take money out of the ATM and then robbed. An Olympic security chief was attacked by a knife-wielding robber the same night at the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Don’t forget about the Russian Olympic athlete who was robbed in broad daylight by gun-wielding children. Also, Portugal’s Education Minister was robbed at knifepoint on Day 1 of the Rio Olympics.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Lochte’s social media.
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