In a press conference this morning, FBI director James Comey refuted initial reports that San Bernardino killers Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik posted on social media about jihad, saying instead that the couple only hinted at their intentions in private, direct communication.

Though government officials did not speak about the shooters’ social media accounts before today, it was widely reported—including in the New York Times and on NBC—that they had publicly posted anti-American sentiments. New York Senator Chuck Schumer told the press that “had they checked out Tashfeen Malik, maybe those people in San Bernardino would be alive,” and GOP partisans took the opportunity to lay blame at the feet of Barack Obama. Despite the press making early discoveries regarding the shooters’ identities, no pro-jihad social media posts or comments were reported in the hours after the attack, and it’s unclear how or why it was leaked to reporters this week that there were. That said, a skeptic might point out that the Obama administration does have an incentive for people to believe that nothing could have been gleaned from the killers’ accounts.

But Comey’s statement backs up a CNN story from Monday that said unnamed intelligence officials discovered that Malik’s “comments were made under a pseudonym and with strict privacy settings that did not allow people outside a small group of friends to see them.”

The issue of the shooters’ use of social media was a central topic in last night’s national security-focused GOP debate. The candidates argued at-length, based on now debunked reports, about the extent to which they believe the Obama administration failed in properly monitoring Malik’s social media accounts during her immigration process and the degrees to which they would go to police the web, with Donald Trump in particular affirming to moderator Wolf Blitzer that he would be in favor of “shutting down” parts of the internet.

[image via AP]

Contact the author at jordan@gawker.com.