Other sources said that neither Broadcom nor CA had requested a CFIUS review after announcing the deal in July, despite Broadcom having previously been blocked from buying Qualcomm on national security grounds, and that no review had yet been initiated.

• I spent much of the next 48 hours trying to authenticate the memo, including through communications with the Defense Department and Broadcom.
• Early yesterday a DoD spokeswoman emailed: "Our initial assessment is that this is likely fraudulent document."
• So I didn't write about it, but kept making calls.

Then, shortly after the newsletter went out, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said during a public hearing that CFIUS should review the proposed deal, adding that he would soon send a letter to that effect. He also cited two statistics included in the memo, although those statistics also are publicly available via the intertubes.

• We reported on his statements, sending both Broadcom and CA stock lower.
• Broadcom then publicly revealed the existence of the memo, which it hadn't known about until my initial call, saying DoD had confirmed it to be a "forged document." [note: DoD's statement to me was slightly less definitive]
• Once Broadcom had disclosed the memo's existence, I felt it was fair game to also write about it.
• Rand Paul later sent his letter to Treasury Sec. Mnuchin, with a top staffer denying that Paul's office had ever seen the memo.

Bottom line: Assuming the memo was indeed fraudulent, then we might have just entered a new phase of short-seller espionage.

• To be clear, I don't know if my original source was in on that, or just being used (I tend to think the latter, but can't be sure).
• But no matter how fake the memo might have been, Broadcom's potential roadblock to buying CA has become very real, thanks to the actions of Senator Paul.