Attkisson quotes one expert as saying intrusions of this caliber are “far beyond the the abilities of even the best nongovernment hackers”, while at the same time quoting another expert saying the “ISP address” is a smoking gun pointing to a government computer.

Both can’t be true. Hiding ones IP address is the first step in any hack. You can’t simultaneously believe that these are the most expert hackers ever for deleting log files, but that they make the rookie mistake of using their own IP address rather than anonymizing it through Tor or a VPN. It’s almost always the other way around: everyone (except those like the Chinese who don’t care) hides their IP address first, and some forget to delete the log files.

Attkisson quotes experts saying non-expert things. Patel’s claims about logfiles and government hackers are false. Don Allison’s claims about IP addresses being a smoking gun is false. It may be that the people she’s quoting aren’t experts, or that her ignorance causes her to misquote them.