This lady sounds pretty plausible, actually; it obviously was not her idea to look up Joe’s records, and she clearly wasn’t familiar with who he was (since he was very recent news at that point). After all, you don’t expect the Dem honchos to do their own dirty work, do you? It’s better to pass if off on some schmo who works for a living.
They probably had her do it because she is a Republican and not one of their own.