Timothy Poe has come clean. Sort of.
The America's Got Talent contestant who claimed during his Monday night audition that he suffered brain damage as the result of an explosion in Afghanistan - and originally stood by the story in the face of mounting criticism - now admits he had his facts wrong.
"It may not have happened exactly like I said it did," Poe told The New York Post. “I really do not remember a lot of things since the accident."
Poe, an engaged father of two, still says a "blast" went off near his head (and provided the newspaper with documents to prove it) during combat, but admits he boasted about medals he never earned and submitted a photo of another soldier that he attempted to pass off as himself.
Another lie? Or misremembering, as Poe would like us to believe? That he never sang until he left the Middle East.
“I was in a band,” Poe now says. “But it was before the accident. And at the time of AGT, when the judges asked, before I could even think about answering, my words had already came out.”
Friends say Poe is suicidal and members of his family have been threatened. America's Got Talent viewers will see him during Las Vegas auditions next week and to them, as well as all citizens, he has the following to say:
“I would like to take the time to tell the the American people how truly sorry I am that they had to endure the incomplete facts. I understand how they feel.”