He might not have known it was second-hand info, or could have been led to believe it was good info from a good source (we'd need the message that led him to be

He might not have known it was second-hand info, or could have been led to believe it was good info from a good source (we'd need the message that led him to believe that thing -- and publicly throwing a subordinate under the bus for giving you bad info will obviously not go well). I would differentiate that from lying, and fairly, he gets to deal with the consequences either way because he is the CEO.