I believe the statements were worded in such a way to try to make people believe that the short squeeze was no longer in play, but the short interest in fact ne

I believe the statements were worded in such a way to try to make people believe that the short squeeze was no longer in play, but the short interest in fact never changed and maybe even went up. I believe they were also worded in a way to be technically correct (for example if they had multiple short positions, e.g. naked short calls, if they "closed their short position" that could mean they chose their smallest/cheapest short position to close and it would be technically correct). The data doesn't back up the broader (and presumably intended) interpretation of their statements. In my (inexpert) opinion THAT is the definition of market manipulation.