[Blahah]

What a strange take. If someone made up a story about me and then someone else asked if it was true, I'd tell them to get lost, not validate the ridiculous attempt at shaping a narrative by engaging with it. It's very very common to "no comment" every false story, because engaging (even with a denial) creates legitimacy for the falsehood.

[refurb]

No. This is not a reasonable approach whatsoever and is not what is typically done.

If someone says “are these emails real?” you say “no”. Case closed.

[Blahah]

Unless I knew the emails existed I would say "I have no idea what you're talking about, and I'm not interested in talking about it." But more succinctly, with just two words maybe. Something along the lines of "no comment". It's not possible for someone to have made even a cursory glance the history or ubiquity of the phrase "no comment" and honestly claim that it's either not a reasonable approach or not typically done. This just silly.