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发帖数: 29576 | 1 Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe asked to speak privately with White House
chief of staff Reince Priebus following a February 2017 intelligence
briefing. The scene is described in “Media Madness,” Howard Kurtz’s new
book on the press and its relationship with the Trump administration. McCabe
said he asked for the meeting to tell Priebus that “everything” in a New
York Times story authored by Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt
Apuzzo was “bullsh-t.”
The story was yet another one of those anonymous “bombshells” you’ve
heard so much about during the Trump era. It was headlined “Trump Campaign
Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence” and was sourced to
not one, not two, not three, but four “current and former American
officials.” It was just like every other similar story Americans have read
or seen in the past year — no indication that the three reporters had
verified, much less seen, the underlying evidence, but lots of threatening
language insinuating treasonous collusion between the Trump campaign and
Russia, all sourced to high-ranking but anonymous officials.
CNN’s Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto, and Evan Perez reported a very similar
story, also sourced to anonymous officials. Sciutto is a former Obama
administration appointee who is close to Obama administration officials.
Perez has extensive ties to Fusion GPS, the Democrat-funded firm that
created the Russia narrative.
McCabe claimed to want Priebus to know the FBI’s perspective that this
story was not true. Priebus pointed to the televisions that were going non-
stop on the story. He asked if the FBI could say publicly what he had just
told him. McCabe said he’d have to check, according to the book.
McCabe reportedly called back and said he couldn’t do anything about it.
Then-FBI director James Comey reportedly called later and also said he
couldn’t do anything, but did offer to brief the Senate Intelligence
Committee on the matter later that week, suggesting they’d spill the beans
publicly. You’ll never guess what happened next, according to the book:
Now, a week later, CNN was airing a breaking news story naming Priebus.
According to ‘multiple U.S. officials,’ the network said, ‘the FBI
rejected a White House request to publicly knock down media reports about
communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to U.S.
intelligence.’
Priebus was stunned by the implication that he was pressuring law
enforcement. Had he been set up? Why was the FBI leaking this information
when one of its top officials had initiated the conversation?
http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/29/new-book-mccabe-initiated-white-house-meeting-that-led-to-leak/ |
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