Court Filing Started a Furor in Right-Wing Outlets, but Their Narrative Is Off Track
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/us/politics/durham-sussmann-trump-russia.html
No paywall
https://archive.fo/Jn1HP
WASHINGTON When John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel investigating the inquiry into Russias 2016 election interference, filed a pretrial motion on Friday night, he slipped in a few extra sentences that set off a furor among right-wing outlets about purported spying on former President Donald J. Trump.
But the entire narrative appeared to be mostly wrong or old news the latest example of the challenge created by a barrage of similar conspiracy theories from Mr. Trump and his allies.
Upon close inspection, these narratives are often based on a misleading presentation of the facts or outright misinformation. They also tend to involve dense and obscure issues, so dissecting them requires asking readers to expend significant mental energy and time raising the question of whether news outlets should even cover such claims. Yet Trump allies portray the news media as engaged in a cover-up if they dont.
The latest example began with the motion Mr. Durham filed in a case he has brought against Michael A. Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer with links to the Democratic Party. The prosecutor has accused Mr. Sussmann of lying during a September 2016 meeting with an F.B.I. official about Mr. Trumps possible links to Russia.
*snip*