In late Oct. 2016, remember how the NYT reported that the FBI saw no link between Trump and Russia?

[pnwmom]

And also, just before the election, Comey announced the reopening of the HRC email investigation?

Link to tweet

Just to be clear, when the New York Times reported that the FBI saw “no link between Trump and Russia” — a week before the 2016 election — the FBI agent who was just arrested over ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska was heading up the investigation.

Just an absolute scandal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html

Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia

Oct. 31, 2016

WASHINGTON — For much of the summer, the F.B.I. pursued a widening investigation into a Russian role in the American presidential campaign. Agents scrutinized advisers close to Donald J. Trump, looked for financial connections with Russian financial figures, searched for those involved in hacking the computers of Democrats, and even chased a lead — which they ultimately came to doubt — about a possible secret channel of email communication from the Trump Organization to a Russian bank.

Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government. And even the hacking into Democratic emails, F.B.I. and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump.

Hillary Clinton’s supporters, angry over what they regard as a lack of scrutiny of Mr. Trump by law enforcement officials, pushed for these investigations. In recent days they have also demanded that James B. Comey, the director of the F.B.I., discuss them publicly, as he did last week when he announced that a new batch of emails possibly connected to Mrs. Clinton had been discovered.

SNIP

In classified sessions in August and September, intelligence officials also briefed congressional leaders on the possibility of financial ties between Russians and people connected to Mr. Trump. They focused particular attention on what cyberexperts said appeared to be a mysterious computer back channel between the Trump Organization and the Alfa Bank, which is one of Russia’s biggest banks and whose owners have longstanding ties to Mr. Putin.

F.B.I. officials spent weeks examining computer data showing an odd stream of activity to a Trump Organization server and Alfa Bank. Computer logs obtained by The New York Times show that two servers at Alfa Bank sent more than 2,700 “look-up” messages — a first step for one system’s computers to talk to another — to a Trump-connected server beginning in the spring. But the F.B.I. ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts.

SNIP

Link to tweet

[Kid Berwyn]

1. That really is some coincidence. Not.

We need more conspiratorial thinking — not kook Q anon shit — but wondering in the James Jesus Angleton-they’ve-infiltrated-the-compound-and-are-crawling-all-over-HQ kinds of ways.

[BComplex]

76. Why is the entire country not freaking paranoid about how deeply russia is infiltrated into our

entire government through fux nooz?

It's like the entire 1%-owned media is asleep at the wheel. Or complicit.

[Kid Berwyn]

78. Media do all to protect its owners.

And that means Old Money and Big Oil.

THE CIA AND THE MEDIA

How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up

BY CARL BERNSTEIN
Rolling Stone, October 20, 1977

In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA.

Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past twenty‑five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. Some of these journalists’ relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services—from simple intelligence gathering to serving as go‑betweens with spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who considered themselves ambassadors without‑portfolio for their country. Most were less exalted: foreign correspondents who found that their association with the Agency helped their work; stringers and freelancers who were as interested in the derring‑do of the spy business as in filing articles; and, the smallest category, full‑time CIA employees masquerading as journalists abroad. In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America’s leading news organizations.

The history of the CIA’s involvement with the American press continues to be shrouded by an official policy of obfuscation and deception for the following principal reasons:

■ The use of journalists has been among the most productive means of intelligence‑gathering employed by the CIA. Although the Agency has cut back sharply on the use of reporters since 1973 primarily as a result of pressure from the media), some journalist‑operatives are still posted abroad.

■ Further investigation into the matter, CIA officials say, would inevitably reveal a series of embarrassing relationships in the 1950s and 1960s with some of the most powerful organizations and individuals in American journalism.

Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were Williarn Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Time Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the Louisville Courier‑Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald‑Tribune.

By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.

Continues…

https://www.carlbernstein.com/the-cia-and-the-media-rolling-stone-10-20-1977

It’s as if the components making up Corporate McPravda— CNNBCIABCBS — are divisions of Capitalism’s Invisible Army.

[BComplex]

80. Very valuable information, Kid. Thanks for this!

[pnwmom]

84. I didn't know about this site. Thank you!

[yardwork]

2. I remember it well.

[blm]

3. First thing I thought of when I heard the news. NYFBI

office was the hub for disinfo against Clinton in the month before Election Day.

[Cha]

4. Shit!

[triron]

31. Ditto

And there's no recourse. Damn damn damn!

[NullTuples]

63. A shame AG Garland already let the clock run out on Trump's 2016 crimes re: Russian interference

[triron]

71. Yep. Hey that's an interesting username. Any relationship to null set?

[NullTuples]

79. If that's a DU user, then no?

I sometimes manage large, complex data & servers it lives on & was working on an edge case when I coined the username.

[triron]

90. No I meant mathematically.

[pnwmom]

88. Yup. The 5 yr. statute of limitations has passed. nt

[Hortensis]

5. I NEVER forget. The lying tRump-Russia summary to the nation on Halloween,

before election day. Nothing there, FBI apparently wrapping up the nothing investigation.

The executive editor, Dean Baquet, who presided over the NYT concerted efforts to defeat the Democratic Party and throw the nation to the Republicans later retired, with honors, suitable replacement in place, other staff still there. I assume the same interests are being served.

[MontanaMama]

24. The same FBI that did not follow up

on the thousands of tips regarding Brett Kavanaugh’s unfitness for office. The agency stinks to high heaven.

[Hortensis]

25. Yes. Reeks. Giuliani was in over his hair dye all along also.

[Leghorn21]

6. Sure do, mom

This is the BEST MONDAY *EVER*!!!

[cilla4progress]

7. I don't know what to do with my rage

other than self-medicate.

[exboyfil]

8. These a_holes need to go on the Walter Duranty Hall of Fame

Liberal media my ass.

[WestMichRad]

9. So there's something to that Deep State allegation, after all.

THEY have been using it to manipulate messaging. Bastards!

[pnwmom]

89. Yup. They've been projecting all along. But we knew that. nt

[Cherokee100]

10. Hence

Hence the term, 'Benedict Donald'!!

[Orrex]

11. Thank goodness The System is good and objective and above reproach, as we're so often reminded

Otherwise we might have cause for concern that Trump et al would get special, favorable treatment.


Whew!

[TheBlackAdder]

12. I'm calling BS to the Alfa messages. My US Intel course in 2016 said NSA's Carnivore swept all data.

.

Anything that does not originate from the 50 states or travels through other nations is swept up.

EVERYTHING that leaves or comes into US borders. That was one of the risks with using BlackBerry phones as that information is stored in Canada. Also, sites that mirror content in another country gets swept up too.


The NSA just needs to know the server and time. It will take a long time to scan the information due to the volume of information they collect, but it is doable, and they do it all the time.

.

[pnwmom]

14. I'm not sure what you mean by "calling BS to the Alfa messages." Could you explain a little more?

[TheBlackAdder]

15. The FBI saying they don't know the messages being sent to and from Trump's server.

[pnwmom]

17. I understood that "look up" messages weren't actual messages,

with content to be read.

Did I understand that incorrectly?

[TheBlackAdder]

19. The last of the pasted sentences. FBI thinks marketing emails or spam. Both have data payloads.

.

There weren't just heartbeat polls between the servers, as the FBI thinks they were messages.

Could be coded messages for Trump.

.

[pnwmom]

23. They couldn't have been look-up messages sent before an email?

[TheBlackAdder]

30. Highly unlikely.

.

You have the polling between servers to maintain the connection or start the connection on-demand.

They don't need to perform an nslookup type command because they already have the IP address port and/or hostname/port and that would be even less plausible to perform a lookup if they were using a private leased-line or VPN between the sites.

The sending site would send an email and it would either fall into oblivion, get a negative or positive acknowledgement back from the email service running on the server.

It's been a while since I worked on email servers in my personal hosting sites and even longer with enterprise email servers.


But, if the FBI is thinking it could be spam or something, that means it's not an infrastructure or email services request.

Oh, and if you have a direct bank connection, you aren't getting spam.

.

[pnwmom]

33. So you think there were real email messages and the FBI could know what was in them? nt

[TheBlackAdder]

37. Let's put it this way, if it were email updates to bank services (either up or down). . .

.

Those are generally sent to the subscribers of individual bank services. Those email alerts are not sent to all bank customers. As an example: If Trump subscribed to Alfa's Foreign Exchange (FX) system, he'd be getting emails if there were unexpected outages or changes of service to the FX system. That would mean the connection was not an idle connection, but actually used to subscribe to their FX system. That would also mean there was a need for FX services and you pay $$$ for that on a monthly or yearly contract. Trump being cheap would not subscribe to things he's not using.

A bank is also not going to set up a connection with another entity without some form of contract and statement of use. Generally, Know Your Customer like practices exist in most countries, except for rogue and sanctioned ones. They should have performed a background check and had a plan in place. Adding a connection requires Alfa's Infrastructure Defense people to whitelist the IP addresses, the Networking Department has to allow the telco connection, if not through the Internet. Opening bank connections to the Internet introduces a whole bunch of Risk Management and Compliance issues, especially on bi-directional (no inbound only) messaging. There had to be a need to add Trump's server to the system.

I'm aware of a few brokerage houses and I don't recall any allowing private email servers to connect, just for sending emails.

That's why this whole thing sounds fugazi. The cost and resources to set this up, the risks, the messages having payloads. The NSA definitely has the data. The real question is why the cloud of confusion over what was being sent?

.

[pnwmom]

55. Thank you for explaining all this! n/t

[leftieNanner]

16. My guess is the Alfa Bank

Server found in Trump tower

[DBoon]

66. So what exacly *were* the lookup messages

TCP SYN with no acknowledgement? DNS requests? TCP handshake that dropped?

Even trivial looking computer traffic can easily be a covert channel for data.

Was anything published about the nature of the messages and how it was determined they were innocuous?

[Lonestarblue]

13. Putin needed Trump to be elected to weaken NATO. Had he won another term, the US would

no longer be a part of NATO and Putin would have waltzed into Ukraine and slaughtered people until Ukrainians gave up because Biden’s ability to reconnect with world leaders and strengthen NATO made the difference in getting help for Ukraine. Trump would have done nothing.

The 2016 election truly was stolen, just not in the obvious ways. Russia moat likely did even more that we may never learn about,

[Duppers]

20. +1000

TY for posting this!

[paleotn]

29. I still think Russia's fingerprints are all over Brexit. And for the same reasons.

Weaken our closest military partner by pulling them out of the EU and clobbering their economy. Ironic that the UK is ahead of even the US in getting weapons to the Ukrainians. I'm guessing that one didn't work out quite like Putin and the GRU planned.

[OMGWTF]

44. Me too.

[Lonestarblue]

45. No, but Brexit has done an enormous amount of damage to the UK.

They’ve been going through prime ministers pretty quickly, and all those independent trade deals they thought to make haven’t lived up to expectations. Plus, it’s been quite expensive to set up new border controls, and of course Northern Ireland is yet to be worked out.

Putin and his hackers are a completely malign influence in every country they target. And his terrorist organization, the Wagner Group, is committing murder and rape in Africa to support authoritarian governments. The world would be a better place without Putin and the rest of the Russian government that supports his war.

[machoneman]

69. No, I think the Brexit boosters did themselves in. Why you ask? They believed their own bullshit!

For a variety of reasons, way too many to list here, Brexit backers did believe that only good things would happen to them and the UK in general. Today, hardly any of the pumped up benefits were attained and worse, it has killed the trade with the continental countries for good. Let this all sink in for a few more years and Brit politicians will be begging on hands and knees to rejoin their former partners.

Good luck with that!

[NJCher]

67. I love it

When someone goes straight to the heart of the matter.

I was thinking the same and seething as I read. Another election stolen, just not in the usual way.

Another item to think about: Joe Biden’s policy on Ukraine is serving us well on a variety of fronts.

[Martin68]

18. The FBI, the Secret Service, Police, Army, Marines, SEALS all seem to have been infiltrated by

right wing extremists. I hope we regain control and clean house in time.

[KPN]

39. Enabled and fortified by $$$$ -- all of those $ from Russians?

[DENVERPOPS]

64. It goes far deeper than that Martin

DOJ, FCC, FEC, SEC, USSC, State courts, local courts, appellate courts, National Guard, Reserves, Republican Governors and Republican State AG's the list is endless................

The depth of these "domestic moles" is anybody's guess..........As Pelosi said: All Roads lead to Russia....and she was laughed at

Hillary said: There is a vast rightwing conspiracy......and she was laughed at.....

No one's laughing now, except the Republican Politicians and the Entire Republican Party.......

I suspect that at some point we will learn untold things.......How much U.S. Intelligence Trump just gave to Putin, and how much Trump, Jared, and Ivanka sold to the Saudis, and who knows how much else to the highest bidder......

[kacekwl]

21. Conspiracy doesn't seem to be a

theory when it comes to justice the military and law enforcement in American anymore.

[Duppers]

22. Never subscribe to the NYT.

I subscribe to the WaPo. Much better paper.

[pnwmom]

26. I much prefer the WAPost -- but it's not an either/or situation. n/t

[republianmushroom]

27. this the vetting of Kavanaugh sure give one faith in the FBI

Last edited Mon Jan 23, 2023, 08:15 PM - Edit history (2)

doesn't it.
And the nine to fivers continue to serve and bust their ass.

[GGoss]

28. Thank You

[rubbersole]

32. Just imagine if Obama had one contact from his server to a Russian server...

[pnwmom]

34. Or if Biden had one. I wonder if the FBI has ever checked a Mar a lago server? n/t

[rubbersole]

41. Oh, but the mar-a-lardo servers were just the casings...

tfg kept them as "cool" mementos/souvenirs to remember his time working for Russia...er, I mean the people of the United States.

[DBoon]

65. we know what happened to HRC when she had a server that DIDN'T connect to Russia

[ancianita]

35. Even if an IG investigated the FBI, SS, and police, they'd have removed incriminating

documents that show dereliction of duty, and a general neglect to investigate, or, once connections were made, internally decided to sit on their findings.

We have nothing to go on about whether military investigations are underway.

[Picaro]

36. Gdamn!

That’s some major news.

Thanks for posting this.

[KPN]

38. What are the chances this will be reported by the mainstream media

within a few days? Not much I’m thinking, but sure hope I am wrong.

[triron]

42. Maybe Rachel Maddow. Or Nicole Wallace.

Rachel on tonight.

[vanlassie]

54. Nicole was extremely outraged today, as was former FBI

Agent Frank Figluzzi, who said he was so angry that he almost decided not to be on, and that his former colleagues were phoning each other this AM madly asking WTF?

[triron]

60. Perhaps we have not heard the end of it.

[Scrivener7]

47. Rachel reported the Alpha Bank/Deripaska/Trump connection as it was happening.

No one else picked that up. So you're probably right.

[H2O Man]

40. Recommended.

There is a nest of active & retired agents in NYC, with long time connections to Trump and Rudy. The idea of them investigating the Trump connections with Russia requires one to believe that they could investigate themselves.

(After the NYC office found classified information was found on Huma Abedin's husband's computer, Comey informed a congressional committee that the case was being re-opened to evaluate what had been found. As much as I distrust the NYC office, they had good reason to check Anothony Weiner's computer. Of course republicans shared the news with journalists within ten minutes of getting Comey's notification.)

[JHB]

73. As I've pointed out in a number of these threads, the NY office slow-walked...

...the evaluation of what was on the laptop, giving Republican media all the time they needed to churn up speculation, giving Rudy weeks to spin lurid tales of what he'd "been hearing", giving the Mai stream media time to hop on to another "Clinton Scandal" joyride, and spook Comey into those last-minute dramatics.

They deliberately did maximum damage just by dragging their heels.

[H2O Man]

75. Exactly.

Comey has since explained he was faced with picking one of two bad choices -- informing Congress, or keeping it quiet in case there was nothing new there. But that second option has to be seen with something "extra" -- he knew that if he didn't inform Congress, the nest was going to inform the media. Both of those options would inflict severe damage right before the election.

They played Comey, knowing that his strengths were also his weaknesses. This indicates that the nest isn't limited to regular investigators. Indeed, they set him up to where Tump would fire him in a humiliating manner .... surely a warning to others. And they have been involved in much more of the damaging of this country since then.

[pnwmom]

86. Yes, that's exactly what they did. nt

[OMGWTF]

43. He cost Hillary the election.

And because Trump got in, America suffered greatly with 1M+ dead from his Covid BS, and the long, long list of his other crimes.

"We need to make breaking the law a crime again" -- this is actually the tag line for a local irony deficient Republican candidate.

[Scrivener7]

46. Yep. We all knew it then. Though there were a few here who told us we were

falling for a conspiracy theory.

We weren't.

[Upthevibe]

48. pnwmom.............

Thanks for the post.

I'm just getting home from work and am watching this story on Nicole's show (DVR'd) .

Frank Figliuzzi is on and he's quite upset......

[pnwmom]

51. Thank you! I missed Nicolle today. Darn! I kept checking

MSNBC and CNN today, and was just seeing stories about the dance club shooting, etc.

[msfiddlestix]

49. Asking for a friend: What did Mueller know and when did he know? Was his info this in Redacted

in the Mueller Report? Did Barr put his thump on this information?

Yeah, let's take NYT to task, give them a good damn spanking over it, damn right.

I just kinda of feel like this must have also been uncovered/discovered, or known by the "no leak, heads down" Special Investigation headed by Mueller.

Has Andy Weismann commented on this on the tv shows?

[SouthernDem4ever]

56. Mueller did his job

Barr F'd us by protecting the Orange Buffoon.

[cilla4progress]

50. Yes. I do.

On the edge of my seat waiting for Rachel!!

So far nothing from Ari, Joy or Chris!!

[pnwmom]

52. I kept looking for someone to cover this story on MSNBC.

Apparently Nicolle Wallace had Frank Figluzzi talking about it? But I missed that.

[cilla4progress]

53. I feel like they are holding out for Rach -

kinda her wheelhouse.

[cilla4progress]

57. Rachel does not

Disappoint!!

[pnwmom]

58. She did tonight. She spent a few minutes on the topic, but more on the CA shootings

and on George Santos.

[triron]

59. I agree. Was hoping she would make more connections with 2016.

[cilla4progress]

61. I do believe too much time on Santos.

Not really politically serious. He's clearly mentally ill. Not really funny. Like how they treated tfg.

FBI story is most important story in the country rn.

[Farmer-Rick]

70. Santos like Trump, is a Russian plant

We thought TFG was not politically serious too. Russia always pick these obvious criminals to do their bidding. Then their double agents in the FBI, CIA and Secret Service spin out propaganda to deny what is just so obvious.

Santos is in deep with the Russians. Turning our backs on him will only get us a knife in the back.

Just an aside, remember when Trump wanted to have a huge military parade for Putin? I bet if you asked Santos, he would love a parade for Putin.

[SunSeeker]

62. K & R & Retweeted!

[czarjak]

68. The Russians never dreamed it would be that easy? Vlad's glad.

[Harker]

72. Russia, Russia, Russia. n/t

[Sneederbunk]

74. The NYT is often played.

[pnwmom]

83. They are. It's all about getting the scoop, and they don't stop to wonder

why they're getting it. Or they don't care.

[imaginary girl]

81. My question is ...

... So many of us knew this was bs at the time. Why was there no redundancy built into the investigation? Or was there? How far and deep does this go?

[pnwmom]

82. McGonigal had moved from DC, where he had been for years, to NYC.

People like him probably contaminate both places.

So of course the R's are obsessed with the idea of a liberal "deep state."

[LetMyPeopleVote]

85. The NYT and this FBI agent helped TFG win in 2016

Last edited Mon Jan 30, 2023, 01:57 AM - Edit history (3)

I was at a law firm doing a video conference for voter protection when this announcement was made. I had an associate with me who was getting some CLE for this training and I saw that he was upset during the course. On the way back to the office, I was told about Comey announcing the reopening of the Clinton email investigation. That reopening with the NYT article that the FBI found no connection between Russia and TFG were the final nails.

The NYT is not a real news organization and the NYC office of the FBI was full of Clinton haters some of whom were working directly for Russia

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

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Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[pnwmom]

87. Wow. Thanks for sharing all this LetMyPeopleVote.

(And this is a reminder of how important Twitter used to be, before Musk started to ruin it.)

[triron]

91. Awesome post. Needs a nobel prize. Well. At least a ***** rec!

[Hortensis]

94. Glad to see this OP still discussed. NEVER FORGET.

That we can go to the NYT to view lying article that possibly changed world as well as national history "up" is a good thing. It's a travesty of journalism, all right, but so would hiding it be, and thus furthering their deceit.

It's there for people who hear about the NYT's massive betrayal and election interference to check out for themselves. Like LMPV's post now, I've also pulled it up a few times since to reference/link here.

NEVER FORGET.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

92. The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016

The combination of the NYT and crooked FBI agents got TFG elected. I canceled my subscription to the NYT back in 2016 due to the biased coverage. The NYT is not a real news organization and actually worked with the NYC office of the FBI to elect TFG

Link to tweet

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/mcgonigal-russian-oligarch-trump-2016-election-20230129.html

It was arguably the most consequential “October Surprise” in the history of American presidential elections. In the waning days of the 2016 race, with polls showing Hillary Clinton clinging to a lead over Donald Trump, two last-minute stories broke that rekindled on-the-fence voters’ ethical doubts about Democrat Clinton and quashed a budding scandal around her GOP rival.

Except the “October Surprise” was no surprise to one key player: Rudolph Giuliani, the ex-New York mayor and Trump insider who later became the 45th president’s attorney. Late that month, Giuliani told Fox News that the trailing Republican nominee had “a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I’m talking about some pretty big surprises.”

Just two days later, then-FBI director James Comey revealed the bureau had reopened its probe into Clinton’s emails, based on the possible discovery of new communications on a laptop belonging to disgraced New York politico Anthony Weiner. The news jolted the campaign with a particularly strong boost from the New York Times, which devoted two-thirds of its front page to the story — and the notion it was a major blow to Clinton’s prospects.

It was later reported that Comey was motivated to make the unusual announcement about the laptop because he feared leaks from the FBI’s New York field office, which, according to Reuters, had “a faction of investigators based in the office known to be hostile to Hillary Clinton.” Indeed, Giuliani bragged immediately after that he had sources in the FBI, including current agents.

Link to tweet

......The government allegations against the former G-man Charles McGonigal (also accused of taking a large foreign payment while still on the FBI payroll) and the outsized American influence of the sanctioned-and-later-indicted Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska — also tied to U.S. pols from Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell — should make us also look again at what was really up with the FBI in 2016.

How coordinated was the effort in that New York field office to pump up the ultimate nothingburger about Clinton’s emails while poo-pooing the very real evidence of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf, and who were the agents behind it? What was the role, if any, of McGonigal and his international web of intrigue? Was the now-tainted McGonigal a source who told the New York Times that fateful October that Russia was not trying to help Trump win the election — before the U.S. intelligence community determined the exact opposite? If not McGonigal, just who was intentionally misleading America’s most influential news org, and why?......

It’s not only that America’s so-called paper of record has never apologized for its over-the-top coverage of the Clinton emails or the deeply flawed story about the FBI Trump-Russia probe. It’s that the Times has shown a stunning lack of curiosity about finding out what went wrong. In May 2017, or just seven months after Trump’s election, then-Times executive editor Dean Baquet ended the position of public editor, an independent journalist who was embedded in the newsroom to cover controversies exactly like these.

[triron]

93. In America there's no consequences.