Buried lede: Mueller may be investigating the suspicious death of GOP operative Peter Smith, who

[MelissaB]

Way buried lede: Mueller may be investigating the suspicious death of GOP operative Peter Smith, who sought hacked emails and talked to WSJ. -Eric Garland on twitter

Intensifying Russia probes could pit Hill against Mueller

... snip

And the Senate intelligence committee is pushing to obtain new information about the unusual circumstances surrounding Smith, the veteran GOP operative who told The Wall Street Journal he was on a mission to obtain the hacked Clinton emails. After the stories about his efforts were published this summer, Smith killed himself in a Minnesota hotel room.

Matt Tait, a cybersecurity expert who publicly acknowledged in July being contacted by Smith, is among those the Senate panel is interested in hearing from, sources said.

Tait declined to comment to CNN.

Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/russia-mueller-hill/index.html?sr=twCNN090517russia-mueller-hill1156AMStory

Matt Tait on twitter: https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings

If you are on twitter, I highly recommend following him.

[lostnfound]

1. Not a "lede."; baseless speculation

A lede is an opening paragraph in a story.

Jumping to the conclusion that the "unusual circumstances" refer to Smith's death is too much, I think. I would assume that the phrase instead refers to the collaboration with Trump's team on the oppodata from Russia-linked sources.

[MelissaB]

2. From the author of the article

a few minutes ago.


Senate Intel looking into circumstances around late Peter Smith, GOP operative searching for hacked Clinton emails

Link to tweet