The relationship between President-elect Trump and existing intelligence agency personnel has been particularly strained due to their possible role in publication of what is becoming clearer and clearer to be a made-up scandal of murky origins that previously the same media decided reeked too much of falsity even for them. Elements of the news media used the slightest pretext (a leaked report of intelligence agency reference to the salacious rumors in a meeting with Trump over Russian e-mail hacks) to somehow justify publication. Most famous of the culprits are CNN and Buzzfeed. Other outlets have “reporting on the reporting” but often in a way that does not exonerate them from unconscionable rumor mongering and character assassination.
Here is the latest on the matter from Gary Bauer at Campaign for Working Families
Clapper Calls Trump
The fallout from President-elect Donald Trump’s contentious press conference yesterday continues. First, the good news.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called Donald Trump last night and expressed his “profound dismay” over the continued leaks about Trump’s intelligence briefings.
Clapper also reiterated to Trump that the scandalous dossier was “not a U.S. Intelligence Community product.” (More on that below.) In addition, Clapper told Trump that he did not believe the leaks came from his people, and he reassured the president-elect that the intelligence community “stands ready to serve his administration.”
I’m glad to hear it. But that cannot be the end of the story.
As many as eight members of Congress — presumably the bi-partisan leadership of key committees — had access to the information. Did a member of Congress or Hill staffer leak it? It has been done before.
The left-wing outfit Buzzfeed, which published the dossier, could be facing lawsuits.
In a statement, Buzzfeed Editor Ben Smith defended publishing the document, claiming that transparency was the goal. Smith added that “publishing the dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017.” Let me translate for you: “Facts be damned; smear Trump at all costs!”
And what about the dossier itself? It was produced by a left-wing opposition research firm that attacked Republican donors in 2012. More recently, it attempted to discredit the videos that exposed Planned Parenthood’s profiteering from aborted baby body parts.
