Reporters from CNN, Politico and The New York Times helped House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff “peddle” the conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government, former Rep. Trey Gowdy said on Sunday.
During an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures”, Gowdy was asked to identify media personalities he believed took leaks from Schiff and passed them off as news articles related to the Intelligence panel’s Russia investigation.
“Well, I hope you have a three hour show,” Gowdy, a former Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, said.
“Let’s just start with Politico. Kyle Cheney is just an acolyte for Adam Schiff,” said Gowdy, referring to a senior congressional reporter at the website.
“Manu Raju from CNN,” Gowdy continued, referring to the network’s congressional reporter. “Nothing Schiff wanted out, made public — no leak was too low for Manu Raju and CNN.”
“Fill in the blank at The New York Times,” Gowdy added.
Gowdy said in a March 31, 2019 interview that he wondered whether U.S. intelligence agencies would stop providing information to Schiff because he “leak[s] like a screen door on a submarine.”
Schiff, a California Democrat, continued to insist for several years that he had seen clear evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
In a March 20, 2017 intelligence committee hearing he cited portions of the bogus Christopher Steele dossier, which alleged that the Trump campaign and Kremlin were involved in a “well-developed conspiracy of collusion” to influence the 2016 election.
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the FBI failed to verify any of the dossier’s allegations related to the Trump campaign. The FBI also had evidence by 2017 that the primary source for the dossier disputed much of what was reported in Steele's document. The FBI also received evidence that the Russian government had fed disinformation to Steele.
Last week, transcripts of interviews from Intelligence Committee witnesses in the Russia investigation were released and showed that Schiff was well aware there was no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
Obama era director of national intelligence, and current CNN analyst, James Clapper testified: “I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election.”
Lee Smith, author of the bestselling book “The Plot Against the President”, noted in a May 8 op-ed for the New York Post:
After Mueller filed his report last spring, CNN’s Jake Tapper said that “I don’t know anybody who got anything wrong.” Don’t expect anyone in the mainstream media to admit gross journalistic malpractice this time either. The tragic fact is that once-prestigious press organizations, including CNN as well as MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post, weren’t fooled by the collusion hoax. They were an essential part of it.Free Press International
