Friday, July 24, 2020

FBI notes refute NYT storythat fueled 'Russia collusion'

Peter Strzok, who led the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, refuted a major New York Times story that fueled the now-debunked collusion claims in February 2017, according to newly released notes.

The Times reporters, pointed out The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway, went on to win Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting on the allegation that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

Neither did Strzok, despite his passionate efforts to prevent Trump from winning and to undermine him after his election, as he notoriously documented in texts with his FBI lawyer paramour, Lisa Page.

"We have not seen evidence of any individuals affiliated with the Trump team in contact with ," Page wrote of the Feb. 14, 2017, story "Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence."

The Justice Department inspector general report, focused on FBI spying on Trump campaign affiliates, also debunked the Times' stories.

Hemingway noted the Times story was "One of the most important articles published by major media as part of their campaign to paint Trump as a Russian operative."

Hemingway noted the Times story "Was completely false, but the damage it caused the Trump administration was very real," published hours after intelligence officials ousted Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn "Following weeks of criminal and selectively edited leaks about his benign communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States."

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