New York Times Reveals Again, It’s Nothing But Duly Recorded Slime
July 18, 2020 (EIRNS)—On February 14, 2017, the New York Times published an article by Michael Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt Apuzzo which, the Times claims, was the first to detail actual contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence. The Times was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for its Trump/Russia coverage, this article being one of many outright fabrications created by intelligence community leaks to the Times and the faithful transcription of the leaks by Times scribes, posturing as actual reporters. Even FBI Director James Comey denied that this article was true, under oath, before a Congressional committee, but it remained a keystone element in fueling the Trump/Russia fake narrative in the U.S. and the world.
Now, on July 17, the Senate Judiciary Committee released the notes of then FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, detailing the falsehoods in the Times’ article. Strzok detailed the following nine lies in the Times article:
New York Times Lies No. 1-2: Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian officials in the year before the election. Officials would not disclose what was discussed on the calls or how many Trump advisors were talking to the Russians.
Strzok: FBI has seen nothing of the kind.
New York Times Lie No. 3: Paul Manafort was picked up talking to Russians on one of the intercepts.
Strzok: FBI has seen nothing of the kind.
New York Times Lie No. 4: The FBI has obtained banking and travel records....
Strzok: We don’t have banking records yet.
New York Times Lie No. 5: The FBI asked the NSA to collect as much information as possible about the Russian operatives on the phone calls....
Strzok: We are not aware of this.
New York Times Lie No. 6: The FBI has closely examined at least four other people close to Mr. Trump ... Carter Page ... Roger Stone ... and Mr. Flynn.
Strzok: We have not investigated Roger Stone.
New York Times Lie No. 7: Senior FBI officials believe ... Christopher Steele ... has a credible track record.
Strzok: Recent interviews and investigation, however, reveal Steele may not be in a position to judge the reliability of his subsource network.
New York Times Lies No. 8 and 9: The FBI opened its investigation of Paul Manafort in the spring of 2016. The FBI did not have enough evidence to obtain a warrant for a wiretap of Mr. Manafort’s communications, but it had the NSA closely scrutinize the communications of Ukrainian officials he had met.
Strzok: This is inaccurate.
The fake article was sourced to four “American officials.” It is likely that those officials were part of then CIA Director John Brennan’s illegal task force working out of CIA headquarters in the early months of 2016 and targeting the Trump campaign. In John Brennan’s own words in Congressional testimony, this targeting was at the behest of the British government which was threatening an end to the “special relationship” if the Americans did not comply. The CIA and NSA are prohibited from targeting an American presidential campaign. Strzok, in correspondence with his paramour, FBI Attorney Lisa Page, repeatedly complained about the activities of “our sisters,” namely, the other agencies in the U.S. intelligence community, in leaks to the news media.
The focus on Manafort in the leaks also points to the work of the discredited British spy Christopher Steele, whose early focus was on smearing Manafort as a Russian pawn. Steele was working on this project with Alexandra Chalupa of the Democratic National Committee, the State Department, and a network of neo-Nazis which the Obama government had empowered in Ukraine.
