REPORT Did Comey Help CNN ‘Spin’ the Trump-Russia Dossier
Source: https://goo.gl/mDFrHx
It’s clear from the newly released Comey Memos, that CNN had the Trump-Russia dossier and was looking for a good “news spin” in order to push it.
What is not clear, but some speculate, that disgraced former FBI Director James Comey may have been the one to help them develop that “spin,” which they’ve subsequently pushed and pushed for well over a year now.
When former FBI Director James Comey first informed President-elect Donald Trump about the infamous pee dossier on January 7, 2017, he told the president that CNN had it but was looking for a “news hook” — or compelling reason to report on it.
That conversation was conveniently the “news hook” that CNN was looking for.
Just three days after Comey’s conversation with Trump, CNN published their story: “Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.” The lead reporter on the story was Evan Perez, friend of the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that produced the dossier.
It is not clear if Comey knew his conversation would become the “news hook” CNN was looking for, but the exchange raises questions as to whether CNN had worked with Comey — or those who knew about Comey’s briefing — to get word of the dossier out.
According to Comey’s memo of the January 7, 2017, conversation, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had asked him to brief the president on the dossier.
Shortly after CNN published their story, BuzzFeed published the dossier in full — which has plagued the president since the beginning of his administration.
The numerous reports also led to Comey publicly confirming during a congressional hearing in March 2017 that there was an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign — even though he had repeatedly refused to publicly acknowledge that Trump was not under investigation despite telling the president so several times in private investigations.
The initial January 7 conversation between Comey and Trump which became the “news hook” was revealed in memos that the former FBI director had created to document that and other conversations he had with the president.