Major media burned by 'sources,' forced to retract false claims

 

(Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)

Several major legacy media organizations have been burned by their “sources,” and have been forced to retract their claims that former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was warned by the FBI about a “Russian disinformation” campaign against him.

The FBI raided Giuliani’s home and office recently, reportedly over an issue that may be related to his work for overseas clients over the years, and when it happened, his son, Andrew Giuliani, warned that, “When federal agents raided my father’s home at dawn Thursday morning, the Biden Justice Department was sending a clear message to America: If it can happen to the former mayor who led New York City through 9/11, it can happen to you, too.

“During Joseph Stalin’s reign in the Soviet Union, the dictator staged the Moscow Trials, which put prominent members of his political opposition on trial. Denied any kind of due process, most of the defendants were charged with crimes against the Soviet government. Several were sentenced to death. These show trials, which often centered on the defendants’ collusion with foreign powers, were a late step along the road to Stalin’s mass purges, one of the most horrifying periods in Soviet history,” he said.

“This raid, like Stalin’s tactics, was conducted for the sake of imagery — intended to have a symbolic significance. While it is highly unusual for federal agents to target a client’s attorney, the Justice Department has come to rely on this tactic for attacking the Democrats’ political opposition. The ramifications for this are terrifying for the rule of law: One of its most fundamental pillars, attorney-client privilege, is being eroded amid highly theatrical displays of partisan warfare,” he warned.

When legacy media outlets New York Times, Washington Post and NBC reported on the raid, they said that the FBI had “warned him about being targeted by a Russian influence operation.”

However, all three now have retracted that claim, according to Fox.

The Times said, “An earlier version of this article misstated whether Rudolph W. Giuliani received a formal warning from the F.B.I. about Russian disinformation. Mr. Giuliani did not receive such a so-called defensive briefing.”

The Post’s was similar, and NBC said, its original report “was based on a source familiar with the matter, but a second source now says the briefing was only prepared for Giuliani and not delivered to him, in part over concerns it might complicate the criminal investigation of Giuliani.”

They all said their reporters wrote up the claims based on information provided by “anonymous sources.”

Giuliani promptly told the organizations to come up with the names of those individuals.

“Where did the original false information come from?” he said on social media. And the called Post’s claims “defamatory.”

Former White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said there’s been an “epidemic” of reports based on anonymous sources.

“Oftentimes the single anonymous source … ends up being wrong,” she said. “And you see the corrections and you’re right, the corrections barely get any coverage. There’s reputational damage for Rudy Giuliani and others with that nuance there.

“But, what’s so important to me is the American people are seeing this and Joe Concha, who you had on last hour, mentioned this Axios poll that came out that said 92% of Republicans believe that the media intentionally reports false stories and 79% of independents. That is an extraordinary number.”

The Hill reported the FBI searched Rudy Giuliani’s home and office signaling “that federal law enforcement is significantly ramping up its investigation into former President Trump’s ally and onetime legal adviser.”

“Little is known about the scope of the investigation, but reporting suggests that the focus could be on Giuliani’s work on behalf of foreign clients, including Ukraine, and his failure to register as a foreign agent while serving as the president’s personal attorney,” the report said.

Giuliani has denied wrongdoing. He said he never agreed to do any lobbying for foreigner entities.

The younger Giuliani warned of what this case indicates the Biden administration is intent on doing.

“When President Joe Biden was first sworn in, Trump supporters were terrified about the ramifications. If Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and George Papadopoulos could be arrested during President Donald Trump’s White House, what would happen when the Democrats had free rein to prosecute any opponent they wanted?” he said.

“Now, we know the answer: They will target the opposition’s highest-profile allies over past issues that have been thoroughly investigated and cleared. Trump may have been acquitted over his dealings in Ukraine, but his allies are still being stalked and harassed over theirs. The outcome is worse than many of us feared and parallels Stalin’s prosecution of political rivals.”

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