New York Times Claims Trump Has ‘No Evidence’ of Illegal Surveillance After Corroborating Evidence

The New York Times is making no attempt at fair reporting in the Trump era. In an article titled “Trump, Citing No Evidence, Suggests that Susan Rice Committed Crime,” the paper attempts to shield the former National Security Adviser from the fallout stemming from her involvement in the surveillance scandal:

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that Susan E. Rice, the former national security adviser, may have committed a crime by seeking to learn the identities of Trump associates swept up in surveillance of foreign officials by United States spy agencies, repeating an assertion his allies in the news media have been making since last week.

Mr. Trump gave no evidence to support his claim, and current and former intelligence officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations have said they do not believe Ms. Rice’s actions were unusual or unlawful. The president repeatedly rebuffed attempts by two New York Times reporters to learn more about what led him to the conclusion, saying he would talk more about it “at the right time.”

The allegation by a sitting president was a remarkable escalation — and, his critics say, the latest effort to change the story at a time when his nascent administration has been consumed by questions about any role his associates may have played in a Russian campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election.

Since March 4, when Mr. Trump posted on Twitter that President Barack Obama had “wiretapped” him at Trump Tower during the campaign, the president and his allies have repeatedly sought evidence trying to corroborate that claim, despite flat denials from James B. Comey, the director of the F.B.I., and other senior intelligence officials.

Wednesday’s interview revealed how Mr. Trump seizes on claims made by the conservative news media, from fringe outlets to Fox News, and gives them a presidential stamp of approval and also increases their reach.

Last week, some Republican television commentators asserted that Ms. Rice had improperly leaked the names of Trump associates picked up in surveillance of foreign officials. On Sunday, a conservative writer and conspiracy theorist reported, without identifying his sources, that Ms. Rice had been the one to seek identities of the Trump associates.

Other conservative outlets picked up the report, and the Drudge Report website, which has been supportive of Mr. Trump, featured the story prominently. White House officials then accused mainstream news outlets of not giving the story proper coverage.

After the New York Times attempted to characterize the story as a right-wing conspiracy touted by “fringe outlets,” they went on to defend Rice’s decision to unmask the names of Trump officials:

Normally, when Americans are swept up in surveillance of foreign officials by intelligence agencies, their identities are supposed to be obscured. But they can be revealed — or “unmasked” — for national security reasons, and intelligence officials say it is a regular occurrence and completely legal for a national security adviser to request the identities of Americans who are mentioned in intelligence reports.

Intelligence officials said any requests that Ms. Rice made would have had to be granted by the intelligence agency that produced the report. In most cases, that would likely have been the National Security Agency, which is responsible for electronic surveillance of foreign officials.

“Requests to learn the identity of a U.S. person were not routine, but also not uncommon,” said Stephen Slick, a retired C.I.A. official who served as the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush.

Ironically, the paper cited no evidence to suggest that this particular unmasking was lawful and approved.

Maybe the real headline should be, “New York Times, Citing No Evidence, Suggests that Susan Rice Committed No Crime.”

Source: NY Times, NY Times