This article is cross-posted at TGP Factcheck
- WashPost reporters doing Biden’s dirty work, attempt to paint Rudy as a Russian agent
- Try to make all of Rudy’s efforts as discretely directed by Russian agents
- Supposed warning given to Rudy by FBI never happened, according to Rudy, whole story is likely false
OUR RATING: Journalistic Malpractice. Even Salon.com is ashamed.
Indicted Outlet: Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, Tom Hamburger | Washington Post | Link | Archive
Rudy Giuliani was raided by the Department of Justice where a federal warrant seized all of his electronic devices. Allegedly there is a case being made by federal authorities that Giuliani did not properly register as a foreign agent for some lobbying that was performed.
As part of this evolving story, the Washington Post wrote a piece suggesting that the FBI had tried to warn Giuliani, beloved former Mayor of NYC and Mayor during the 9/11 tragedy, beforehand that he was being targeted by a “Russian influence campaign” aimed at circulating falsehoods prior to the election.
The implication is clear: that benign federal agents tried to warn Rudy that Russians would try to stir up trouble by claiming there was election fraud and Rudy ignored them and did it anyway.
The only problem is that Rudy denies any such meeting ever occurred. [1] One would think the Post would at least include that fact in their story, but they do not and that’s a form of lying to readers.
Major Violations:
- Lying
- Misrepresentation
- Bad sources
Here is the lead paragraph for the Washington Post’s piece on Rudy Giuliani:
The FBI warned Rudolph W. Giuliani in late 2019 that he was the target of a Russian influence operation aimed at circulating falsehoods intended to damage President Biden politically ahead of last year’s election, according to people familiar with the matter.
From the start we can see a problem in this piece because it’s referencing “people familiar with the matter” and not giving any kind of indication whether they are senior officials or just a DOJ intern who heard it as a watercooler rumor.
Here’s how the Post lays out their second paragraph:
The warning was part of an extensive effort by the bureau to alert members of Congress and at least one conservative media outlet, One America News, that they faced a risk of being used to further Russia’s attempt to influence the election’s outcome, said several current and former U.S. officials. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains highly sensitive.
The Russian collusion narrative may have completely collapsed by 2018, but federal authorities and mainstream news outlets act like nothing has been debunked.
The claim was that in 2016 the election of Donald Trump was influenced by, and aided, by Russian involvement. In the end, after years of investigation, absolutely zero criminal conspiracies were uncovered, the only people jailed were there for process crimes like making a false statement to federal authorities about unrelated items, and around $200,000 in Facebook ads were purchased by the Russians for an odd potpourri of causes including Black Lives Matter, Texas Secession, among others. [2] Most agree they had zero effect on any voters.
Rudy famously went to Ukraine to try and find evidence of Biden corruption, a cause that no one in the media would spend resources investigating, and one where the federal government similarly refused to act.
Rudy discovered that the Biden family was paid $900k in lobbying fees for their work with Burisma gas. [3][4] Hunter was being paid $50k a month for his counsel. Rudy continued to dig up Biden’s dirt in the Ukraine. [5] He also encouraged the Ukrainian government to do their own investigation of the matter. [6] This is necessary missing context from their story.
This is all in addition to Biden admitting on video that he pressured the Ukrainian government to drop its investigation of Burisma or risk losing aid from Washington. [7] Here’s how the liberal media spins that inconvenient fact:
Biden wasn’t admitting to pressuring Ukraine to fire a prosecutor looking into his son’s firm, however. He was describing efforts by the Obama administration to stamp out government corruption in Ukraine, which included getting rid of an ineffective prosecutor. [8]
As well, a treasure trove of documents, images, business plans, emails, and allegedly some child pornography, [9] were found on the laptops left behind by Hunter Biden. These laptops were authenticated, [10] and yet still referred to as disinformation. [11]
This detail and background is important because the way the mainstream media reports on it is to basically call anything critical of Joe Biden either a right-wing fantasy or Russian disinformation. Anything that challenges the party line coming straight from the press releases of the DNC is a deviationist fostering ‘domestic terrorism’ who ought to be jailed for wrongthink.
Rudy was investigating very credible business connections and damning evidence he had about Hunter and by extension, the entire Biden family. That he is being served now, legally harassed a mere four months after Biden takes office, looks less like equal justice under law and looks a lot more like the banana republic antics the Department of Justice has been known for.
The motive of federal authorities to lie about this investigation to the Post is further revealed in this paragraph:
…but it reflects a broader concern by U.S. intelligence and federal investigators that Giuliani — among other influential Americans and U.S. institutions — was being manipulated by the Russian government to promote its interests and that he appears to have brazenly disregarded such fears.
So this is all just a way to label everything Rudy did documenting legitimate voter fraud, as nothing but Russian disinformation.
This is a misrepresentation of Giuliani’s position, and a way of assuming bad faith without evidence or argument to back it up. It’s just pointing to Russia on a map and saying everything they don’t like comes from there.
Federal authorities have engaged the media in cases like this not to protect the public’s right to know about its operations, but to taint public perception and to similarly taint the potential jury pool and judges who might hear the cases. These are fundamentally bad sources and every journalist knows it. Prosecutors were rebuked in January for similarly trying to litigate cases in the media rather than objectively in court, notably no media entities responsibly rejected the DOJ offers, and instead lapped them up like trained animals. [12]
It appears clear that Rudy is someone who fought for voter integrity, and to expose the Biden crime family, and is now suffering the consequences. Instead of being objective or critically examining the smears fed to them by federal authorities, the Washington Post is shamefully repeating them without even checking with the subject of the story.
OUR RATING: Journalistic Malpractice. Even Salon.com is ashamed.
Bibliography:
1 ] https://rumble.com/vgbkjv-rudy-giuliani-wapo-hit-piece-is-a-complete-fabrication.html
2 ] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/russia-facebook-ads-2016_n_5af60946e4b00d7e4c1a9a34
7 ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K4QmaIW43g
8 ] https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/10/15/hunter-biden-laptop-giuliani/
10 ] https://www.businessinsider.com/daily-mail-authenticated-hunter-biden-laptop-images-2021-4
11 ] https://nypost.com/2021/03/18/new-lies-about-hunter-bidens-laptop-and-other-commentary/
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