Almost a month after the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) covered up the release of FBI notes showing that President Obama and Vice President Biden had guided the Michael Flynn investigation, agency officials were working to obfuscate the truth. That was according to newly declassified notes from disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok proved that the bureau knew there were no connections between the Trump campaign and Russia in early 2017.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) released the documents on Friday, but in the meantime, none of the broadcast networks showed an interest in giving them airtime. Fortunately, Fox News Channel reporter David Spunt dedicated a report to the documents during Tuesday’s Special Report.
“Four years after allegations of collusion between the Russians and Donald Trump’s campaign, a newly declassified note from the man who helped run the investigation tells a different tale,” Spunt announced at the top.
Reading from Strzok’s contemporaneous notes pertaining to a New York Times article from after President Trump’s inauguration, Spunt reported that investigators knew there were zero connections between the Trump campaign and Russia:
“We have not seen evidence of any individuals affiliated with the Trump team in contact with IOs,” IOs meaning Russian intelligence officers, wrote then-FBI Agent Peter Strzok, according to newly declassified documents released on Friday.
(…)
Strzok wrote the comment next to a February 2017 New York Times article alleging contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Senator Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham released the documents to the public.
In response to the release of the notes, Strzok’s lawyer lashed out the Senator, defended the investigation, and suggested his client was just doing his job of editing The Times. “Pete's comments on inaccuracies in the NYT article were nothing more than a dedicated counterintelligence professional diligently vetting public reports of intelligence information," Spunt read from the statement given to Fox News.
Now, the release of these notes and the cover-up by the networks came nearly a month after other damaging notes were revealed to the public. As NewsBusters documented at the time, “ABC, CBS, and NBC were on a mission to cover-up evidence that President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had a hand in the Russia probe.”
It also followed an early June incident where the networks ignored former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testifying to Graham’s committee that he wouldn’t have approved of the FBI’s FISA warrants against a Trump campaign aide, if he had known the Bureau lied and fabricated evidence in the documents.
Spunt also noted the anticipated investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, from U.S. Attorney John Durham, was set to be completed before the end of the summer, with indictments probable.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
July 21, 2020
6:11:26 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: There are new revelations tonight about one the key figures in the Justice Department investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged involvement in the Russian election interference in 2016. We know what came from that but there's new information tonight. Correspondent David Spunt has that story this evening.
[Cuts to video]
DAVID SPUNT: Four years after allegations of collusion between the Russians and Donald Trump’s campaign, a newly declassified note from the man who helped run the investigation tells a different tale.
“We have not seen evidence of any individuals affiliated with the Trump team in contact with IOs,” IOs meaning Russian intelligence officers, wrote then-FBI Agent Peter Strzok, according to newly declassified documents released on Friday.
That sentence infuriates allies of the President who have long insisted collusion with Russia is political folklore. Former assistant U.S. Attorney in Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy, in an op-ed yesterday, wrote: “How much wasted time on pointless investigations could have been prevented had Peter Strzok said this publicly a month into President Trump's term.”
Strzok wrote the comment next to a February 2017 New York Times article alleging contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Senator Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham released the documents to the public.
In a statement to Fox News, Strzok's attorney wrote in part: "Senator Graham’s statement represents another attempt by President Trump's congressional lackeys to use Pete's work product to paint the Russia investigation as a political witch hunt. It was no such thing, and Pete's comments on inaccuracies in the NYT article were nothing more than a dedicated counterintelligence professional diligently vetting public reports of intelligence information."
The declassification comes as U.S. Attorney John Durham continues his probe into the origins of the Russian investigation.
MARK MEADOWS (White House Chief of Staff): I think the American people expect indictments. I know I expect indictments based on the evidence I've seen. [Transition] It's all starting to come unraveled – to unravel and I tell you, it's time people go to jail and that people are indicted.
[Cuts back to live]
SPUNT: A DOJ official tells me to expect the Durham report to be complete before the end of the summer, that's two months from today, and the clock is ticking. Bret.
BAIER: More on all this with the panel. David, thanks.
