On Thursday, NBC Nightly News broke the evening newscast silence regarding the bombshell findings from Special Counsel John Durham showing that a lawyer for the 2016 Clinton campaign was involved with spying on Donald Trump. Not only did they break the network blackout, but they stepped up to the plate and defended both Hillary Clinton and campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.
Before even getting to any of the details of Durham’s court filing against Sussmann, senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson highlighted Clinton scoffing at and downplaying the accusations as if that meant anything:
CLINTON: They've been coming after me again lately, in case you might have noticed.
JACKSON: Referencing the unproven allegations from some conservatives that her campaign spied on then-President Donald Trump.
CLINTON: It's funny. The more trouble Trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get.
“It comes after a new filing dropped from Special Counsel John Durham, who is investigating the origins of the Russia investigation with Clinton's opponents pointing to the filing as proof something nefarious happened,” Jackson herself scoffed.
Umm, Hallie, Sussmann has been charged with lying to federal agents. So, “something nefarious” seems to have happened. Care to explain why you omitted how the filing also stated that Sussmann was billing the campaign for his work on this actively?
Ignoring that previous indictment of Sussmann that occurred months ago, Jackson suggested “[t]he whole thing started last week.”
And while she did report the filing said Sussmann received “non-public data about communications between computer servers at the White House and two Trump-owned buildings in New York,” Jackson parroted Sussmann’s lawyers who tacitly admitted their client was monitoring Trump by saying, “the data collection ended even before former President Trump took office when Barack Obama was president.”
Jackson also noted that the filing stated that the tech executive who gave Sussmann the information was “‘exploiting his access’ to that White House data to search for ‘derogatory information’ on Mr. Trump.” But according to her, that somehow meant “[t]he court filing does not allege a crime related to hacking. It also doesn't say anything was illegally spied on.”
While Jackson was saying that, she also brought on NBC investigative correspondent Tom Winter to argue that the “[e]-mails couldn't have been read. Text messages couldn't have been read. They couldn't even have seen the content that was on the screens.”
Now notice how Jackson’s shrewd use of the phrase “illegally spied on” is coupled with that argument about reading messages. This is another tacit admission that someone was nefariously monitoring Trump. Essentially, what was going on was a virtual stakeout where Sussmann was receiving reports about what was coming and going from Trump’s digitally.
There’s a conspicuous absence of journalistic curiously and skepticism from Jackson about what was going on against Trump. It’s also another example of the word games the liberal media play when the facts are not to their liking.
NBC’s gross defense of Clinton and Sussmann from the obvious truths of the case was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Aleve and Fidelity. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
February 17, 2022
7:08:22 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: And tonight Hillary Clinton is firing back at former President Trump, saying he’s desperately spinning up a fake scandal with new allegations that her 2016 campaign spied on him. Those claims based on a new filing by a special counsel. Hallie Jackson has more for us.
[Cuts to video]
HALLIE JACKSON: Hillary Clinton late today in New York --
HILLARY CLINTON: They've been coming after me again lately, in case you might have noticed.
JACKSON: Referencing the unproven allegations from some conservatives that her campaign spied on then-President Donald Trump.
CLINTON: It's funny. The more trouble Trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get.
JACKSON: It comes after a new filing dropped from Special Counsel John Durham, who is investigating the origins of the Russia investigation with Clinton's opponents pointing to the filing as proof something nefarious happened.
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): They were spying on the sitting president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Hillary Clinton's campaign paid to spy on Donald Trump.
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI) The silence by most of the media is very revealing.
JACKSON: But the filing does not back up the claim the Clinton campaign paid to have then-President Trump spied on. The whole thing started last week over the case of a cyber-security lawyer with ties to the Democratic Party, Michael Sussmann.
The motion says a tech executive gave Sussmann non-public data about communications between computer servers at the White House and two Trump-owned buildings in New York, describing the executive as “exploiting his access” to that White House data to search for “derogatory information” on Mr. Trump.
Sussmann, the filing suggests, shared exaggerated claims with the CIA that Trump associates were using Russian-made cell phones near the White House, an allegation the special counsel found no evidence of. But Sussmann’s attorneys counter that Durham well knows the data collection ended even before former President Trump took office when Barack Obama was president.
Experts also tell NBC News the computer data itself is very limited.
TOM WINTER (NBC investigative correspondent): Emails couldn't have been read. Text messages couldn't have been read. They couldn't even have seen the content that was on the screens.
JACKSON: The court filing does not allege a crime related to hacking. It also doesn't say anything was illegally spied on. Hallie Jackson, NBC News, Washington.
