Hours before the broadcast evening newscasts went to air Tuesday, Fox News discovered that President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan was implicated by Special Counsel John Durham and his investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, because of his connections to the debunked Steele dossier and the people who fed the lies to the FBI.
There was plenty of time for the networks to do the leg work to confirm the story with their sources, but ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News chose to continue to keep their viewers in the dark about how the story they peddled for four years was blowing up in their faces. This is backed up by a NewsBusters study of their bias by omission.
Instead of reporting on the devious web now connecting the Biden White House to the diabolical plot cooked up by the Clinton campaign, they collectively spent over 4 minutes (4:21) hyping the January 6 committee issuing more subpoenas to associates of former President Trump.
In addition, ABC talked about the weather, CBS gushed about a Nobel Prize winner getting married, and NBC furthered the lie that Critical Race Theory wasn’t an influence in schools (a pet project of theirs).
Obviously, Fox News wasn’t going to hide its big scoop from their viewers, so Special Report anchor Bret Baier led with it. “Breaking tonight, we are learning new information about the connection between the infamous dossier that justified the Russia collusion investigation into the Trump presidential campaign and one member of the current Biden administration,” he announced at the top of the show.
Adding, “All of this comes as the special prosecutor, John Durham's pursuit of the facts continues to shine a light on the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. And, raising new questions about years of grandstanding by some lawmakers on this issue.” Correspondent David Spunt, of the reporters to break the story, delivered the report.
“Special counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe making its way into the Biden White House,” he reported. And according to Spunt’s sources, Sullivan was the “foreign policy advisor” alluded to in the indictment of Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who is accused of intentionally feeding false information to the FBI in a coordinated campaign effort to get pressure off Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal.
Later in the show, Baier spoke with George Washington University law professor Jonathon Turley who recalled how Sullivan spread fake allegations among the media and possibly lied to Congress:
And then it was shortly after that in October, that Sullivan released the major public statement that there was this covert server tying Trump to Moscow; something completely fallacious, but he put it all over the media.
When he was asked later by Congress sort of, ‘what's going on here, I mean, did you know the basis of this? The source of this?’ He said “no.” He even denied knowing that Sussmann – the roles of Sussmann and Clinton general counsel Marc Elias in creating these allegations.
“We’ve no evidence that Sullivan is being investigated for a crime. But what we’re seeing now is this multilayer connection between the Clinton campaign and this scandal. And it seems very clear that Durham believes that this was basically a campaign effort to dupe the FBI and the FBI fell for it,” Turley added.
The blackout of the implosion of the Steele dossier and Russia collusion hoax was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from WeatherTech on ABC, Jeep on CBS, and Prevagen on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
November 9, 2021
6:00:32 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Breaking tonight, we are learning new information about the connection between the infamous dossier that justified the Russia collusion investigation into the Trump presidential campaign and one member of the current Biden administration. In the words of one lawmaker following the developments, it all seems to be, quote, “Unraveling.”
All of this comes as the special prosecutor, John Durham's pursuit of the facts continues to shine a light on the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. And, raising new questions about years of grandstanding by some lawmakers on this issue. And skewed media coverage about alleged Russia collusion.
Correspondent David Spunt is at the Justice Department with the latest tonight and our top story. Good evening, David.
DAVID SPUNT: Good evening to you, Bret. There has been plenty of speculation for months about where this Durham probe is headed. But tonight, there are new indications that it's moving even higher into the ranks of the Biden administration.
[Cuts to video]
Special counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe making its way into the Biden White House. Fox News can confirm White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is the foreign policy adviser mentioned in the indictment of Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann.
Sussmann was charged in September with lying to the FBI for failing to disclose his work for the Clinton campaign; when he delivered information about alleged connections between Donald Trump and the Kremlin via a Russian bank. The information turned out to be false.
According to the indictment, another campaign attorney exchanged emails with a foreign policy adviser. Sullivan, concerning the Russian bank allegations. There is no indication Sullivan is a target in the Durham probe. Fox News reached out to his office for comment, and we have yet to hear back.
Durham began his probe into the origins of the Russia investigation two and a half years ago but in the past two and a half months, the pace has picked up. Last week Durham charged Igor Danchenko a Russian national with lying to the FBI. Durham claims Danchenko was a source for British spy Christopher Steele and his infamous dossier.
ANDREW MCCARTHY (former federal prosecutor): Not everything that's a political dirty trick or in the nature of abuse of power is necessarily a violation of the federal law. So, it looks like what Durham is honed in on here is that the Trump-Russia collusion narrative was a concoction of the Clinton campaign.
SPUNT: The indictment mentions Danchenko’s communications with “PR Executive 1.” That executive is long-time Clinton adviser Charles “Chuck” Dolan. Dolan has not been charged with a crime but is a witness in the Danchenko case and his attorney tells Fox News “no comment.” Durham says Dolan was in contact with Danchenko who was in contact with Steele to produce damaging information about Donald Trump.
[Cuts back to live]
Igor Danchenko will appear in federal court tomorrow, Bret. He is expected to plead not guilty. Back to you.
BAIER: David Spunt, thank you.
(…)
6:06:08 p.m. Eastern
BAIER: One of them as we just reported in David Spunt's report is this foreign policy adviser who’s cited in the indictment and we now know from sources that that is Jake Sullivan.
In the email, it writes, “on or about December 15th, 2016 Campaign Lawyer-one exchanged emails with the Clinton Campaign’s campaign manager, communication director, foreign policy adviser, concerning the Russian Bank-1 allegations that Sussmann had recently shared with the reporter.”
Just to tie this all together, Sussmann is indicted for lying to the FBI. And that this is not an accurate portrayal of what actually was happening.
JONATHAN TURLEY: Right. And Bret, what's interesting is that these pieces of are falling together. And they’re forming a rather disturbing picture.
Keep in mind, on July 28, just before that, President Obama was briefed by American intelligence that told him that there was evidence that Hillary Clinton was going to advance a Russian collusion narrative to take away attention from the email scandal. And this was a formal briefing in the White House. Three days later, the Russian investigation was launched. And then in September, you have this meeting with the indicted Clinton lawyer, Sussmann, and Jake Sullivan and others.
And then it was shortly after that in October, that Sullivan released the major public statement that there was this covert server tying Trump to Moscow; something completely fallacious, but he put it all over the media.
When he was asked later by Congress sort of, ‘what's going on here, I mean, did you know the basis of this? The source of this?’ He said “no.” He even denied knowing that Sussmann – the roles of Sussmann and Clinton general counsel Marc Elias in creating these allegations.
Now, keep in mind also, that Sussmann was indicted for denying the role – his connection to the Clinton campaign. Marc Elias was accused by reporters of also denying the connection between the Clinton campaign and the dossier. It wasn't until after the election, that they admitted that they did indeed fund the dossier.
(…)
6:09:16 p.m. Eastern
TURLEY: We’ve no evidence that Sullivan is being investigated for a crime. But what we’re seeing now is this multilayer connection between the Clinton campaign and this scandal. And it seems very clear that Durham believes that this was basically a campaign effort to dupe the FBI and the FBI fell for it.
(…)
