Russiagate is nearly over and done with, and it’s been mostly a dud. Special counsel Robert Mueller determined that some Russians worked to influence the U. S. election in 2016, but not one American was determined to have been party to a grand conspiracy.
Russiagate is nearly over and done with, and it’s been mostly a dud. Special counsel Robert Mueller determined that some Russians worked to influence the U. S. election in 2016, but not one American was determined to have been party to a grand conspiracy.
In light of what we now know, it seems quite a few reporting snafus occurred over the past two-and-a-half years. Here’s five of the biggest Russia probe reporting flops, many of which relied on anonymous sources.
1. Michael Cohen’s Trip to Prague as Told by McClatchy
On April 13,2018, McClatchy sleuths Peter Stone and Greg Gordon reported that Mueller had uncovered evidence putting ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen in the bustling capital city of the Czech Republic.
This would-be bombshell relayed the following information:
Based on anonymous sources, the Stone-Gordon reporting here would have verified one of the key claims made in the controversial Steele Dossier–that Cohen had surreptitiously met with Kremlin agents in Western Europe to strategize about election meddling–a claim which Cohen had already rubbished via Twitter; and which he trashed again immediately after McClatchy made the claim.
The story faded after awhile but then new “information” led the news-gathering organization to double-down on their claim.
On December 27,2018, Stone and Gordon re-upped the ante by reporting that “[a] mobile phone traced to” Cohen “briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016.” This alleged ricocheting of signals left “an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials,” according to the report. And this time, four anonymous sources fed Stone and Gordon this unproven narrative.
McClatchy is standing by its reporting.
2. The Guardian Gets it Wrong About Julian Assange Meeting Paul Manafort
On November 27,2018, The Guardian‘s Luke Harding and Dan Collyns made a shocking claim: former Trump 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort had somehow evaded detection at the most surveilled embassy in the world and secretly took not one, not two, but three separate meetings with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Here’s when the London-based outlet initially reported the claim:
Wikileaks and Manafort both tossed cold water on the idea, and threatened lawsuits.
