The New York Times is „looking into“ whether one of its big Russia scoops is true, after former FBI Director James Comey disputed the report before Congress.<\/b>
\nThe New York Times is \u201clooking into\u201d whether one of its big Russia scoops is actually true, after former FBI Director James Comey disputed the report in Thursday testimony before Congress.
The paper of record reported Feb. 14 that U. S. intelligence officials had intercepted repeated communications between the Trump campaign and senior Russian intelligence officials in the year leading up to the election. The news firmly planted the as yet totally unsubstantiated narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the election in his favor.
But Comey characterized the report as almost entirely false Thursday, and The New York Times is now reviewing the report in light of his statements. \u201cWe are looking into James Comey\u2019s statements, and we will report back with more information as soon as we can, \u201d TheNYT tweeted following the hearing, after prominent journalists highlighted Comey\u2019s statement.
\u201cIn the main, it was not true, \u201d Comey testified Thursday. He added that when the news broke, he was so troubled that he actually double checked with the intelligence community to make sure he wasn\u2019 t missing something.
Asked again about the story later in the hearing, Comey reiterated that it was unfounded.
\u201cWould it be fair to characterize that story as almost entirely wrong?\u201d Republican Sen. Tom Cotton asked.
\u201cYes, \u201d Comey replied.
TheNYT sourced the report to four \u201cformer and current officials, \u201d who were likely politically motivated, or as Comey suggested in the hearing may not have had a proper understanding of the \u201cfacts\u201d they were dishing out to the paper.
\u201cThe challenge, and I\u2019 m not picking on reporters about writing stories about classified information, is the people talking about it often don\u2019 t really know what\u2019s going on, and going on are not talking about it, \u201d Comey said. \u201cWe don\u2019 t call the press to say, hey, you don\u2019 t that thing wrong about the sensitive topic. We have to leave it there.\u201d
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