Media Ignores The New Information As They Are So Into Damaging Trump

The Media’s Desperate Attempt To Tie Trump To Russia Goes Into Overdrive

Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

BY:

 BEN SHAPIRO

APRIL 4, 2017

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We’re now nine months into accusations that the Trump campaign worked with

 the Russian government to expose Democratic National Committee emails and

 collude to twist the election. And we’ve still yet to see one shred of hard evidence

 that those accusations are true. We know that Trump hired advisors with

 relationships with the Russian government, including former campaign manager

 Paul Manafort, short-lived national security advisor Mike Flynn, and former 

foreign policy advisor Carter Page. We know that Trump spent much of his 

campaign praising Russian thug dictator Vladimir Putin, and that he publicly 

encouraged Putin to hack Hillary’s email server. We know that the Trump team

 watered down the Republican Party platform with regard to Ukraine. We know

 that Trump ally Roger Stone claimed a relationship with hacker Guccifer. But 

none of that demonstrates collusion, and certainly not Trump’s knowledge of 

such collusion. Even Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a militant proponent of the 

Trump-Russia connection, was forced to admit that he had no definitive

 information linking Trump with Russia.

Nonetheless, the media, now desperate to refocus on the quietly-dying 

Trump-Russia scandal rather than revelations that Obama National Security

 Advisor Susan Rice was keeping tabs on Team Trump by unmasking incidental 

surveillance reports, have dumped two new reports about members of the 

Trump entourage.

On Monday, ABC News reported this headline: “Trump campaign advisor 

Carter Page targeted by Russian spies.” Now, you could be forgiven for thinking 

that this would mean that Page was targeted by Russian spies while working 

as a campaign advisor. But you’d be dramatically wrong. Here’s the first line

 of the story: “Two years before joining the Trump campaign as a foreign policy

 advisor, New York business consultant Carter Page was targeted for recruitment

 as an intelligence source by Russian spies promising favors for business 

opportunities in Russia, according to a sealed FBI complaint.” Page said that 

he cooperated with the federal government and was “unmasked” by the feds 

in intelligence documents. Here’s more from ABC News:

In the FBI court filings, spy recruiters were overheard speaking with Buryakov about “the attempted use of Male-1 as an intelligence source for Russia,” the court record says. The recruiter says he “promised Male-1 a lot” and told him he would use his “connections in Russia” to “push contracts” his way. “For now, his enthusiasm works for me,” the recruiter says of Page. Page was never accused during the Buryakov case of having been successfully recruited or of spying. 

So in other words, there’s no evidence Page was actually a spy, or that he was

 a spy when he was working for Trump. But the implications are all that matter.

Then there’s a Washington Post story from Monday, which blasts the shocking

 headline: “Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish 

Trump-Putin back channel.” Sounds nefarious, no? Except here’s what The

 Washington Post acknowledges:

The meeting took place around Jan. 11 – nine days before Trump’s inauguration…Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump

campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial

envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did

not identify the Russian…

Worth noting: it’s precisely these sorts of back-channel negotiations that 

eventually led to the horrific Obama-Iran deal. But again, there’s no evidence 

of any wrongdoing here, nor any indication as to how exactly this would have

 to do with Russian election meddling, given that the meeting took place days

 before Trump took office.

Once again, we’re looking at media attempts to play up Trump-Russia 

connections without any real bearing on their central case: that Trump colluded

 with Russia to steal the election. All of this stuff is newsworthy, but not in that

 context.

And that’s the only context the media seem to care about.