The media did not simply report on Russiagate — it helped create Russiagate. And no outlet played a bigger role in manufacturing this false reality than Ellen Nakashima and The Washington Post.
"Yet these candid assessments were immediately overturned. The narrative was flipped entirely, now claiming that Russia had interfered specifically to help Trump win. To lend this reversal an air of legitimacy, Obama ordered an Intelligence Community Assessment explicitly designed to support the new storyline. This dramatic about-face was immediately echoed in the press, with The Washington Post at the center of the disinformation campaign.
"On the morning of Dec. 9, 2016 — just one day after the draft PDB was circulated among Obama officials — The Washington Post published an article co-authored by Ellen Nakashima reporting that President Obama had ordered a review of Russia’s role in the election. The article stated that Russia had “attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome” of the 2016 race.
"Citing this article, the report accompanying the DNI’s new document release concludes that “Deep State officials in the IC [intelligence community]” had begun “leaking blatantly false intelligence to the Washington Post.” The DNI report goes on to state that later that same day, another leak to the Post falsely claimed the CIA had “concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened” in the election to help Trump."
The Washington Post’s Dishonesty
"In truth, the DNI report understates just how dishonest the episode really was. While the report cites two separate leaks to the Post, suggesting two different articles, they were in fact the same story — heavily rewritten after publication. The original version, which merely claimed that Russia had attempted to interfere, was already a serious departure from the previous day’s draft PDB. But that version apparently wasn’t strong enough for the “Deep State” officials feeding Nakashima the story. Within hours, that version mysteriously vanished." . . .
Hans Mahncke is in-house counsel at a global business advisory firm. He holds LL.B., LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law. He is the author of "Swiftboating America: Exposing the Russiagate Fraud, from the Steele Dossier to the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation."
