"Collusion" Narrative Skeptics a Year Ago: Was The Dossier Briefing Just a Set-Up to Give CNN a News Hook to Run the Dossier Story They Otherwise Could Not?
Comey Memo: I Told the President "CNN Was Looking for a News Hook" for the Dossier

I and others -- Mollie Hemingway being the most visible -- been pushing this idea myself for a year.

Pretty sure the NeverTrump assholes have never bothered to question this briefing, or how quickly the briefing came to be featured on CNN. And while I don't read them anymore, I'd guess that the idea that the briefing was cooked up by Clapper, Brennan, and Comey recisely so its existence could (within days) be leaked to CNN so they could report on the dossier the Deep State wanted them to report on was just a Conspiracy Theory.

I guess if you're enjoying the sausage, you don't care to know how the sausage was made by Deep State conspirators running an op against the duly-elected incoming president.

Comey's memos say he actually told Trump that CNN was looking for a "news hook" to report on the dossier, which they otherwise would not report on because it was salacious and unverified.

It just so happens that the existence of the very briefing he cooked up with Clapper and Brennan was leaked to CNN within a few days, providing them with the very "news hook" Comey told Trump CNN was looking for.

And... oh right, the House Intelligence Committee report says that Clapper gave "inconsistent" answers regarding his contacts in this time frame with, get this, CNN.

There are two things in the memo that are worth highlighting as relate to that blockbuster CNN story from January 10, 2017.

First, Comey claims that briefing the president-elect was the brainchild of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

"I said there was something that Clapper wanted me to speak to the [president-elect] about alone or in a very small group," Comey wrote. More on that in a bit.

...

Then he wrote:

"I said I wasn't saying this was true, only that I wanted him to know both that it had been reported and that the reports were in many hands. I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook. I said it was important that we not give them the excuses to write that the FBI has the material or [REDACTED] and that we were keeping it very close-hold. He said he couldn’t believe they hadn't gone with it. I said it was inflammatory stuff that they would get killed for reporting straight up from the source reports."

Such a close-hold that someone at a very high level in the Obama administration gave the information to CNN almost immediately. CNN broke the news of the dossier and Comey's briefing of the president just four days later.

With Comey claiming that Clapper wanted him to brief POTUS, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence final report on Russia has something of interest. The report, which was downplayed and panned by CNN, included a finding of interest related to discussions of the dossier with the media:

Finding #44: Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now a CNN national security analyst, provided inconsistent testimony to the Committee about his contacts with the media, including CNN."

So Comey, at Clapper's expressed behest, told Trump that CNN was "looking for a news hook" to publish dossier allegations. He said this in the briefing of Trump that almost immediately leaked to CNN, which provided them the very news hook they sought and needed.

I'm sure the #NotSoSmartSet will get right on this.

Someone should ask Clapper if he leaked to CNN. Someone should ask him further if he contrived the briefing just to leak it to CNN.

How bad a day is Jake Tapper having? Well, as a friend notes, he's having such a bad day he's back to tweeting about veterans.

Jake Tapper always goes to tweeting about veterans when he wants to change the subject. Then idiots on the right praise him for being a Stand-Up Guy.

#SalonHot25 "Conservatives"

They love the Deep State's sausage.

Comey Memo: I Told the President "CNN Was Looking for a News Hook" for the Dossier&bodytext=I and others -- Mollie Hemingway being the most visible -- been pushing this idea myself for a year. Pretty sure the NeverTrump assholes have never bothered to question this briefing, or how quickly the briefing came to be featured...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace of Spades at 02:40 PM

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