Weaponized Scoops: New Russiagate Documents Expose Media/Government Collusion

RealClear Politics ^ | 16 Sep, 2025 | Paul Sperry

[MtnClimber]

Recently declassified documents indicate that people close to former FBI Director James Comey and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff were connected to leaks of classified information to prominent reporters designed to portray Donald Trump and his allies as being in league with Russia. 

Reporters from the New York Times and Washington Post shared a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for articles that used classified leaks to advance the Russigate hoax. Columbia University, Photo by Eileen Barroso

Written in 2017, the FBI documents expose how selected Washington reporters, including Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post and Michael Schmidt of the New York Times, scored a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning scoops in 2017 by repeating false and inflammatory leaks during President Trump’s first term.  

Much of their reporting has been debunked – and shown to be part of a smear campaign by high-ranking officials to undermine Trump, but the identities of those leakers have remained hidden because of the government’s apparent unwillingness to expose its own and the refusal of reporters to identify the people who misled them and the nation.   

Although the heavily redacted recent disclosures do not specifically identify the suspected leakers, an RCI analysis of the documents strongly suggests that people close to Comey and Schiff, among others, were feeding the reporters information to advance the Russiagate hoax.  

The documents reveal a cascade of misdeeds and failures. These include the effort of government officials to create and leak misleading classified information to favored reporters and the failure of reporters to scrutinize the information they were given before rushing it into print; and the subsequent failure of federal investigators to hold anyone accountable for the breaches of security.

[MtnClimber]

[1Old Pro]

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post and Michael Schmidt of the New York Times, scored a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning scoops in 2017 by repeating false and inflammatory leaks during President Trump’s first term.   Much of their reporting has been debunked – and shown to be part of a smear campaign

The Corrupt media, the shoe sure fits.

[iontheball]

The Corrupt media, the shoe sure fits.
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Mockingbird is alive and well.

[DeplorablePaul]

Fang fang Nakashima is a deep state favorite. Suspicious.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

From the article: "In February 2017, he asserted, Schiff, then a House member, hatched a plan to weaponize U.S. intelligence to smear Trump in the media as a Kremlin conspirator with the goal of triggering his impeachment. Schiff was the ranking Democratic member of the committee at the time."

A reflection on how many times on these sorts of FR threads, smears akin to "Kremlin conspirator" have been posted as comments. When discussion and debate fail, the resort to name-calling -- aka Schiff's now proven game plan -- is employed.

[GOPJ]

Reporters from the New York Times and Washington Post shared a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for articles that used classified leaks to advance the Russigate hoax. Columbia University, Photo by Eileen Barroso

If Jeff Bezos wants to be President some day he needs to clean up the Washington Post - the first thing is to refuse any and all 'Pulitzers'. He should tell his readers the only prize worth fighting for is the trust and respect of readers and and advertisers supporting the paper. (with advertisers that means NO VANITY SUBSCRIPTIONS OR CIRCULATION).

[redinIllinois]

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[clearcarbon]

"Weaponized Scoops: New Russiagate Documents Expose Media/Government Collusion" "This whole thing now sounds contrived."