Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Exclusive: NSA director told FBI Pulitzer-winning WaPo story on Russian collusion hoax was ‘wrong’
Just the News ^ | April 11, 2025 2:29pm | Jerry Dunleavy and John Solomon

Posted on 04/11/2025 12:16:36 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Former National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers told FBI agents that the crux of a Pulitzer Prize award-winning Washington Post story on the Russian collusion hoax was “wrong," according to newly declassified documents obtained by Just the News.

Admiral Rogers, who retired in 2018 after four years as National Security Agency chief and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, spoke with FBI agents and a key member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in June 2017, where he threw cold water on a May 2017 story by the Post titled, “Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence.”

It is not yet known whether the Post had been told prior to the May 2017 publishing of their story that Rogers was denying their characterization of his talk with Trump, but it is now known that Rogers was telling federal investigators in June 2017 that the story was bogus.

The Post story — now known to have been directly refuted by one of its main subjects the month after it published — would go on to be among the Russiagate stories published by the outlet to win a Pulitzer Prize in 2018. Trump is currently suing the Pulitzer Board for defamation for continuing to defend the awards it gave to this collusion-related story and numerous others. A Florida circuit court judge denied the Pulitzer Board’s motion to delay President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against them on presidential immunity grounds.

The newly-released Rogers interview with the Mueller team shows that the then-NSA director was read a quote from The Washington Post article — that “President Trump urged [Rogers] to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election” — with the FBI notes stating...

(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016; 201604; 20160418; 2016campaign; 2016election; 201705; 201706; 2018; admiralrogers; arrestcomey; arrestrobertmueller; arrestwray; bias; boasberg; comeymusthang; cybercommand; defamation; fbi; fbisedition; jamesboasberg; mediabias; mikerogers; muellermusthang; nsa; pulitzer; pulitzerprize; rogers; uscybercommand; washpo; wraymusthang
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
Trump is currently suing the Pulitzer Board for defamation for continuing to defend the awards it gave to this collusion-related story and numerous others.

Cool.

1 posted on 04/11/2025 12:16:36 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Admiral Mike Rogers is an unsung national hero

In April 2016, he ordered a compliance audit of use of the NSA database by “contractors” (effectively Democrat Party political organizations). To that point, this was how the deep-state was spying on then-candidate Trump.

Alarmed by the audit, on April 18, 2016, Admiral Rogers shut down the ability of such “contractors” to the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the CIA to have access to raw data being obtained

This forced corrupt elements in the FBI, CIA and Obama Administration to use the overseas FBI assets, honey-traps, etc... to manufacture applications to the FISA Court (which at the time included DC District Court Judge James Boasberg) to continue to spy on Trump - leaving a much larger evidence trail, which the subsequent Horowitz report detailed.

There are also reports that Rogers told Trump in October 2016 his campaign was being spied upon - which caused Trump to immediately move his Campaign HQ from Trump tower to his NJ golf club.

Because of Roger’s steadfast loyalty to the Constitution and rule of law - CIA Director John Brennan and DNI James Clapper tried to convince Obama to fire Rogers as head of NSA

Obama did not take the bait. One assumes Obama already knew of the illegality occurring, and didn’t want to be directly connected to it.


2 posted on 04/11/2025 12:34:55 PM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Rogers was the one sane man in the whole affair. Rumor is he’s the one who got word to Trump that his campaign offices were bugged by the FBI. This was in 2016, causing Trump to move HQ from Trump Tower to New Jersey.


3 posted on 04/11/2025 1:28:20 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: monkeyshine

WaPo and NYTs should return any and all awards for their publishing on the Russia/Trump collusion lies. They knew at the time of publishing that most of it was b.s. Yet the reporters there and other media to this day still quote their articles as if they are true experts on the subject.


4 posted on 04/11/2025 3:23:39 PM PDT by CFW
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

From the article:

“The newly-released Rogers interview with the Mueller team shows that the then-NSA director was read a quote from The Washington Post article — that “President Trump urged [Rogers] to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election” — with the FBI notes stating that “Rogers responded that the media characterization was wrong, and the President had asked about the existence of SIGINT [signals intelligence] evidence only.”

The old tried and true wrap up smear. Leak a false story to the press, then use the story you leaked to accuse someone of doing what you leaked. Potentially sets up a perjury trap, too.


5 posted on 04/11/2025 3:43:58 PM PDT by suthener ( I do not like living under our homosexual, ghetto, feminist government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum
Repeating from the article:

Trump is currently suing the Pulitzer Board for defamation for continuing to defend the awards it gave to this collusion-related story and numerous others.

A Florida circuit court judge denied the Pulitzer Board’s motion to delay President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against them on presidential immunity grounds.


6 posted on 04/11/2025 3:46:32 PM PDT by linMcHlp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

People need to be prosecuted


7 posted on 04/11/2025 3:48:04 PM PDT by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CFW

They knew it. The FBI knew it. The Dept of State knew it. The CIA knew it. The NSA knew it. The FISA court knew it. We knew it. Many others knew it. They are all FOS. Then they wanted us to believe their COVID lies. And their J6 lies. It’s too bad what these people have done to our country for what reason? Money? One World Order? They still think they can get away with it. Slimes.


8 posted on 04/11/2025 4:57:27 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

Admiral Mike Rogers is an unsung national hero-—————


I used to think that...BUT this story gives me the impression that Rogers is sounding hesitant at the time about saying the information was bogus. WHY??? It appears in his telling what happened, that Trump was trying to get him, Rogers, to almost LIE about the truth of the accusations.

This might sound completely nutso, but I think Rogers could have done More to help Trump...

After all, Trump was NOT asking him to LIE.

Rogers, unfortunately, remained silent to all the raving lunatic media and he looks weak.

But I may have read it wrong


9 posted on 04/11/2025 5:58:25 PM PDT by Maris Crane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Maris Crane

Rogers shut down the illegal access to the NSA database, which itself is commendable.

The reading of this article does show him to be a “bureaucrat,” but at least an ethical one.

Should he / could he have stepped out into the open to defend Trump?

We have no way to know. Did he even know enough to “go public” in a coherent way? From his testimony, Its clear that the FBI kept NSA at arms-length

Even if we assume he could have made a big splash, it would have garnered him 24 hours of fame on Fox News, and then what? He would have been fired, accused of “politicking,” had his clearances removed, and possibly been prosecuted himself.

Maybe he helped Trump more by staying in his position and being a speed-bump for the conspirators. Certainly, from his answers to Mueller (which was really Andrew Weissman) he understood that it was a witch-hunt and perjury trap being set up against Trump.

I have no way to know for sure, except from what I read and my knowledge of how people behave in government.


10 posted on 04/11/2025 9:53:54 PM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

In a strange way, I am relieved that you agree with me about his holding back, BUT, I don’t admire him as I once did.

He should have at least RECOGNIZED THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG AND SHARED THAT WITH HIS CONFIDENTS...unless he had none.

Sad, very sad in retrospect.

Regards


11 posted on 04/12/2025 6:47:53 AM PDT by Maris Crane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: monkeyshine

Pulitzer Prize is as credible as Academy Awards.


12 posted on 04/12/2025 7:57:02 AM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Re-imagine the media!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

The problem is at the operator level. The people drawn to it are drawn to it precisely because they want to abuse the access.

Everyone at NSA should be polygraphed if not waterboarded for crimes committed under The White Hospice, then fired. Better yet, unmask all of The White Hospice communications and put them in a Wikileak-style database.

"In 2005, a National Security Agency employee was given his first day of access to the United States’ SIGINT (signals intelligence) capability. So what did he do with his vast powers?

According to a newly published letter (PDF) by the NSA Office of the Inspector General (OIG), “he queried six e-mail addresses belonging to a former girlfriend, a U.S. person, without authorization.”

An internal NSA audit four days later revealed this violation. His punishment?

“A reduction in grade, 45 days restriction, 45 days of extra duty, and half pay for two months. It was recommended that the subject not be given a security clearance.”

This is just one of 12 instances of NSA employees unquestionably abusing America’s surveillance system"


13 posted on 04/12/2025 8:10:39 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (TrumpII)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PGR88
Obama did not take the bait. One assumes Obama already knew of the illegality occurring, and didn’t want to be directly connected to it.

He knew it would go on by itself without him, university conditioning being what it is. If Trump doesn't attack that problem of accreditation soon, he will lose that opportunity.

14 posted on 04/12/2025 8:25:38 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: PGR88
This forced corrupt elements in the FBI, CIA and Obama Administration to use the overseas FBI assets, honey-traps, etc... to manufacture applications to the FISA Court (which at the time included DC District Court Judge James Boasberg) to continue to spy on Trump - leaving a much larger evidence trail, which the subsequent Horowitz report detailed.

Five Eyes likely complied without questions.

15 posted on 04/12/2025 8:32:08 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Carry_Okie

Correct. The people who are given positions are given them because they know what to do for the larger agenda without being explicitly told. One such obvious example was Susan Rice going in early on Jan 20th hours before the inauguration to write a ‘backdated’ memo documenting the “by the book” meeting. One example of a moron was Sandy Berger stuffing his pants with documents he forgot to destroy before sending them to the national archives.


16 posted on 04/12/2025 12:35:20 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: monkeyshine

Rice is vicious. As to Berger, I thing Zero got a large charge out of sprinkling his Administration with white, useful (and therefore expendable) idiots.


17 posted on 04/12/2025 2:04:39 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Maris Crane

I read the same thing and saw that also.


18 posted on 04/12/2025 2:40:52 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

Oh, thank goodness, but it really made me sad a little.

I was thinking... at least there is ONE person with integrity.

Regards


19 posted on 04/12/2025 8:15:22 PM PDT by Maris Crane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Bttt.

5.56mm


20 posted on 04/12/2025 9:43:20 PM PDT by M Kehoe (Democrats: Not self aware, hypocrites, lacking morals who believe history begins when they wake up)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson