Our friends John Solomon and Jerry Dunleavy dropped a bombshell Monday night at Just the News that memos released by FBI Director Kash Patel showed “a career intelligence officer who worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee...repeatedly warned the FBI beginning in 2017 that then-Rep. Adam Schiff had approved leaking classified information to smear then-President Donald Trump over the now-debunked Russiagate scandal.”
Since that article went live just after 8:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday, the liberal broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC have ignored it on their flagship morning and evening newscasts, further illustrating their collective refusal to accept responsibility for its role in trying to delegitimize the first Trump presidency.
In contrast, the Fox News Channel has provided extensive coverage on both its news and opinion shows. It was the number two story on Tuesday’s Special Report with host Bret Baier telling viewers that “Schiff is being accused by a fellow Democrat of leaking classified information relating to the Russiagate scandal. Schiff’s office is denying those claims.”
Senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram came out with a bang: “‘Treasonous’ and ‘illegal.’ That’s how a Democratic whistleblower characterized Adam Schiff, accusing him of green lighting the leak of classified information to undercut President Trump during the 2017 Russiagate investigation.”
He noted “Schiff’s office caused this baseless smears, saying the whistleblower was ‘not reliable, not credible, and was fired,’” but countered this new worry is on top of “an unrelated investigation for alleged mortgage fraud.”
Pergram later pointed to one amusing conclusion from the FBI documents “that Schiff hoped Hillary Clinton would win in 2016, Schiff aspired to run the CIA.”
Later in the show, Ruthless co-host Josh Holmes told Baier reexamining this period of time is “certainly justified” because “the amount of damage that was done now allegedly directly by Adam Schiff, is incalculable[.]”
Here was more from Solomon and Dunleavy (click “expand”):
The FBI 302 interview reports obtained by Just the News state the intelligence staffer — a Democrat by party affiliation who described himself as a friend to both Schiff, now a California senator, and former Republican House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes — considered the classified leaking to be “unethical,” “illegal,” and “treasonous,” but was told not to worry about it because Schiff believed he would be spared prosecution under the Constitution's speech and debate clause.
No publicly-disclosed opinion from the Attorney General or the Solicitor General can be found making that determination as a matter of law.
But officials told Just the News that DOJ officials showed little interest in pursuing Schiff when the allegations were brought to them years ago, citing the very same excuse the lawmaker had offered.
In his most recent interview with the bureau in 2023, the whistleblower, whose name is redacted, told agents from the FBI's St. Louis office that he personally attended a meeting at which Schiff authorized leaking classified information.
“When working in this capacity, [redacted staffer's name] was called to an all-staff meeting by SCHIFF,” the interview report said. “In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP.”
(....)
The staffer made similar claims to agents in the FBI's Washington field office as early as 2017, shortly after Trump took office for his first term.
They also shared some concerning realities that “some of the DOJ officials who declined to prosecute a rash of classified leaks during the Russiagate affair remain employed in positions of power,” but Patel insisted to them that “[t]he FBI will now lead the charge, with our partners at DOJ, and Congress...to uncover how political power may have been weaponized and to restore accountability.”
ABC, CBS, and NBC have had other priorities. Along with their repeated dismissals of crime in Washington D.C. being a major problem, they’ve made other choices.
On ABC, Tuesday’s World News Tonight and Wednesday’s Good Morning America both leading with Tropical Storm Erin even though its current track is to stay well off-shore. And over on both Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News and Wednesday’s Good Morning America, they each had full segments on the rise in theft of labubu dolls.
As for CBS, Tuesday’s Evening News was crestfallen about a DREAMER ending up at Alligator Alcatraz.
Of course, those examples don’t even touch the obsession across all three networks about Taylor Swift’s new album.
To see the relevant FNC transcript from August 12, click here.