White House Nails News Site The Politico With Lawsuit After They Uncover A Fake News Plot With Schiff
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) “acted in concert” with the news site Politico and leaked false information from the impeachment inquiry to push a reason for impeachment.
White House official Kash Patel, is a senior counterterrorism official on the National Security Council and he filed a lawsuit in Virginia court which says that Schiff “weaponized the media” to advance his impeachment agenda.
Patel used to be a staffer for the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes and then later took a position inside the White House at the National Security Council to advise President Trump.
On Monday, Patel filed a defamation suit against Politico, Natasha Bertrand, a reporter for Politico, and Robert Allbritton, the publisher and executive chairman of Politico.
The filed lawsuit says:
Defendants intentionally employed a scheme or artifice to defame Kash with the intent to undermine the President’s confidence in Kash and to further Schiff’s impeachment inquisition. Defendants acted in concert with Schiff to accomplish an unlawful purpose through unlawful means, without regard for Kash’s rights and interests.
Defendants abandoned all journalistic integrity and violated their own code of ethics in order to further the conspiracy with Schiff. Defendants did not seek truth; report truth; minimize harm; act independently; and they most certainly were not transparent.
Most notably, Patel causes Bertrand of writing two false stories for Politico claiming that an NSC official was giving Trump poor information about Ukraine while claiming he was an expert.
Politico and the New York Times refused to retract or “clarify” the story.
The lawsuit states:
Between October 14, 2019 and November 8, 2019, Politico and Bertrand colluded, collaborated and conspired with Schiff to defame Kash. Schiff, or members of his staff or aides acting at his direction, leaked to Bertrand the closed-door testimony that [former former senior advisor and European and Russian affairs specialist who served on the NSC Fiona] Hill and [NSC Director of European Affairs Lt. Col. Alexander] Vindman gave in the subfloor of the Capitol Visitor Center. The leaks occurred in real-time. Schiff leaked the testimony to Bertrand because Schiff knew that it would be a violation of House Rules and Committee Rules for Schiff to publish the substance of the testimony himself.
The joint collaborative purpose of the leaks was to publish Hill and Vindman’s false and defamatory statements, including Hill and Vindman’s egregious personal attacks on Kash, so as to further Schiff and Politico’s interests in harming the President and advancing the impeachment inquisition. In furtherance of the conspiracy, Bertrand secretly communicated with Schiff or his staff via encrypted email, including proton-mail, and messaging services, such as Signal.
Between October 23, 2019, and November 8, 2019, the Defendants, acting in concert with Schiff, made, published and republished numerous false factual statements of or concerning Kash without privilege of any kind. … On November 8, 2019, Schiff released the transcripts of Hill and Vindman’s closed-door, secret interviews conducted in the Capitol Visitor Center. The transcripts demonstrate that Politico, Bertrand, Schiff, and his staffers misled the public in the First and Second Politico Pieces, and intentionally lied about the substance of Hill and Vindman’s interviews.
Politico, Bertrand, and Allbritton knew that Schiff had a preconceived agenda that he was actively promoting. They knew about Schiff’s extreme bias and hatred of President Trump. Significantly, they also knew that Schiff was a wholly unreliable source because of his penchant to tell lies and to mislead.
What’s most significant about this lawsuit is that Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman testimony only came from behind closed doors in one of Schiff’s secret hearings. This means the Politico was reporting information given from Schiff and never checked the facts to see if it was true.
