The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Republican operatives close to the White House have begun extensively researching journalists covering Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer, aiming to amplify perceived bias and past mistakes.
Through an intermediary, that lawyer, according to emails published by Trump Jr. before a New York Times exposé on the same correspondence, promised the younger Trump dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to aid Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In April, Politico cited several unnamed reporters, in addition to a conservative activist who claimed to have spoken to a White House communications staffer, who said unnamed White House sources frequently told reporters untruths.
From the Post’s report Wednesday:
A handful of Republican operatives close to the White House are scrambling to Trump Jr.’s defense and have begun what could be an extensive campaign to try to discredit some of the journalists who have been reporting on the matter.
Their plan, as one member of the team described it, is to research the reporters’ previous work, in some cases going back years, and to exploit any mistakes or perceived biases. They intend to demand corrections, trumpet errors on social media and feed them to conservative outlets, such as Fox News.
