Last night, the entire nation's jaws fell off their heads and onto the floor after the Washington Post produced a wee scoopty about how Jared Kushner, First Son-In-Law, asked the Russian ambassador to let him (and disgraced then-future/now-former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn) use secure communications channels in the Russian embassy to secretly call Vladimir Putin.

Every person who has ever worked in the Intelligence community or the government hit the teevee or the Twitter to say, no, hiding your calls to Russia from US intelligence by using Russian spy phones is really just as bad as it could possibly be -- with the exception of three Trump administration officials, who instead got on the horn to the New York Times. They didn't deny it at all; they explained instead that it was totally innocent! Mike Flynn just wanted to discuss military strategy in Syria with his Russian counterparts! And he needed to use a secret Russian spy phone to do it, because "reason."

Actually, the New York Times never followed up with the question of "why would you need to use a secret Russian spy phone to talk to Russia instead of regular channels," so they never even had to say, "because 'reason,'" because the New York Times was too busy presenting the administration's claim as unquestioned fact.

What say you, Maggie Haberman, Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo? That this is all but nothing, because it was the Washington Post that got the scoop?

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, spoke last December with Russia’s ambassador to the United States about establishing a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow to discuss strategy in Syria and other policy issues, according to three people with knowledge of the discussion.

Sure, they attribute it to "three people with knowledge" -- whom they never, ever seem to question.

It is unclear who first proposed the communications channel, but the people familiar with the meeting said that the idea was to have Mr. Flynn speak directly with a senior military official in Moscow to discuss Syria and other security issues. The communications channel was never set up, the people said. [...] The idea behind the secret communications channel, the three people said, was for Russian military officials to brief Mr. Flynn about the Syrian war and to discuss ways to cooperate there. Less than two weeks later, Mr. Kushner backed off the idea of the communications channel when Mr. Trump announced Rex W. Tillerson, a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil who had worked closely with Russian officials on energy deals, as his choice to become secretary of state.

They never ask why the secure communications would need to be kept secret from the US government (these meetings occurred during the transition), or why (as the Post reported), Flynn and Kushner in that same meeting would set up a secret rendezvous in the Seychelles between a Russian emissary and creepy mercenary Erik Prince.

They do have one nice, tiny aside:

Current and former American officials said that Mr. Kushner’s activities, like those of many others around Mr. Trump, are under scrutiny as part of the investigation. But Mr. Kushner is not currently the subject of a criminal investigation. In the days after the meeting with Mr. Kislyak, Mr. Kushner had a separate meeting with Sergey Gorkov, a Russian banker with close links to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

But then they just leave it there, without even linking back to their own previous good work on Jared Kushner's "foundering" 666 Fifth Avenue building and how he really needs cash, or mentioning their own story on Jared Kushner whoops accidentally leaving these meetings with Kislyak off his security clearance forms. We guess the Times whoops accidentally forgot too! And literally no one is buying it.

John

The New York Times famously rubbished David Corn's reporting onChristopher Steele's "dossier," as well as Franklin Foer's reporting on the mysterious server activity between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank.

Intelligence officials have said in interviews over the last six weeks that apparent connections between some of Mr. Trump’s aides and Moscow originally compelled them to open a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Republican presidential candidate. Still, they have said that Mr. Trump himself has not become a target. And no evidence has emerged that would link him or anyone else in his business or political circle directly to Russia’s election operations.

NONE! None evidence! That story, coming just days before the election, has not aged well.

In March, CNN confirmed that the FBI was still investigating the mysterious server activity. And now-fired FBI director James Comey himself confirmed in open hearings in March that the FBI was investigating Trump's associates and had been as early as last spring.

The New York Times played this:

Why did The Times report extensively on the hacking of the Democratic Party, but not this? The Times did report before the election that the F.B.I. was investigating claims about Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia — an article that resulted from an extensive reporting effort. The Democratic National Committee and Podesta emails were public, their authenticity was not in doubt, and they contained newsworthy information.

Yes, and that "report" specifically said that there was nothing to see here, move along.

Has Donald Trump Landed Yet? Would the people writing this reality at least try to come up with something plausible, please?

While the Times and the Washington Post were making out with each other last week, trading scoops back and forth and generally being the horniest teens at the prom (IN A GOOD WAY) ...

... that seems to be over, and the New York Times is doing what it's been best at ever since it canned Jill Abramson for being loud and shrill and abrasive like a common Hillary Clinton: pandering to the Right and coming up with any excuse it can to Say Something Nice About Donald Trump.

While we don't think that misbegotten column ever appeared, the news pages are doing what they can to help poor innocent naive Jared Kushner as he runs the entire government from inside Russia's shoe phone.

[The real story / the bullshit story]

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