A draft government climate assessment The New York Times “obtained” and claims is not yet public has actually been available online since January, according to scientists who worked on the report.

TheNYT reportedly obtained a draft copy of the upcoming National Climate Assessment (NCA), quoting unnamed scientists who feared “the Trump administration could change or suppress the report.” TheNYT also reported that global warming skeptics were “equally worried that the draft report, as well as the larger NCA, will be publicly released.”

However, the draft NCA has been online since January. A couple of the scientists who worked on the NCA took to Twitter to let people know the draft has been online for months, despite TheNYT’s reporting.

It’s not clear what the news is in this story; posted draft is public review draft from Dec, and WH review hasn’t yet missed Aug 18 deadline https://t.co/0sZxCCvoMn — Bob Kopp (@bobkopp) August 8, 2017

The Times’ leaked draft has been on the Internet Archive since January, during the public comment period https://t.co/B8XLQ6omb2 — Bob Kopp (@bobkopp) August 8, 2017

Important to point out that this report was already accessible to anyone who cared to read it during public review & comment time. Few did. https://t.co/eYgsj09Z97 — Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) August 8, 2017

This begs the question: how would President Donald Trump be able to suppress a publicly-available draft report? Atmospheric scientist Ryan Maue pointed out the study has not been delayed, and the government only recently began looking for scientists to review the draft report.

Why purposely politicize process? This could be a disastrous unforced error if current above-board process is short-circuited by activists. — Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) August 8, 2017

TheNYT has not yet issued a correction on the story.

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