This is a distraction from Trump’s behavior but a useful discussion of how conservative “media” operates these days. Sean Davis, whom I used to respect but who has turned into a Trumpist hack like his colleague Mollie Hemingway, published a Big Expose that purported to show that the Deep State changed its standards for whistleblowers suddenly. According to Davis’s conspiracy theory, there used to be a requirement that whistleblowers have firsthand information before they could even file a complaint. But that was suddenly changed in August to make it possible for this whistleblower to file a complaint with only secondhand information, Davis claimed. Here’s how the Federalist portrayed Davis’s claim:
People who knew what they were talking about, like Cato fellow Julian Sanchez, explained that the law has no firsthand knowledge requirement. (Why would it, if a tip could lead to credible corroboration, which is a common occurence in investigations?) They noted that previous forms allowed whistleblowers to file complaints with secondhand knowledge, but cautioned (in rather garbled language that has since been clarified to comport with the law) that if the preliminary review by the ICIG did not uncover corroboration, the complaint would not end up going anywhere.
Trumpists called people like Sanchez hacks and raced to the airwaves to trumpet the conspiracy theory, which ended up (of course) getting repeated by Trump himself.
WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT? DRAIN THE SWAMP!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
Yesterday, the ICIG issued a statement that, shortened, could have read “Julian Sanchez was right.” They clarified that the law never required firsthand knowledge.
They acknowledged (as noted above) that they have changed some of the language of the form to comport with the law after questions arose regarding the language of the form, based on this controversy. Critically, the whistleblower filled out his complaint on the old form. I repeat: the whistleblower filled out his complaint on the old form. The controversy was manufactured bullshit.
Making things more delicious, Julian Sanchez told Mollie Hemingway the true facts on Friday — and she ignored him, which caused me to recall how she ignored a correction I sought from her.
So how did Davis and company react? They apologized and corrected their errors, right?
LOL of course they didn’t. They are Trumpists, and Trumpists never apologize or admit error. No, to Davis and company, the ICIG statement that blew up his story was “complete vindication”:
Check out the first screenshot in this post. That is not all Davis claimed and he knows it. He claimed that the ICIG eliminated a requirement that, in fact, never existed in the law.
Which, by the way, he never told readers. I re-read Davis’s original piece on this, looking for the part where he told his readers that the law itself has no firsthand knowledge requirement. Oddly enough, it’s not there! An omission like that by the media that hurt Trump would cause Mollie and Sean to go apeshit for days.
Sean Davis once criticized Trump constantly; check out these 2016 tweets that are available on the Wayback Machine.
Now he gets retweeted by Trump and I’m told he has deleted all his incriminating tweets from 2016 where he justifiably suggested, for example, that Trump was trying to steal charity money from veterans.
I have not changed. These people have. And they should never be trusted.