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The Moscow Project’s Lies & NBC/MSNBC Collusion

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The Moscow Project recently made some headline grabbing claims about the House Intelligence Committee’s investigative work.

On March 22, 2018, I examined the House Intelligence Committee’s newly released Final Findings and Recommendations on its Russia Investigation.

There were several notable conclusions, including:

FBI agents did not detect any deception during Flynn’s interview.

Steele obtained his dossier information second- and third-hand from purported high-placed Russian sources.

Former DNI James Clapper provided inconsistent testimony to the Committee about his contacts with the media.

There was no evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russians.

Adam Schiff apparently disagreed:

Bear in mind that Schiff has arrived at the point of being “all in”. He has been a source of leaks and is likely ensnared by AG Sessions’ Leak Task Force.

However, on the same day the House Intelligence Committee delivered its Final Report, the Moscow Project put out a report that appeared to back Schiff’s claims.

Leading one to wonder where the Moscow Project obtained all their House Committee information…

Interestingly, Moscow Project’s Report had been written on March 21, 2018 – the day before the release of House’s Final Report.

The Moscow Project is part of Left-wing think tank, Center for American Progress. From the Moscow Project’s website:

The Moscow Project is an initiative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund dedicated to analyzing the facts behind Trump’s collusion with Russia and communicating the findings to the public.

The article was widely spread by the media – particularly NBC/MSNBC.

The first public announcement on the Moscow Project’s Report came from a tweet at 5:07am March 22, 2018, by Heidi Przybyla:

Przybyla is NBC News’ National Political reporter. She wrote the article House Probe Overlooked Most Trump-Russia Contacts, Report Claims. It was published at 2:04 am on March 22, 2018.

MSNBC then quickly followed up with reporting on Przybyla’s piece.

Details were then amplified.

Kyle Griffin is a producer for MSNBC News.

NBC News than ran an updated article at 9:04am on March 22, 2018.

NBC’s reporting on the Moscow Project was used by others as validation:

Jesse Rodriguez is Director of Booking for MSNBC

Rodriguez specifically cited NBC’s reporting – not the Moscow Project – as the source.

NBC News continued its reporting:

But there was just one problem. Some folks decided to take a closer look at the Moscow Project’s actual report:

A much closer look:

From York’s article:

The Moscow Project listed the following Trump associates who “had contacts with Russians during the campaign or transition”: Michael Cohen, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, Jeff Sessions, J.D. Gordon, Carter Page, Erik Prince, and Anthony Scaramucci.

According to the House Intelligence Committee reports, committee investigators interviewed Cohen, Trump Jr., Kushner, Stone, Sessions, Gordon, Page, and Prince.

Democrats participated in the interviews and had a chance to question each witness.

Of the Trump figures the committee did not interview: Manafort was invited to testify and agreed, but his appearance was delayed at Democrats’ request — and then Manafort was indicted and became off limits because of the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller. Flynn was subpoenaed, and then became off limits because of Mueller. Papadopoulos was invited to testify, and then he, too, became off limits because of Mueller.

Manafort and Gates (mentioned later) were both indicted for FARA violations that occurred during Obama’s tenure and were related to work done for the Podesta Group.

The Flynn Investigation is falling apart. “FBI agents did not detect any deception during Flynn’s interview.” 302’s were likely falsified by McCabe.

The Papadopoulos situation is – well – almost silly. If the Papadopoulos information was enough to open a FBI counterintelligence investigation in July 2016, why did the FBI wait until January 2017 to even speak with him.

Accounting for Manafort, Flynn and Papadopoulos, the Committee interviewed – or attempted to interview – eleven of the twelve people the Moscow Project listed as having “contacts with Russians” during the campaign or transition.

That leaves Scaramucci – who was with the White House for about ten days in total.

York continues:

The Project also listed other Trump associates who “were reportedly aware of contacts with Russia-linked operatives”: Corey Lewandowski, Rick Gates, Hope Hicks, Sam Clovis, Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland, Tom Bossert, Reince Priebus, Stephen Bannon, and Sean Spicer.

The committee interviewed Lewandowski, Hicks, Clovis, and Bannon. As for Gates, the committee invited him to testify, but, like Manafort and others, he was indicted and became off limits because of the special counsel investigation.

That leaves Scaramucci, from the first group, plus Miller, McFarland, Priebus, Bossert, and Spicer. Here is what a committee spokesman said about them:

“We don’t have any reason to believe these individuals have any unique knowledge pertinent to our investigation. Their inclusion on this list is a frivolous attempt to embarrass these people and insinuate that they are somehow involved in the Great Collusion Conspiracy. Read the actual allegations published by The Moscow Project — they’re transparently ridiculous.”

The Moscow Project listed twelve Trump-related individuals who had contact with Russians. The Committee interviewed eight of these people – and tried to interview three others but were stymied by Mueller’s Investigation.

The Moscow Project listed another ten individuals who were “aware” of Russian contact. The committee interviewed four of these individuals

Anthony Scaramucci, Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland, Tom Bossert, Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer were not interviewed – being deemed non-key figures by the Committee.

Read the allegations made against these individuals by the Moscow Project and decide for yourself.

York sums it up:

The committee either interviewed or tried to interview 73 percent of the people on the Moscow Project list, and the parties disagreed on whether to interview 27 percent of the people on the list.

But York’s not done – and it gets worse:

Here, again, is the primary claim from the Moscow Project:

70 contacts – and only 19% investigated – per the Moscow Project’s Report.

Problem One – The Moscow Project seems to be trying to inflate numbers:

Papadopoulos emailed a person known as the Female Russian National. On April 11, the Female Russian National emailed Papadopoulos back. Papadopoulos replied on the same day. And, still on April 11, the Female Russian National replied to Papadopoulos.

The Moscow Project counts that exchange as four contacts, which seems like an effort to inflate the numbers.

Problem Two – The Committee did, in fact, try to interview almost all the individuals comprising the “70 known contacts”:

As it turns out, 30 of the 70 contacts listed by the Project involved Trump people who were interviewed by the committee, while 39 others involved Trump people the committee tried to interview but could not, due to the Mueller investigation.

Put them all together, and that’s 69 of the 70 contacts.

All but one of the contacts cited by the Moscow Project involved Trump people who were either interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee or people the committee made an effort to interview but could not because of the special counsel probe.

The last one — the only contact not in one of those two categories — was Scaramucci’s conversation with a Russian in Davos shortly before the Trump inauguration.

There you have it. As York notes:

The House committee made an effort to interview the key figures in the Trump-Russia affair, and succeeded most of the time.

One last item from the Moscow Project’s Report that I found amusing:

In this document, we consider Wikileaks to be a Russia-linked operative.

Make of that what you will. I laughed.

The media continues to be invested and engaged in pushing a narrative they’ve become deeply enmeshed with. As that narrative steadily falls apart, the means by which it’s kept alive becomes increasingly outlandish.

Whenever you see a claim backing up the Russian Narrative it’s always worth taking a second look.

Thanks to Byron York for his worthwhile efforts.

Shame on NBC/MSNBC for their propagandist “reporting”.

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