Pogo for the Left: Today's News for May 30th

As soon as the Left puts up a story about the Trump administration and Russia, the Right knocks it down, and the never-ending game of whack-a-mole continues...

Fox News:

Jared Kushner didn't suggest Russian communications channel in meeting, source says

A December meeting between Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of the senior advisers in the Trump administration, and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak at Trump Tower focused on Syria, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Monday.

During the meeting the Russians broached the idea of using a secure line between the Trump administration and Russia, not Kushner, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News. That follows a recent report from The Washington Post alleging that Kushner wanted to develop a secure, private line with Russia.

The idea of a permanent back channel was never discussed, according to the source. Instead, only a one-off for a call about Syria was raised in the conversation.

That Russian story is dead. Next?

CNN:

Sources: Russians discussed potentially 'derogatory' information 

about Trump and associates during campaign

Russian government officials discussed having potentially "derogatory" information about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and some of his top aides in conversations intercepted by US intelligence during the 2016 election, according to two former intelligence officials and a congressional source.

One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered on whether the Russians had leverage over Trump's inner circle. The source said the intercepted communications suggested to US intelligence that Russians believed "they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information."

And then, the article goes on to discredit itself:

But the sources, privy to the descriptions of the communications written by US intelligence, cautioned the Russian claims to one another "could have been exaggerated or even made up" as part of a disinformation campaign that the Russians did during the election.

The details of the communication shed new light on information US intelligence received about Russian claims of influence. The contents of the conversations made clear to US officials that Russia was considering ways to influence the election -- even if their claims turned out to be false. 

Which leads us to Comey's fake email story:

CNN:

Graham: It's 'stunning' Comey never told Congress about fake email

First, the story:

On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that the FBI received a document detailing a supposed email from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was at the time the head of the Democratic National Committee, where she said someone in the Department of Justice told her Attorney General Loretta Lynch was containing the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices as secretary of state. The report said the details came from "a dubious Russian document" and that this document influenced Comey's decision to make his thinking on the case public. On Friday, CNN reported that Comey acted on this document, even though he knew it to be fake. 

The reaction:

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that former FBI Director James Comey would have been "incredibly incompetent" if he took actions based on email he knew to be fake.

Graham said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" that Comey told the Senate and House select committees on intelligence about such an email, but never indicated it was fake.

"He talked to members of the Senate and House intel committee that he was sitting on emails that the Russians had between the Democratic Party and the Department of Justice that were highly explosive," Graham said. "He never once told a member of the House or the Senate that he thought the email was fake."

...Graham called the report "stunning" and said Comey "needs to be held accountable."

"I can't imagine a scenario where it's OK for the FBI director to jump in the middle of an election based on a fake email generated by the Russians and not tell the Congress," Graham said.

Over the weekend, Michael Walsh at Pajamas Media had an interesting editorial, "In the 'Russia' Investigation, Democrats, Spooks and Media Have Most to Fear", where he points out that it is unlikely that Trump or his people did anything illegal, but it is very likely the Obama administration and our intelligence agencies did something incompetent, basically allowing the Russians to lead them around by the nose with a bunch of false intelligence.

The worst part is that the American Left, including the Democrats and the media, are STILL allowing that false narrative to guide them. Today, the entire socialist/progressive movement in America gets the Pogo award: