Topic: CNSNews.com
After the FBI search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, CNSNews.com predictably started spouting right-wing talking points and largely censored the legal justifications, and it continued to do so. An Aug. 11 article by Melanie Arter on Attorney General Merrick Garland admitting he approved the search warrant that led to the raid complained that "The attorney general did not address why the raid was conducted in the manner it was instead of issuing a subpoena. He also did not say what the FBI was looking for in the raid.
in a series of posts on Aug. 11 and 12 posts, CNS latched on to the right-wing narrative du jour that the raid is somehow evidence that the FBI is corrupt:
- Sen. Graham: Garland Pressed to Reveal Reason for Raid Because of ‘Deep Mistrust of the FBI and DOJ When It Comes to All Things Trump’
- Fox News Grills WH Press Secretary on ‘Weaponizing’ DOJ
- Rep. Stefanik: ‘This Is the Same Agency Leadership That Protected Hillary Clinton, James Comey’ and Hunter Biden
- Rep. Mike Turner: We’re Asking FBI to Disclose the ‘Imminent National Security Threat’ Reason for Trump Raid
- Intel Committee Republicans Demand Answers: ‘No One Is Above the Law and That Includes the Attorney General’ (writer Melaine Arter did not indicate wheter they believe Trump is "above the law")
Susan Jones tried to further the Republican narrative in an article accusing Democrats of pushing a narrative and mocking her for giving a "convoluted answer":
At her Friday news conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) advanced the Democrat/media narrative that comments from former President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters following the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago are inciting threats of violence against law enforcement.
Pelosi told reporters, "You would think there'd be an adult in the Republican room that would say, just calm down, see what the facts are and let's go from that, instead of, again, instigating assaults on law enforcement."
The same day Jones bashed Pelosi, a man who professed his desire to kill FBI agents in posts on Trump's Truth Social website following the FBI raid fired a nail gun at an FBI office, then led law enforcment on a change and died in a shootout. CNS censored news of this violent crime against law enforcement from its readers, vaguely alluding to it only in an Aug. 15 article by Jones mostly dedicated to criticizing Democrats who called out Trump, noting that "Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), a member of the House intelligence committee, condemned violence by anyone, including Trump supporters."
CNS cranked out more anti-FBI and pro-Trump stenography on Aug. 15 and 16:
- Rep. Jim Jordan: ‘14 FBI Agents Have Come to Our Office as Whistleblowers’
- Trump Attorney: Trump's Neither Opposing Nor Urging the Release of Affidavit
- Eric Trump: We Can Release Surveillance Footage of FBI Raid ‘At the Right Time’
Another Aug. 16 article by Craig Bannister quoted onetime acting Trump attorney general Mark Whittaker claiming that "The Justice Department (DOJ) can “lower the temperature” of the anger against the department for its raid of former President Donald Trump’s home, by simply releasing the affidavit used to justify the raid and answering the public’s questions." He too did not mention the gunman who talked of killing FBI agents on Trump's social media site then tried to kill them. Also that day, Bannister wrote an article touting poll from right-skewing Rasmussen to claim that Garland "has a negative favorability rating among voters, and more think he’s doing a worse, not better, job than most who’ve held his job in the past," adding that "The national poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted August 11 and August 14, following the August 8 raid on the Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump, which Attorney General Garland has said he personally authorized."
An anonymously written Aug. 16 article, however, played the ol' Clinton Equivocation card to distract from Trump's misdeed by rehashing the Hillary Clinton email controversy:
The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice released a report in June 2018 that stated that the FBI had “identified ’81 email chains containing approximately 193 individual emails that were classified from the CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET levels…and sent to or from [Hillary] Clinton’s personal server.”
The IG cited the information from a “letterhead memorandum” (LHM) that the FBI produced about its investigation of the matter.
The IG report also noted that “[n]one of the emails…included a header or footer with classification markings.”
CNS made no mention of the fact that Hillary's email controversy was much different from the illegal hoarding of classified documents Trump is accused of doing.
Arter uncritically quoted CNS' favorite alleged legal expert to attack the FBI and defend Trump in an Aug. 18 article:
The warrant used to search former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago was unconstitutional, because it’s too broad, conservative talk show host Mark Levin said Thursday.
Furthermore, he said that the Espionage Act doesn’t apply to a president, regardless of what these federal prosecutors are trying to concoct.”
But all the right-wing FBI-hating apparently got to be too much for CNS, even in defense of Trump. An Aug. 22 article by Arter highlighted that "Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said last week that the GOP shouldn’t blame the FBI agents who raided Mar-a-Lago, because they were just doing their job and carrying out “a lawful search warrant that a magistrate signed off on," adding that "if the GOP is going to be the party of supporting law enforcement, law enforcement includes the FBI."
