Rudy Giuliani has been active on Twitter Friday morning, but he’s garnered the wrong kind of attention. After quoting a line from an article that he apparently found on Wikipedia, he faced criticism, not just for missing its context, but for seemingly not understanding certain relevant geopolitical issues.
First, the quote:
Then, his explanation:
Giuliani claimed that because Christopher Steele, who compiled a now-infamous dossier related to President Donald Trump and Russia, never went to Russia while he performed his research, it couldn’t have been reliable and that any reliance on he dossier by the FBI was improper. Trump supporters believe that details in the dossier provided the basis for the FBI’s investigation of Trump campaign ties to Russia, which is now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Democrats and FBI officials dispute this, stating that the FBI did not improperly rely on the dossier, and that Trump campaign member George Papadopoulos‘s comments about contact with a professor about Russia having dirt on Hillary Clinton were what led to the probe.
As it turns out, Giuliani may have left out some key details in his tweets. Enter Politico reporter Kyle Cheney. Cheney pointed out that the “excerpt from Wikipedia” that Giuliani referenced, was taken from a New Yorker report by Jane Mayer. Indeed, Giuliani’s tweet included a footnote number, which directs to Mayer’s March 2018 article. The footnote is part of the Wikipedia entry for Christoper Steele.
Cheney also noted that immediately after this information in Mayer’s article, she wrote about how Russian contacts are often interviewed outside the country. That means that Steele would not have had to go to Russia to speak to Russian informants. In fact, Steele–a former British spy–may have been able to meet with them in London, which Mayer described as “the center of the post-Soviet Russian diaspora.
After Cheney’s tweet, CNN analyst Josh Campbell weighed in, blasting Giuliani for relying on Wikipedia in the first place.
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