Section II · SubversionExhibit S-019
Contradiction
CNN: "baseless" wiretap claim, then "Manafort wiretapped"
■ The pieces
- CNN: "Donald Trump's baseless wiretap claim" — Jeremy Diamond, Jeff Zeleny, Shimon Prokupecz (2017-03-04)https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/04/politics/trump-obama-wiretap-tweet/index.html
- CNN (Inside Politics video): "Trump's baseless wiretap claim" (2017-03-05)https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2017/03/05/ip-a-block.cnn
- CNN (analysis): "Donald Trump just flat-out lied about Trump Tower wiretapping" — Chris Cillizza (2017-09-05)https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/trump-doj-wiretap/index.html
- CNN: "Exclusive: US government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman" — Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, Pamela Brown (2017-09-18)https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/18/politics/paul-manafort-government-wiretapped-fisa-russians/index.html
■ What they show
CNN called Trump's March 2017 claim that Obama wiretapped him baseless, and in September Chris Cillizza wrote that Trump had flatly lied after the Justice Department said in a court filing that it had no evidence for the claim. Two weeks later CNN reported as an exclusive that federal investigators had wiretapped Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, under secret FISA court orders.
■ The other side
The Manafort report did not say Trump or Trump Tower phones were tapped or that Obama ordered any surveillance; CNN later revised the exclusive after the December 2019 Justice Department inspector general report, a change Erik Wemple criticized in the Washington Post.
Who it helped: DemocratsCalled Trump's claim baseless before reporting his chairman was wiretapped.
■ Why it's here
This exhibit is filed under Subversion, not graded as a lie. What subversion means →