Media Split on Durham Probe, Clinton Ties
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Left and right media are divided over whether a special counsel's investigation shows that Hillary Clinton paid to spy on the Trump White House.
In a recent court filing from special counsel John Durham, who is probing the government's investigation of Russian election interference, he accused a tech executive of working with a Clinton campaign lawyer and distorting private White House data in an effort to show evidence of collusion between former President Donald Trump and Russia. The lawyer was indicted last year for lying to the FBI about his connections to Clinton. Some on the right said the filing was significant evidence that Clinton paid to spy on Trump, and some on the left characterized that narrative as false or exaggerated. Durham said this week that any media misinterpretation of information in the filing "does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the government’s inclusion of this information." Trump said the news was "bigger than Watergate," Clinton accused him of "spinning up a fake scandal."
Many voices on the right accuse left- and center-rated media of ignoring or downplaying the probe due to anti-Trump media bias. Left-rated media often frames Durham's probe as less meaningful, and some accuse Fox News and other right-wing sources of distorting the probe and spreading misinformation about Clinton. Some left- and center-rated media said Durham was "distancing himself" from conservatives who purportedly politicize his investigation; some on the right said Durham was standing by his evidence.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
Durham Distances Himself From Furor in Right-Wing Media Over Filing
John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel scrutinizing the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference, distanced himself on Thursday from false reports by right-wing news outlets that a motion he recently filed said Hillary Clinton’s campaign had paid to spy on Trump White House servers.
Citing a barrage of such reports on Fox News and elsewhere based on the prosecutor’s Feb. 11 filing, defense lawyers for a Democratic-linked cybersecurity lawyer, Michael Sussmann, have accused the special counsel of including unnecessary and misleading information in filings “plainly intended to politicize this case, inflame media coverage...
From the Left
John Durham distances himself from right-wing furor 
John Durham, the special counsel looking into the government's investigation of Russian election interference, distanced himself from reports in conservative media that a motion he filed last week implied Hillary Clinton's campaign paid to spy on Trump White House servers, according to the New York Times.
What they're saying: In a filing Thursday, Durham disavowed responsibility for how the filing was interpreted: "If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the government’s motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the...
From the Right
No, Durham Did Not ‘Distance’ Himself from Hillary-Campaign Spying Claims
Whenever evidence emerges that Democrats may have acted in a corrupt, potentially illegal manner — as it recently did when a John Durham filing disclosed that Clinton’s campaign may have recruited a tech company to spy on Donald Trump’s Internet activity in 2016 — a defensive media springs into action.
“Durham Distances Himself From Furor in Right-Wing Media Over Filing,” read a New York Times piece by Charlie Savage today. “The right-wing media quickly embraced a theory that even special counsel John Durham has distanced himself from,” wrote Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler. “In filing, Durham appears to...
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