Progressives withdraw letter urging Biden to negotiate with Putin, say its release was a mistake — but it’s still on the site
Crowds and a smattering of journalists gathered on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday evening, when two pages from an obscure “white paper” that the New York Times says was leaked by a U.S. intelligence agency were suddenly released. And like other documents of this sort, it wasn’t immediately clear who issued the order to make the document available.
The document reads like something penned by Edward Snowden, with a top-secret stamp on it. And it claims that President Barack Obama has been lying about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
The Times story is based on a single line, which reads: “It has been reported on Capitol Hill, it is true, that a small group of senators asked intelligence officials for the Trump dossier.” The Times has not verified this claim.
The document appeared on a website Wednesday night, and a group calling itself “The Resistance” — a reference to the resistance movement against the Vietnam War — posted it on Twitter. The document has since been deleted from the website, though people are still tweeting about it, the Times reports.
This is just the latest twist in the story. Two months ago, The Times published an explosive story that revealed a top Justice Department official had met with representatives of the Russian government to discuss the use of social media to interfere in the 2016 election.
On Monday, NPR reported that an intelligence official was concerned over the report’s accuracy, and that the White House, citing concerns about the dossier itself, was trying to get it taken down.
The Times says the document is dated June 5, 2018.
Reporters who had been investigating Russia’s interference found it odd that the Trump campaign had never used the dossier, and President Trump and his allies were quick to deny it.
But even the mere fact that the document was leaked is surprising because its release was quickly followed by protests outside the White House. And it turns out that the Times withheld a similar document that purported to show the CIA was aware