This is not exactly shocking, but at least there is proof of it. The Daily Caller received emails and text messages from the special counsel’s office that show Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has a pretty close relationship with the press. The Daily Caller reported:
The documents, released in September, span months of communication and include messages from reporters ranging from a variety of outlets, including TheDCNF, The Washington Post and BuzzFeed.While the vast majority of correspondences between Mueller’s spokesman Peter Carr and a variety of journalists ends with a “no comment,” the messages expose Mueller’s team was willing to meet with a number of reporters in private meetings and over the phone.Coordinating such meetings cuts against the narrative that the special counsel has been hesitant to give information to the press, instead opting to give information only through public announcements and statements.
The documents contain no evidence that Carr preferred any outlet or reporter over another.
The Daily Caller pointed out that at one point Vox claimed that Mueller’s team was “immune to leaks,” but the documents show otherwise and the reporter never mentioned Carr in his article:
During one interaction, Alex Ward asks Carr off the record if the investigation would continue should President Donald Trump fire Mueller.“As guidance only, the [Deputy Attorney General] testified last week that he, not the President, would be the one to make the decision. 28 CFR 600 outlines under what circumstances a Special Counsel can be removed. If it came to that, a replacement would likely be found,” Carr answers.A day later, Carr aids Ward in describing the room in which the investigation takes place. Despite Carr’s assistance, he is never mentioned in Ward’s piece published over a month later.From late July until the end of September 2017, Carr held at least dozens of meetings with various reporters. Those meetings have rarely been discussed with the public, by both the government or the press, until the release of these documents.
Another incident detailed how CNN’s Evan Perez had frustrations towards CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta:
After sending Carr a link to the story — which alleged that Mueller and the New York attorney general were working together on a probe into Paul Manafort based on “a source familiar with the investigation” — Perez lamented that “this is the kind of story that happens because of the situation we are in right now.” (RELATED: Manafort Cooperating With Mueller After Plea Deal)“I had nothing to do with it. Didn’t see it until after it was published. I would not have published that. But I’m also in a poor position to stop things,” Perez said of Acosta’s reporting.Perez then communicates concern that the story could damage the validity of the special counsel’s investigation because of the attorney general’s politics.“By the way, this story and the pick up its [sic] getting makes it so the public will think Mueller is in bed with (one of) the most partisan left-leaning AG in the nation. I’m sure he has good people working there but the leadership has a pretty partisan agenda,” Perez says to Carr.“Maybe that’s what the Special Counsel wants,” he adds.A month later, Perez ran a follow-up story on the Mueller investigation, prompting Carr to offer a phone call in case he needed any additional information or clarifications.
Then again, who doesn’t have a problem with Acosta?
Either way, the documents that The Daily Caller has shows that the Mueller team is not immune to leaks and that it does happen.
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