FBI notes refute NYT story that fueled 'Russia collusion'

Peter Strzok, who led the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, refuted a major New York Times story that fueled the now-debunked collusion claims in February 2017, according to newly released notes.

The Times reporters, pointed out The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway, went on to win Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting on the allegation that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Robert Mueller's expensive and lengthy special counsel probe couldn't find sufficient evidence of the claim.

And neither did Strzok, despite his passionate efforts to prevent Trump from winning and to undermine him after his election, as he notoriously documented in texts with his FBI lawyer paramour, Lisa Page.

"We have not seen evidence of any individuals affiliated with the Trump team in contact with [Russian intelligence officials]," Page wrote of the Feb. 14, 2017, story "Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence."

"We are unaware of ANY Trump advisors engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials," he said.

The story was based on unsubstantiated claims of four anonymous intelligence officials and echoed by a similarly sourced CNN story published a day later.

No retraction

Hemingway pointed out the Times declined to retract or correct the article three years ago, even after Comey testified it was false. The paper insisted the anonymous sources who fed the false information were still happy with the initial story.

But Comey admitted under oath in June 2017 that the reporting was "false," and his deputy director, Andrew McCabe, privately acknowledged the same to the White House earlier that year while refusing to admit it publicly.

The Justice Department inspector general report, focused on FBI spying on Trump campaign affiliates, also debunked the Times' stories.

Hemingway noted that the White House's efforts to get the FBI to say publicly what its officials admitted privately were leaked to the media as evidence the White House was obstructing the investigation. The charge of obstruction was a major part of special counsel probe.

Strzok also said the FBI was "unaware of any calls with any Russian govt official in which" onetime Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was a party. And regarding the Times' claim that Roger Stone was part of the FBI's Russia probe, Strzok said, "We have not investigated Roger Stone."

Hemingway noted the Times story was "one of the most important articles published by major media as part of their campaign to paint Trump as a Russian operative."

"Widely accepted by the media and political establishment, it did as much to cement the false and damaging Russia conspiracy theory as CNN’s story legitimizing the now-discredited Christopher Steele dossier or the Washington Post’s now-discredited suggestion that Flynn was a secret Russian operative who was guilty of violating an obscure 1799 law called the Logan Act," she wrote.

When President Trump was asked by ABC News’ Jonathan Karlat a press conference about the Times' report, Trump said, "The leaks are real, the news is fake," deriding media for writing negative and false stories based on anonymous sources.

But Democrats and estabishment media mocked the president.

CNN’s Jake Tapper called the press conference "unhinged."

"I guess I don’t understand," said CNN’s Jim Acosta, asking, "How can the stories be fake?"

Hemingway noted the Times story "was completely false, but the damage it caused the Trump administration was very real," published hours after intelligence officials ousted Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn "following weeks of criminal and selectively edited leaks about his benign communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States."

Establishment media, she wrote, "humiliated by their failure to accurately report on the 2016 campaign, latched onto the conspiracy theory as a way to explain away their failure."

Amid the media hysteria, Democrats pounced.

"The need for an independent commission to investigate grows more urgent by the hour. Where is the GOP?" asked Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

But the Times story came out, McCabe asked to speak privately with then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, according to Howard Kurtz's book "Media Madness."

The FBI's second-in-command told Priebus "everything" in the story was "bulls***t."

He asked McCabe if he could say something publicly, and the deputy director said he could check on it. McCabe called back to say he couldn't do anything.