Far-Right troll given a White House pass
UNITED STATES: A US far-Right online activist credited with initially sharing on Twitter hacked emails from the French presidential campaign of centrist Emmanuel Macron is the latest conservative media figure to receive White House access from the Trump administration.
Jack Posobiec, a Washingtonbased writer at the Rebel Media, a Canadian online political and social news commentary platform, attended the daily press briefing on Thursday and later broadcast video from the White House grounds with positive commentary on President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey.
Posobiec said he first obtained temporary White House credentials in early April, but he has submitted a request for a permanent pass. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cyber security experts, minority party Democrats and some US intelligence officials have grown more concerned since the leak of Macron’s emails about potential connections between Russian organisations, including its spy agencies, and far-Right media figures in the US who they suspect played a role in Russian efforts to influence elections.
Two US intelligence officials said this week they were increasingly confident that hackers with connections to the Russian government played a role in the French election.
Macron won in a landslide last weekend against far-Right candidate Marine Le Pen, who wanted to take France out of the European Union and supports Russian policy in Ukraine.
US intelligence agencies have also concluded that hacking attacks on the Democratic Party and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign were part of a Russian-backed effort to help Republican Trump win the presidency. – Reuters