Check your source, Mr. Johnson
When author Michael Wolff ’s bestselling Donald Trump takedown “Fire and Fury” appeared on bookshelves, it ushered in a new journalistic standard for reporting. As passages from the book were quickly debunked, it became clear Wolff treated reporting like most Americans treat doing their taxes: The new bar for accuracy became, “eh, that looks about right.”
This questionable sourcing technique is not unknown in the halls of Congress. One new practioner is Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who last month said an informant told him about meetings of an anti-Trump “secret society” among FBI agents. Johnson, who chairs the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, thought this was evidence of anti-Trump bias within the FBI, calling it “corruption at the highest levels of the FBI.”
Under heavy pressure, Johnson almost immediately backtracked, noting the term “secret society” had come from a tranche of text messages between two senior FBI officials named Peter Strzok and Lisa Page both before and after the 2016 election.
In the messages, the two lovers were clearly being sarcastic when referring to starting a “secret society.” Johnson said he was just “connecting the dots there,” and conceded the reference “could be a joke.”
One would think a public aboutface of this sort would cause some reflection within the Ron Johnson News Service. Yet Johnson this week released a 25-page committee report asking questions about the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails while using, at best, out-ofcontext evidence.
While the report is full of examples of invective against Trump by Strzok and Page, one text between them has caught the attention of the media. On Sept. 2, 2016, Page texted Strzok, saying the president “wants to know everything we’re doing,” which the committee believes “raises additional questions about the type and extent of President Barack Obama’s personal involvement in the Clinton email scandal and the FBI investigation of it.”
But associates of Strzok and Page have said the text was actually about President Obama seeking details about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, as Obama was set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin within days.
It was only one short item in a long report of evidence of antiTrump bias within the FBI, and the use of anonymous “associates” of Strzok and Page to counter it is worthy of examination. But because of its murky provenance and timing issues, the text’s inclusion was a sloppy mistake that weakens more legitimate criticisms of the FBI investigation into Trump.
Johnson’s “scoops” don’t match even the most basic guidelines for reporting.
What’s particularly puzzling is why the senator would risk his credibility to undermine an investigation into Trump. During his seven years in the Senate, Johnson has proven to be his own man, publicly challenging Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on issues like Obamacare repeal and tax cuts for businesses.
Ron Johnson is a principled conservative who has often had the courage to take tough positions, but it is clear he is currently riding the struggle bus. It’s time for him to hop off. He risks ending up where other Trump defenders have found themselves: on the side of the road in a pile of flaming wreckage.
Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger.