I feel like we’ve been here before.

A few days ago, RedState reported on another “bombshell” story in The New York Times. With the former anti-Trump narratives in tatters and impeachment showing itself to be a total failure, it was time to drag the battery charger out to old faithful and give her a jump. That means brewing up some new Russia hoax nonsense, because why not?

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.

its been over a year and still…… pic.twitter.com/sZrl7jDzk1

— SolSec🎬 (@Solmemes1) June 24, 2018

That report was laughable on its face. Why would Russia prefer Trump to any of the fairly left-wing Democrats currently in play? Heck, the Democratic frontrunner right now is a communist. Last I checked, the Russians are kind of fans of that stuff. Further, it’s beyond argument that Trump has been harder on Russia than Obama ever was and certainly more so than Bernie Sanders will be if elected. Even indirectly, Sanders’ policy platform of banning fracking stands to hand Russia a massive new chunk of the energy market, never mind his foreign policy positions that would cede influence to Putin.

Regardless, as with all “bombshells” from the paper of record, you usually just have to give them a day or so before they start to fall apart. Being a direct conduit for #resistance bureaucrats tends to lead to issues with sourcing. Right on cue, the collapse first starting with a report from Jake Tapper (although the completely unbiased newsman still got his shots in).

Now, the report has basically burned to the ground, as new information shows that Shelby Pierson, the official giving the intel briefing, essentially went rogue. This is from today.

US Intel official Shelby Pierson appears to have overstated the Intel community's assessment of 2020 Russian interference, omitting important nuance during a briefing with lawmakers, 3 national security officials tell me, @jaketapper & @ZcohenCNN https://t.co/WVs9ZnH3DT

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) February 23, 2020

The intel community has assessed Russia is interfering in the 2020 election & has separately assessed that Russia views Trump as a leader they can work with.
But the US doesn't have evidence that Russia's interference this cycle is aimed at reelecting Trump, the officials said. https://t.co/OQKaj2IJE0

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) February 23, 2020

No evidence you say? Who could have foreseen this? I mean, it’s not like our intel agencies have interfered in our elections by making up nefarious Russia conspiracy theories before or something.

So not only did DNI official Shelby Pierson brief inaccurate information to Congress, someone involved in that briefing leaked that inaccurate information to NYT.

This feels like Comey's dossier briefing to Trump on Jan. 6, 2017. https://t.co/2XK0r1s0Kf

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 23, 2020

Ross makes a good comparison. This feels exactly like the setup briefing that Comey delivered to Trump before his inauguration. That briefing was then leaked directly to CNN, likely by James Clapper, which then provided the hook to start all kinds of crazy reporting about Trump and Russia. While it wasn’t the genesis of all wrongdoing by the FBI and CIA on the issue, it was their way of forcing the matter into the public eye.

No worries though, even as CNN’s own reporting has blown up the Times report, their chyron operator is still on his game.

This is CNN's chyron a couple minutes ago.

Over an hour ago they broke a story that an intel community briefer overstated the intelligence that Russia is actively trying to help Trump. pic.twitter.com/ipkkijS59x

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 23, 2020

How biased does a network have to be that they’d punt on their own newer reporting to continue parroting a false story from a rival media outlet four days old? CNN knows the answer I guess.

Meanwhile, Fusion GPS mouthpiece Natasha Bertrand is busy trying to revive the story.

The narrative rehabilitation effort has begun pic.twitter.com/y4L6RXlEMi

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 23, 2020

The best part about her tweet is that her sources have absolutely no connection to the story at all. She’s literally asking random former bureaucrats their opinion and reporting it as news. That’s journalism in 2020.

What really happened here is obvious. Shelby Pierson is a partisan with an agenda. She overstepped her bounds here to plant a narrative, knowing that Adam Schiff would run and leak it immediately after the briefing ended. This is the same old playbook we’ve seen over and over since Trump entered the fray. The only difference now is that the American people are wise to the games being played.

Richard Grenell needs to clean house as new acting DNI. Enough is enough.