The Daily Caller’s Saagar Enjeti and Joe Simonson published an intrepid piece of reporting early Friday morning exposing CNN’s fishy hiring of former James Comey flack and 10-year-agent Josh Campbell as its latest “law enforcement analyst” to defend the FBI from Republican criticism.
Citing a source, the pair reported that “Comey had a direct hand in securing [Campbell’s] CNN position in return for an exclusive interview” and that Campbell led up to this by appearing at Comey’s much-publicized hearing and published columns in The New York Times and USA Today defending Comey and the FBI.
In typical CNN fashion, they frequently hound Fox News night and day over every perceived or real controversy but they didn’t have the gall to respond to the Daily Caller’s questions. But Facts First...or something.
Enjeti and Simonson began by noting that the former Comey assistant’s hiring “disturbs veteran members of the bureau” and that their relationship “have raised a number of questions from these agents over the propriety of Campbell’s new job” with one 26-year veteran telling them that “something smells so bad about this whole thing.”
The fact that Campbell only worked at the FBI for 10 years calls into question whether he possessed any true “field knowledge to accurately represent the bureau” and that’s bolstered by the fact that his last post was “a media relations role out of the Los Angeles field office.”
Campbell quit on January 29 with a farewell party that included a flyer explaining that he would “defend the bureau” on CNN.
Enjeti and Simonson later noted that Campbell “deleted his personal website, which included numerous photos of himself with Comey,” including “a photo of himself sitting behind the director” at his June 8, 2017 hearing that he attended with “future CNN colleague and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.”
Despite his biography, the Daily Caller noted that sources “greatly dispute[d] this characterization” that Campbell painted of himself since he “did the minimal amount of time he could before retiring.”
Along with public criticism on his LinkedIn page, Campbell built up to his CNN hiring with a cryptic New Years Eve tweet about his future and other moves such as “liking” a video related to their pathetic “Facts First” campaign.
“Both Campbell’s presence at the Comey hearing and much of his social media activity occurred while he was still an employee at the bureau...It remains unclear why he attended his former bosses’ hearing while an active agent,” Enjeti and Simonson added before summarizing his two columns that somehow were published despite his relatively short tenure.
They continued:
Given Campbell’s inexperience at the FBI and relatively young age of 34, a DCNF source with close ties to the FBI alleges that Comey had a direct hand in securing his new CNN position in return for an exclusive interview. A Fox News report published Wednesday alleges a similar type of deal between the parties.
CNN has not disclosed Campbell’s previous history with Comey, nor did it respond to several requests for comment from TheDCNF.
(....)
As TheDCNF reported earlier this week, CNN has repeatedly relied on anonymous sourcing within the FBI for its stories.
The former agents who spoke to TheDCNF expressed bewilderment that an active agent would so nakedly share his relationship with a news outlet, with the most conspicuous example being his party flyer showing him sitting in a CNN studio.
