New York Times Washington Editor Jonathan Weisman was forced to retract a tweet Thursday after he insinuated Attorney General Jeff Sessions was corrupt.
Weisman asserted that former FBI Director James Comey testified Sessions asked him directly to call the Russia probe “a matter.” The only problem was the director testified that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch approached him with that request over the Clinton investigation, according to The Washington Times.
(Comey was actually talking about Loretta Lynch and the Clinton investigation) https://t.co/4Nbf21qsoL pic.twitter.com/kNG9SoXc2g
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 8, 2017
“At one point the attorney general directed me not to call it an ‘investigation’ but instead to call it a ‘matter,’ which confused me and concerned me,” Comey said about Lynch during his testimony in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “That was one of the bricks in the load that leads me to conclude I have to step away from the department if we are to close this case credibly.”
The director went on to add that the language suggested by the former attorney general mirrored that of the Clinton campaign during the 2016 election, leading him to believe that Lynch shouldn’t be a part of the investigation.
Washington Free Beacon reporter Alex Griswold caught Weisman’s mistake, reminding the editor of the highly influential New York Times that the statement was made about Lynch, not Sessions.
Griswold asserted that the editor privately apologized before deleting the tweet.
An honest mistake and he apologized, but funny how we can all manage to mishear so badly– and hear exactly what we want to hear.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 8, 2017
Weisman’s tweet no longer appears on his Twitter page, but he sent another tweet shortly after noon in which he reported the news that the request came from Lynch. The tweet makes no mention of his previous mix-up.
James Comey on Obama Atty. Gen. Lynch telling him email probe was to be called a matter, not an investigation: pic.twitter.com/l7fsfbipLs
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) June 8, 2017
Weisman didn’t immediately return a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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