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Monday, September 25, 2017

MEDIA MONDAY / MORE STUFF YOU CAN’T MAKE UP


BELTWAY BLATHER
Here’s an example of an insider D.C. story any journalist would love to have written. It opens like a version of an old joke: Two White House lawyers walk into a restaurant.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/09/18/trump-lawyers-spill-beans-after-terrible-restaurant-choice-next-to-nyt/?utm_term=.55d203023bcf

Sitting next to the Administration mouthpieces was Ken Vogel, a terrific investigative reporter how recently moved from Politico to the Washington bureau of the New York Times.

To get things straight the article is written about Ken Vogel’s eavesdropping.  It was written by Fred Barbash in one of his Morning Mix columns for the Washington Post.

Here’s a snippet from Barbash’s column:
         “...Sitting at the next table, according to the Times, was Kenneth Vogel, one of Washington’s most skillful investigative reporters.Vogel is a former reporter for    Politico, which is based in Virginia, who arrived at the Times just in time for the Russia investigation and, as it turned out, just in time for lunch.
        
         Vogel overheard the lawyers talking about White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II and Jared Kushner, president Trump’s son-in-law, as well as the infamous Trump Tower meeting. Here’s a sample from the   article bearing the bylines of Vogel and Peter Baker:
         [From Vogel’s article]: Mr. Cobb was heard talking about a White House lawyer he deemed  “a McGahn spy” and saying Mr. McGahn had “a couple documents locked in a  safe” that he seemed to suggest he wanted access to. He also mentioned a colleague whom he blamed for “some of   these earlier leaks,” and who he said, “tried to push Jared out …”
         [More Vogel:] The White House Counsel’s Office is being very conservative with this stuff,” Mr. Cobb told Mr. Dowd. “Our view is we’re not hiding anything.” (But in) Referring to Mr. McGahn, he added, “He’s got a couple documents  locked in a safe.”
         … Mr. Cobb also discussed the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and the White House’s response to it — saying that “there was no perception that there was an exchange...” [End Vogel].
Like we said it’s hard to make up any of this—but then again it is Washington DC.

Ken Vogel

[From Wikipedia]: Kenneth Vogel is an American journalist. He was the chief investigative reporter at Politico, since its founding in 2007. In June 2017, he joined the Washington Bureau of The New York Times as a reporter covering conflict of interest issues, lobbying and money in politics. He is also the author of Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp–on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics. Vogel's writing often focuses on money in politics. As part of his work, he focuses on political fundraising with particular emphasis on the political activities of the Koch brothers.




Fred Barbash, the editor of Morning Mix, is a former National Editor and London Bureau Chief for the Washington Post.  Follow @fbarbash

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