Former Obama Adviser Slams Fox News For Maria Bartiromo’s ‘Conspiracy Theory’ About FBI Spying on Trump Campaign

By Aidan McLaughlinMay 20th, 2018, 3:32 pm
 

Ever since a New York Times report revealed that the FBI had an informant speak to affiliates of Donald Trump‘s 2016 campaign, the president’s allies in the media have sounded the alarm, floating theories that the Obama administration targeted the Republican candidate with a “spy.”

The Times report revealed the FBI launched an incredibly secretive investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016 and used an informant to contact four members of the campaign, including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. Critics of the investigation have argued it was evidence the FBI spied on the Trump campaign with the malicious intent of setting then-candidate Trump.

Trump himself is fond of this narrative, though his lawyer Rudy Giuliani admitted this week that he nor the president had any evidence the FBI targeted the campaign with a spy.

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo ran with an iteration of the theory on Fox & Friends Sunday morning, based off a Wall Street Journal op-ed that connected the dots to put forward one of the more strident theories about the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign.

“It sounds like either President Obama or Hillary Clinton were sort of masterminding all of this,” Bartiromo said.

Eric Schultz, a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama, decried Fox News for touting Bartiromo’s comments in a tweet.

“Fox News using its official online channels to promote conspiracy theory voiced by Fox News anchor,” Schultz wrote.

Watch the segment above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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Aidan McLaughlin - Editor in Chief

Aidan McLaughlin is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Send tips via email: aidan@mediaite.com. Ask for Signal. Follow him on Twitter: @aidnmclaughlin