Judicial Watch (JW) just received 143 pages of documents from the Department of Defense. Pentagon’s Director of the Office of Net Assessment James Baker and Washington Post reporter David Ignatius.
David Ignatius is the Washington Post writer who published the story containing the transcript of the phone call between Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
JW now says they are fairly positive that the person who leaked the story to Ignatius was Pentagon official James H. Baker (not to be mistaken for FBI lawyer James A. Baker).
JW’s Tom Fitton said:
“These records confirm that Mr. Baker was an anonymous source for Mr. Ignatius. Mr. Baker should be directly questioned about any and all leaks to his friend at the Washington Post.”
BREAKING: Deep State Leaker to Washington Post Exposed @GenFlynn @SidneyPowell1 https://t.co/gswbeu4BuQ https://t.co/EEGbJNBdZh
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) May 4, 2020
Via Judicial Watch:
Judicial Watch released 143 pages of new records today from the U.S. Department of Defense, showing extensive communications between the Pentagon’s Director of the Office of Net Assessment James Baker and Washington Post reporter David Ignatius.
Lawyers for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn alleged in a November 1, 2019, court filing that Baker “is believed to be the person who illegally leaked” to Ignatius the transcripts of Flynn’s December 29, 2016, telephone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
The Washington Post published Ignatius’ account of the calls on January 12, 2017, setting in motion a chain of events that lead to Flynn’s February 13, 2017, firing as National Security Advisor and subsequent prosecution for making false statements to the FBI about the calls.
U.S. Attorney John Durham is reportedly investigating the leak of information targeting Flynn.
In an email exchange on October 1, 2018, in a discussion about artificial intelligence, Baker tells Ignatius: “David, please, as always, our discussions are completely off the record.
If any of my observations strike you as worthy of mixing or folding into your own thinking, that is as usual fine.” Ignatius replies, “Understood. Thanks for talking with me.”
Ignatius and Baker’s email exchanges per year are summarized below:
- In 2015, Ignatius and Baker had a total of seven email conversations to set up meetings or calls, two simply to compliment one another and one exchange where Ignatius invited Baker to speak at the Aspen Strategy Group conference.
- In 2016, Ignatius and Baker had a total of 10 email exchanges to set up meetings or calls and two to compliment each other.
- In 2017, Ignatius and Baker had a total of 10 email exchanges to set up meetings, one exchange where Ignatius forwarded one of his articles, and one exchange where Ignatius asks Baker for his thoughts on the JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal), because Baker wasn’t available on the phone.
- In 2018, Ignatius and Baker had a total of nine email exchanges to set up meetings, four where Ignatius forwarded articles and one where Ignatius asks Baker for tips on what to say at a quantum computing conference where he was speaking.
