My last diary pointed out an error in Louise Mensch’s blog.
Louise Mensch, not a journalist
That is not the work of a journalist. A journalist wouldn’t say “I have independently verified that these cases do exist.” A journalist would say “Two cases that fit the description of these cases exist in the EDVA, I found through my own independent research.”
I agree that it’s important that dailykos has accurate information. If Mensch was not working as a journalist I would give her a pass. For example, Claude Taylor does not claim to be a journalist and has said that he will make mistakes (and has). But Mensch claims both to be a journalist and have a 100% correct reporting rate on her blog. Both need to be called out, and because of those claims I should not have reposted her information here at dkos.
Today she is pointing out on Twitter that there was no error in her blog, that the TrumpRussia cases she described were in fact filed on April 17, 2017. However, she doesn’t get that when writing as a journalist, accuracy matters. She tried to find the case numbers herself back in May with some online searching. She got the case numbers wrong, but reported them as the correct cases even though they were completely based on guesswork.
Mensch responded to me on Twitter this morning when I pointed out her error. I then signed up for PACER to check case numbers for myself, and I did find one of the actual court cases her leak was referring to, regarding Babak Safavi. Case number in PACER: 1:17-cr-00085-LMB. It was filed the day she said it was, April 17th in EDVA as she reported, but details matter in journalism. In addition, it was a simple possession of a firearm case, not a RICO case. I will give her a pass on that one—if this guy is indeed up to his eyeballs in TrumpRussia and Mitch McConnell as she says, he could have been brought in on a lesser charge.
And I’m guessing the SDNY case number is 1:17-cr-00231-GBD, a criminal money-laundering case filed April 17th, but I am very likely wrong about that. USA vs. Alphanso Downie. The other criminal cases filed that day in that court seem to be related to narcotics and illegal immigration. Although it might be narcotics if Foremost Maritime is involved with that.
Trump transportation secretary's family caught in drugs trafficking investigation
I know I said I wouldn’t post another Mensch diary unless we end up with President Hatch or Mattis, but since this info directly pertained to my last diary, I thought I would post it as an addendum, will add update to original diary with link to this one.