Durham Annex Shows How Press Tried To Save Hillary In 2016 

Every parasite needs a host. Ticks need dogs, tapeworms need fat Victorian chicks, and Democrats need the propaganda press.

The clues for how the propaganda machine was set in motion to benefit Hillary Clinton’s scandal-ridden 2016 campaign are found in the declassified “Durham Annex,” released to the public Thursday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

The formula for selling the public on a campaign lie — in this case, that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to harm Clinton’s campaign — is simple. First, there must be a reason to change the current narrative; second, the messaging must generate interest; and third, the media and the candidate must repeat it with conviction.

The Motivation

Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president was a desperate mess by July 2016.

Democrats received a black eye when the public learned that leaked, internal emails of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) revealed the party “plotted to destroy Bernie Sanders’ presidential ambitions in favor of their preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton,” as the Federalist’s Margot Cleveland previously reported.

It was an embarrassment for Clinton (because it looked like cheating) and the DNC (Because it is supposed to be neutral toward candidates.)

The DNC commissioned a report on the incident from a cyber security company, CrowdStrike, which concluded the DNC’s email was hacked by the Russians.

Then on July 5, former FBI Director James Comey released damaging information about Clinton using a personal email server in her home while she was secretary of state. With it, Clinton mishandled classified, top secret information, Comey said in an astonishing press conference where he also announced he would not charge Clinton for the major national security breach.

The Durham Annex shows that President Barack Obama, DNC leadership, and Clinton were all looking for a way to change the narrative.

The Messaging

The Durham Annex references a memo in which Julianne Smith, one of Clinton’s foreign policy advisors, said Clinton approved a plan to “smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal by the Russian special services…” Essentially, they planned to say the Russians wanted to help Trump win, hoping this story would allow Democrats to “divert the constituents’ attention from the investigation of Clinton’s compromised electronic correspondence.”

At this time (July 2016), Julianne Smith also worked at the Center for New American Security (CNAS) a wealthy, left-leaning think tank with a stable of high profile writers in residence, including from the Washington Post and the New York Times. With in-house relationships like that, it must be easy to move concepts such as the Clinton-approved Trump smear from idea to news flow. Perhaps that is what happened. Somehow, around this time, the propaganda press was flooded with the very spin Smith allegedly envisioned, and Clinton approved.

The memo is mentioned in two emails dated July 25 and July 27 from Leonard Benardo, who was Regional Director for Eurasia at Open Society Foundation, the well-known, far left foundation founded by George Soros that funds like-minded nonprofits. Benardo was overseeing efforts relating to Russia in 2016. Due to redactions, it is not clear who the emails were sent to, but journalists might view the similarly worded emails as propaganda pitches which are used to convince reporters to write about an issue, although the emails could also be analysis of news coverage and political predictions.  

The Media

While the Clinton camp was thinking about messaging, an unnamed Clinton foreign policy advisor noticed Franklin Foer’s July 4, 2016, hit piece in Slate calling Trump Putin’s puppet, the Durham Annex indicated. On July 5, the advisor praised Foer’s piece in an email, “We’re looking for ways to build on Franklin Foer’s great (and scary) Piece on Trump and Russia.”

Foer put out another Slate piece July 21, 2016, promoting the concept of a closeness between Trump and Putin.

The Democratic National Convention happened around the same time, July 25-28. Clinton gave her acceptance speech on the last night. As if by magic, the Sunday before the convention the propaganda press was suddenly producing perfectly timed stories with the very propaganda Clinton approved.

Politico’s Jeremy Herb reported that Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook said on CNN’s State of the Union that Russia leaked the DNC’s email to help Trump. Jessie Hellmann had the same storyline for The Hill, and the coverage spirals from there.

Either Vice got advance propaganda to prepare a complicated Trump hit-piece and pull the trigger on it at midnight, July 25, or writer Thomas Rid and some poor editor worked very hard on Sunday to get precisely the right message out on the first day of the DNC. It is worth noting that Rid, who worked at  King’s College London at that time, has connections to CNAS.   

By July 27, The New York Times was twisting Trump’s campaign joke into sinister proof that Trump is “urging a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage,” against Clinton.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump had said. But the humorless New York Times managed to stay on the Clinton-approved messaging that Trump was friendly with Russia.

Clinton reinforced the narrative again in the Sept. 27 debate, ridiculously bluffing that she was “so shocked when Donald publicly invited Putin to hack into Americans [computers].”

This Russia collusion hoax material shows how international propaganda, crafted by the Clinton campaign, nursed by Obama, and fed to the press, set in motion years of consequences.

And it is not over. The press that lied to you is not about to back off based on information in the Durham Annex. Instead it is in denial or looking for a new spin.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.