Fact check: The Hill, Washington Examiner, and CNN removed, replaced, or added content to FBI Director Wray’s statement that to date Russia has not targeted US “election infrastructure.” Meaning Russia didn’t “hack our election” in 2016

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Following are examples of three media outlets changing a statement made by FBI Director Wray on 7/18/18. The outlets are The Hill, Washington Examiner, and CNN:

FBI Director Wray at 7/18/18 Aspen Institute said Russia hasn’t yet broken into US election infrastructure. (Definition of “election infrastructure,“ posted below). 

Wray’s actual words: Wray: “We haven’t yet seen an effort to target specific election infrastructure at this time.”…(Remarks leading up to Wray’s “election infrastructure” reference begin at 8:54 on 7/18/18 Aspen Institute video) 

7/27/18 article from The Hill changes Wray’s statement but still puts quote marks around it. The Hill has removed one word, the word “at” which in this case makes a big difference. Instead of Wray’s “at this time,” we see The Hill’s “this time:"

The Hill’s altered version: Wray: “We haven’t seen yet an effort to target specific election infrastructure this time.“…(3rd parag. from end of article) 

Wray’s actual words: Wray: “We haven’t yet seen an effort to target specific election infrastructure at this time.”… 

The Hill’s phrase “this time” implies there had been “another” time, in this case, 2016 and the multi-billion dollar Russiagate industry. Wray simply says “at this time” he hasn’t yet seen Russian efforts. “At this time” meaning, “to this point in time,” “to this date,” or “up to this point in time.” Meaning Russia “hacking” so far hasn’t happened. Russia didn’t “hack” our election. Mr. Wray certainly knew the world was hanging on every word he said. He broke the news in a way that wouldn’t crash the stock market, that would be ignored by most people, but would be there for the record. 

A Washington Examiner 7/18/18 article took a step similar to The Hill’s in “quoting” Wray’s statement. As The Hill did, they removed the word “at” and kept the quote marks around their altered version of Wray’s statement. Washington Examiner went further than The Hill and made an additional change. They removed the word “yet” and replaced it with “quite”: 

Washington Examiner’s altered version of Wray’s statement in quotes, 7/18/18: Wray: “We haven’t quite seen an effort to target specific infrastructure this time.”… 

Wray actually said: “We haven’t yet seen an effort to target specific election infrastructure at this time.”…
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CNN was in such a panic about Wray’s statement that it felt compelled to invent additional content about “Russians” to protect the Russiagate industry of which it’s a part. CNN’s version adds “as they did in 2016,” “they” meaning “the Russians.” CNN also removes the word “yet,” and the phrase “at this time,” from Wray’s 7/18/18 statement. CNN’s presents Wray’s alleged statement as part of their narrative, ie, they didn’t put quotes around it: 

CNN altered version: “Wray said that the intelligence community has not observed an effort by Russia to target specific election infrastructure as they did in 2016.” 

Wray’s actual statement: “We haven’t yet seen an effort to target specific election infrastructure at this time.”… 

Wray did not say “as they did in 2016” or anything like it. Mr. Wray said no Russian efforts had yet taken place against US infrastructure. Meaning, no efforts took place before 2016 and none have taken place to date since 2016. Meaning, Russia “hacking our election” never happened. The multi-billion dollar Russiagate industry is technically out of business. 

Sources: 

7/27/18, “Trump huddles with top officials on election security,” The Hill, Morgan Chalfont 

7/18/18, “FBI chief Christopher Wray: Russia still engaging in ‘malign influence’ election meddling,” Washington Examiner, Naomi Lim 

7/18/18, “Trump’s FBI Director says Russia continues to target the US –to this day,” from CNN’s David Shortell 

(These must be examples of the “free and fair press” you hear about. They’re “free” to make up whatever they think is “fair” to them.)
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Definition of “election infrastructure,“ per former DHS Chairman Jeh Johnson: 

“By “election infrastructure,” we mean storage facilities, polling places, and centralized vote tabulations locations used to support the election process, and information and communications technology to include voter registration databases, voting machines, and other systems to manage the election process and report and display results on behalf of state and local governments.”
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Added: Setting and context: Wray remarks above begin at approximately 8:54 on 7/18/18 Aspen Institute video. FBI Director Christopher Wray at Aspen Institute was asked by NBC’s Lester Holt about alleged Russian meddling in US elections. Mr. Wray’s reply made a point of differentiating activities that might be termed “meddling.” He separated US election infrastructure from general propaganda Russia and others have been known to use for the purpose of being divisive. Of the former, election infrastructure, Mr. Wray said, “we haven’t yet seen” Russian efforts to target US election infrastructure [definition of “election infrastructure“ posted above]. On the latter group of activities, not involving election infrastructure, Wray says Russia did attempt to create divisiveness in the past and will continue to do so. Remarks leading up to “election infrastructure” reference begin at 8:54 on 7/18/18 Aspen Institute video. Again, Wray’s actual words from the video: Wray: “We haven’t yet seen an effort to target specific election infrastructure at this time.”…





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