Jared Kushner pressured Washington Post to fire editor over Russia, book says

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Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, tried to persuade the Washington Post publisher to fire its editor for covering the Russia investigation, editor Marty Baron writes in his new book. “Without delay or pause during four years as president, Trump and his team went after the Post and anyone in the media who would not bend to wishes,” Baron writes. “In December 2019, Kushner would lean on [Fred] Ryan to withdraw his support for me and our Russia investigation. “… ‘He’s trying to get me fired,’ I told Ryan.” Baron’s book, Power Clash Trump, Bezos and the Washington Post, will be published next Tuesday. The book comes amid Trump’s new attacks on the press. Last week, former president became a leading figure in the Republican Party and vowed to file a lawsuit against Comcast, which owns MSNBC and NBC, for “treason that threatens country.” The Post won Pulitzer Prize for its reporting covering investigation into Russia’s interference in 2016 election and connections between Trump and Moscow. At end of that investigation, in the spring of 2019, special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, did not blame Trump or say he colluded with Russia. But Mueller laid out extensive evidence obstruction of justice by Trump secured multiple indictments and convictions Trump aides allies. Trump sought acquittal, which Mueller did not offer, and called for awards for Russia reporting to be rescinded; Calls rejected by the Pulitzer board. Baron now writes Kushner suggested the Post issue an apology and ‘some sort of reckoning’; He himself once said that he made big mistake in standing next to a former editor and former editor of the New York Observer. stories from the time he owned the publication. Kushner’s intentions were clear to me. “He’s aiming to get me fired,” I told Ryan. Post did not apologize. The baron was not expelled. He retired 2021 after stellar career that included a Boston Globe investigation into sexual abuse in Catholic church, which won Pulitzer Prize and became the Oscar-winning film Spotlight, which Baron was portrayed by Liev Schreiber. The first excerpt of Collision of Power was published by the Atlantic. Although Baron says his book is “definitely not a memoir,” the excerpt describes a “secret” dinner Trump hosted early in his presidency for Jeff Bezos, Baron, Ryan, and fellow editor Fred Hiatt of Amazon, which owns the Post. This night Congressional Baseball Game on June 15, 2017; Although Steve Scalise, a Louisiana native who Republican leader of House Representatives and a Trump supporter and fighting for his life at time, shot during his practice, Trump chose not to attend. Trump opted to cover the game by video and dine with reporters instead. Although the decision was based on “security reasons,” Baron writes, “the president’s would not have been enhanced if the public had known that, at such an alarming moment, he was choosing to spend his time with precisely these types of media people.” It

On September 27, 2023 By Cathy Daniels

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