NPR uses Jeb! Bush supporter as source for latest Hillary Clinton email story
In the August 19 article, NPR extensively quoted Ron Hosko, who was identified only as previously leading "the FBI's criminal investigative division." Hosko suggested that emails which were sent to Clinton—and which have since been retroactively classified in an interagency dispute over classification levels—might represent "serious breaches of national security" […]Hayden isn't just a Jeb! advisor, he's the guy who was in charge of the NSA during the Bush/Cheney administration's warrantless wiretapping program. When you want a source to talk about "putting legality aside," he's your man. Or anyway, the Bushes' man. Do the Clinton Rules also include not having to identify when the sources you are using for your dubious stories are blindingly partisan?NPR did not mention that Hosko is currently the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF), a right-wing non-profit that claims to defend police officers fighting criminal charges, but which has come under scrutiny for financial ties to other conservative groups, such as the Federalist Society and the American Spectator. The chairman of LELDF is Alfred Regnery, the former president of conservative publisher Regnery Publishing, whileboard members include Ken Cuccinelli, the former Republican nominee for governor of Virginia; J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican politician and senior fellow at the Family Research Council; and Edwin Meese III, a former Reagan administration official who reportedly helped orchestrate the devastating 2013 government shutdown. […]
The NPR article also cited an interview that former NSA Director Michael Hayden gave on MSNBC's Morning Joe, where Hayden said about Clinton's email use: "Put legality aside for just a second, it's stupid and dangerous."
But NPR failed to note that Hayden is not just a former NSA director; he works as an adviser to Jeb Bush's presidential campaign.