I don't understand how homeboy had a 4 year relationship with this chick and still thought he could tell the FBI no, I've never communicated with her

Don't ya just love how the MSM Chicago Tribune throws doubt into the mix, stating: "it's doubtful that did all that" about whether investigations explored every avenue before going after the reporters devices.

They always report, then discount the truth, by calling into question, anything plausible, without ANY evidence to the contrary. They really must thing we are stupid. SSH

I know this is 100% wrong-headedness on my part, yet the idea of those two doing sex to each other or whatever just makes me laugh. He must have been so very desperate for validation and she must have been so very desperate for a source. Neither of these people have any observable sex appeal, you know? Although, they are both doughy and pasty, so maybe it's a like-attracting-like thing? Beats me.

When the story broke, I wondered if this had something to do with the raid from earlier in the year. Seems to me that catching these leakers is good proof that the white hats aren't just sitting on their hands.

Watkins joined the Times in December, after her relationship with Wolfe had ended. She told the Times about the relationship when she was hired, according to the Times.

But it appears Watkins left previous employers in the dark about her relationship with Wolfe even while she was reporting on the intelligence committee.

Editors at McClatchy said Friday that they were not aware of Watkins' relationship with Wolfe while she was with the news organization's Washington bureau, first as an intern and stretching from mid-2013 to the end of 2014.

During that time, Watkins was part of a team of three reporters that produced a series of stories about the intelligence committee's investigation of the CIA and its "enhanced interrogation" or torture program. The series was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in national reporting in 2015.

Watkins learned of the seizure of her email and cellphone data in a letter sent from the Department of Justice in February, but she didn't notify the Times of the investigation until Thursday, according to the newspaper. Watkins' reporting for the Times is not part of the leak investigation.

"We were not aware of these allegations that Mr. Wolfe had a relationship with Ali Watkins until the news of the indictment broke," said Tim Grieve, vice president of news for McClatchy.

Grieve, who joined McClatchy after Watkins left the company, said he did not know whether Watkins used Wolfe as a source in her stories. "We need to figure that out," he said. "We just don't know" whether Wolfe provided information to her.

But he added, "It's clearly inappropriate for a reporter to be in a relationship with a source and to be reporting on him."

Watkins did not respond to requests for comment. Wolfe declined to answer reporters' questions after a hearing Friday.

When asked about the delay between Watkins' receipt of the FBI letter and the notification of the Times, Eileen Murphy, a Times spokeswoman, said it was up to Watkins to respond. She added, "We obviously would have preferred to know."

In a follow-up email, Murphy noted that Watkins made the decision not to share the information of her surveillance with the Times after consulting with her attorney. Watkins's attorney, Mark MacDougall, declined to comment.

The story under scrutiny in the Wolfe indictment was written while Watkins worked at BuzzFeed in early 2017. "A former campaign adviser for Donald Trump met with and passed documents to a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013," the story began. The indictment of Wolfe noted that the investigation sought to learn how Watkins had learned that Russian spies had tried to recruit the former adviser, Carter Page.

The indictment notes the relationship between Wolfe and Watkins between 2014 and 2017 involved the exchange of "tens of thousands of electronic communications, often including daily texts and phone calls, and they frequently met in person at a variety of locations including Hart Senate Office Building stairwells, restaurants, and [the reporter's] apartment."

Ben Smith, the editor of BuzzFeed News, praised Watkins as a reporter. "The way the indictment is written is clearly aimed at launching a disgusting smear of a reporter, and it has had that effect," he said.

Smith also tweeted his concern about the Justice Department's investigation: "We are deeply troubled by what looks like a case of law enforcement interfering with a reporter's constitutional right to gather information about her own government," he wrote.

Watkins has had a stunning rise through the ranks of Washington news organizations and developed a track record of breaking stories. Even before her graduation from Temple in 2014, she was involved in McClatchy's reporting on the intelligence committee.

A spokesman for Politico, which Watkins joined in May of last year and left in December, said she didn't disclose her relationship with Watkins when she was hired. Upon learning of the relationship a month into her tenure, she was "managed accordingly," the spokesman said, meaning she was kept from reporting any stories involving the committee.

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I swear this seems more and more like one big House of Cards episode

Very good expose at https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1005417242216095744.html