The co-founder of TheFederalist.com announced Tuesday afternoon on Twitter that a public spokesman for the Secret Service would not confirm a Daily Mail report claiming to quote a Secret Service agent present at the time of Corey Lewandowski’s alleged assault against Michelle Fields.
The Daily Mail is one of the largest English-language newspapers in the world — boasting in 2012 that it was the biggest. According to Internet analytics firm ComScore, the Mail Online ranked within the Top 50 U.S. Digital Media Properties in January and February 2016. TheFederalist.com is currently struggling to crack the top 10,000 websites in the world — and the top 2,000 in the U.S., according to traffic estimates from Alexa.
A Federalist contributor called out David Martosko — the author of the Daily Mail story — on Twitter, hitting him with Serious Questions about his reporting.
These Twitter posts have not yet been adapted to an article at TheFederalist.com. According to the site’s Wikipedia stub, TheFederalist.com “has ‘a viewpoint that rejects the assumptions of the media establishment’ and says it is dedicated to discussing ‘the philosophical underpinnings of the day’s debate’ instead of focusing on what [a co-founder] calls ‘the horserace or the personalities.'” This information may not meet its editorial guidelines.
Martosko’s report states that a Secret Service agent in Trump’s security detail, “speaking on condition of anonymity… told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that Fields touched Trump twice – and was warned by agents to stop – before Lewandowski pulled her away. ‘She crossed in between agents and our protectee after being told not to,’ said the agent, who was present that night in Jupiter.”
Sean Davis, the Twitter pundit and co-founder/contributor to TheFederalist.com, challenged the trustworthiness of this account, citing an official Secret Service spokesman who insisted the agency would not make any statement on the incident.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/714911201491361792
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/714911626143604737
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/714911994403557377
Davis challenged Martosko on Twitter to name the agent.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/714915084456341504
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/714915786356338689
Martosko replied that he would protect the anonymity he promised to his source — and that the agency did not speak for that individual.
https://twitter.com/dmartosko/status/714915462367285248
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