was trying to hurt hillary clinton s chances, trying to help the trump campaign? no, not at all, far from it. in fact matt didn t really have a dog in that fight. peter smith contacted matt, as he told this to me and is now clear from the facts coming out, because he was aware of that matt, who has quite a twitter following, actually, had been commenting during the release of under the freedom of information act of hillary clinton s e-mails from her server and commenting on the what the makeup of that server might have been, peter smith sought him out. i think peter smith may have assumed to some degree, based on my reporting, that matt was sort of allied in this idea with peter smith of exposing hillary clinton. but clearly that was not the case and ultimately matt tate did not go forward with peter smith in this effort that he tried to recruit him for to get these e-mails from russian hackers. and shane, in your reporting, you re very clear about the fact
he knew mike flynn. that is not in dispute. they were in communications or understanding. whether it was about this particular thing i think is still a matter for more reporting. kellyanne conway told us she had known peter smith but hadn t seen him in some time. matt came away with this impression after several conversations with peter smith that he was holding himself out as someone involved in the campaign. we want to be very careful in our own reporting that we re just saying as much as we know at this point, and that was very much matt s depression at the time. i think the idea that somehow peter smith was some completely unknown entity to people in the trump campaign doesn t really hold up. i thought it was very notable that a trump campaign official told us for our first story that if peter smith was engaged with general flynn in some kind of coordination, that was something that general flynn was doing on his own as a private citizen. i m not sure where the campaign draws that
still a matter for more reporting. kellyanne conway told us she had known peter smith but hadn t seen him in some time. matt came away with this impression after several conversations with peter smith that he was holding himself out as someone involved in the campaign. we want to be very careful in our own reporting that we re just saying as much as we know at this point, and that was very much matt s impression at the time. i think the idea that somehow peter smith was some completely unknown entity to people in the trump campaign doesn t really hold up. i thought it was very notable that a trump campaign official told us for our first story that if peter smith was engaged with general flynn in some kind of coordination, that was something that general flynn was doing on his own as a private citizen. i m not sure where the campaign draws that distinction between when he s on campaign time and when he s on private time. but it was very notable that they did not come out and say that th
had partisan leanings in our election. is it your sense that he might have been involved in this, to the extent he was, because he was trying to hurt hillary clinton s chances, trying to help the trump campaign? no, not at all, far from it. in fact matt didn t really have a dog in that fight. peter smith contacted matt, as he told this to me and is now clear from the facts coming out, because he was aware of that matt, who has quite a twitter fo following, actually, had been commenting during the release of hillary clinton s e-mails from her server and commenting on the what the makeup of that server might have been, peter smith sought him out. i think peter smith may have assumed to some degree, based on my reporting, that matt was sort of allied in this idea with peter smith of supposing hillary clinton. but clearly that was not the case and ultimately matt tate did not go forward with peter smith in this effort that he tried to recruit him for to get