Breitbart Editor Explains His Wiretapping Story

Joel Pollak wrote piece after hearing radio's Mark Levin lay out theory
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 16, 2017 12:48 PM CDT

As the Trump wiretapping hubbub continues to hover, NBC's Chuck Todd has offered some insight on where the president may have come up with his theory. On Wednesday's Meet the Press Daily, Todd chatted with Breitbart News editor Joel Pollak, author of a connect-the-dots piece on the site that many believe prompted Trump to go all in on the wiretap premise. Pollak told Todd that he was "washing dishes" one night while listening to conservative radio host Mark Levin, and Levin put together various pieces that alleged the Obama administration "had done some surveillance of individuals close to Trump or a computer server in Trump Tower," as Pollak put it. The editor then added his own "historical events" to write his story.

After it was posted, the AP says an aide placed it in Trump's daily reading pile—shortly after which Trump sent out his wiretap tweets. In the NBC interview, Todd pushed back on whether any of Levin's "proof" had been confirmed. "Should your article have been interpreted by the president as fact-based, or you were basically laying out a potential scenario?" he asked, per the Week. Pollak said it was more of a scenario. "It's a set of facts lined up to make an argument about what happened, which is how many legal arguments are crafted," he said. Meanwhile, in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News Wednesday night, Trump pledged to present evidence of his claims "very soon." He added that the phrase wiretap "covers surveillance and many other things." (More President Trump stories.)

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