Yesterday, CNN tried to push the false claim that the United States was forced to pull a top intel asset out of Russia because of leaks by Trump. That was predictably a lie. Instead it appears that leaks to the media by Obama’s deeper staters actually caused the problem.

The New York Times notes that it was its paper that was partly responsible.

News agencies, including NBC, began reporting around that time about Mr. Putin’s involvement in the election sabotage and on the C.I.A.’s possible sources for the assessment.

The following month, The Washington Post reported that the C.I.A.’s conclusions relied on “sourcing deep inside the Russian government.” And The New York Times later published articles disclosing details about the source.

In short, post-election propaganda spread by Obama’s intel people, many of whom now work in the media, to the media, helped create scrutiny about a source. The obsession with feeding the public anti-Trump conspiracy theories led them to violate national security and risk the life of an actual asset in enemy territory (unlike Valerie Plame, whom the media falsely claimed had her life put at risk) for no real reason. And this irresponsible and destructive behavior by the media is still going on.

Here’s a new NBC News story.

Possible Russian spy for CIA now living in Washington area – The former Russian government official, who had a job with access to secrets, was living openly under his true name.

Why the hell do this unless you’re trying to get him killed?

And I suspect that’s the point. Russia’s kill teams use media reporting to track him down. He dies of radiation poisoning. Media adds a layer to its Trump conspiracies. Putin and the media both win because they share a common goal of inflating Russia’s influence.