WorldNetDaily’s Bob Unruh helped Elon Musk falsely smear a critic in a Nov. 28 article:
Alexander Vindman, an ex-Army officer whose speculations and claims about President Trump were turned by Democrats into their first, and failed, attempt to impeach and remove him from office, is in the headlines again.
This time he’s accusing Elon Musk of being a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin, doing his bidding and giving him American secrets.
It might not end up going so well for Vindman, as Musk responded with an accusation that Vindman has committed treason and will pay the appropriate penalty.
[…]Vindman claimed, before the election, “Putin has been very effective in playing both Trump and Elon, and he’s been using the richest man in the world to do his bidding. In some cases, that’s encouraging him probably to support Donald Trump. That’s not speculation. We see how far in Elon has gone and then using Twitter as a disinformation platform. This is not some sort of far-off, distant threat. This is going to impact our elections, it’s a national security threat.”
Vindman accused Musk of “divulging state secrets to Vladimir Putin, and that the real reason he supports Trump is because Putin ordered him to do,” the report said.
“Vindman is on the payroll of Ukrainian oligarchs and has committed treason against the United States, for which he will pay the appropriate penalty,” Musk said.
Unruh then parroted personal attacks on Vindman from his fellow right-wingers:
The Washington Examiner said, “Vindman is mainly known for testifying against President-elect Donald Trump during the Trump-Ukraine scandal in 2019.”
Vindman accused Trump of trying to use the presidential power against a political opponent, asking Ukraine to investigate the corruption involving Burisma, an energy company there, and its payments of a million dollars to Hunter Biden.
In fact, evidence now shows that Joe Biden used his influence as vice president to get rid of a prosecutor investigating Burisma during the time his son was on Burisma’s payroll.
However, Vindman said it was awful that Trump suggested that be investigated. Democrats turned it into an impeachment attempt.
[…]A report at the Gateway Pundit noted Vindman “was a crucial figure in the first impeachment of President Trump over his ‘perfect’ phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019.”
“But he was caught repeatedly lying during his testimony before Congress, which made him a leftist hero,” the report said. “The truth is that Vindman was a leaker who thought his opinions overruled the Trump administration. He was moved from the White House with his twin brother (who was unfortunately elected to Congress this month) after his unsuccessful attempt, along with Eric Ciaramella, to remove the sitting president from office.”
The report noted, “Even Vindman’s boss testified that he was a leaker and a liar who could not be trusted.”
The accusation of being a “leaker” came from a former supervisor, Tim Morrison. Unruh didn’t mention that Vindman has categorically denied it, and neither he or the discredited Gateway Pundit offered evidence it ever happened.
Similarly, Musk offered no evidence to back up his potentially libelous claim that Vindman committed “treason” or “on the payroll of Ukranian oligarchs.” Musk didn’t specifically deny the claim he’s a Putin puppet, which seems plausible — and concerning for national security — given reports of regular conversations between the two (which Unruh failed to mention). Vindman himself has unsurprisingly denied the smear, adding, You, Elon, appear to believe you can act with impunity and are attempting to silence your critics. I’m not intimidated.” Vindman’s brother Eugene argued that Musk could be sued for defamation over the unfounded claim. Meanwhile, others have raised concerns about Musk’s intimidation of critics, which is concerning coming from a close friend of Donald Trump.
This is what you get when a “news” outlet chooses to serve up pro-Trump stenography instead of fairly and accurately reporting the news.