WASHINGTON — Establishment media outlets are targeting writer Charles Johnson after he visited the State of the Union address as the guest of a Republican congressman.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida invited Johnson to the speech, prompting a smear campaign against Johnson led by The Daily Beast.
Subsequent coverage by ThinkProgress labelled Johnson a “Holocaust denier who is banned from Twitter.”
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Johnson adamantly denies being a Holocaust denier, and makes clear that he is a strong supporter of Israel with deep roots in the conservative movement. Johnson’s past writing for The Daily Caller and The American Spectator and his current work as the editor-in-chief of GotNews made him a target of the establishment media. He was featured on the cover of Politico Magazine after reporting details of the UVA rape case, and was banned from Twitter over a spat with a Black Lives Matter leader.
Here is Mr. Johnson’s statement in full:
Johnson garnered particular scrutiny after he met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in London’s Ecuadorian embassy alongside California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.
Rohrabacher reportedly met with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly two weeks ago, providing him with details about his meeting with Assange in August, and requesting that Assange be pardoned in exchange for the information.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump was questioned about the offer — and told a reporter that he has “never heard that mentioned.”
“I’ve never heard that mentioned, really, I’ve never heard that mentioned,” Trump told a reporter at a New Jersey airport on Sunday.
Johnson is now claiming that Kelly is blocking the information and offer from reaching the president.
“Kelly is blocking this from getting to the president’s attention. I would fire Kelly for that,” Johnson told BLP.
Johnson is now calling for someone with the president’s ear to alert him of what has been going on.
“I have learned that John Kelly is blocking Congressman Dana Rohrabacher from telling the President the truth about the Wikileaks publication of the DNC. Please alert the president,” the well-connected journalist wrote on Facebook.
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