***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
In the wake of multiple news reports that a secret CIA asset close to Vladimir Putin was spirited away in 2017 over fears Russian intelligence had uncovered him, NBC News decided to act on claims Russian officials made about the man’s identity and tracked down the asset themselves.
The visit from NBC national security correspondent Ken Dilanian apparently prompted the U.S. government to move the asset and his family. It was something the network seemed proud of during Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News.
“Tonight, a former Russian government employee and alleged CIA asset on the move, following reports he was extracted from Moscow by the Americans two years ago out of fear the Russians were on to him,” announced NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell.
She went on to brag: “Once in the U.S., the Russian was apparently living in plain sight under U.S. government protection in the Washington area where NBC News found his house and knocked on the door, but no one answered.”
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