Dear Media:

Yesterday, one of your TV personalities elicited an explosive accusation in the Trump Russian-collusion inquiry. He didn't follow up on it, and today, you've already shoved it down the memory hole. Neither the New York Times [1] nor the Washington Post [2][3][4] -- in multiple stories on the interview -- even hint that this accusation was made. (Why?)

The accusation, by longtime GOP operative (and former Trump campaign advisor) Sam Nunberg, was that President Trump knew about the infamous Trump Tower meeting between his son Donald Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his campaign manager Paul Manafort, and an apparent "Russian government attorney" [5] Natalia Veselnitskaya, the "week before" it occurred.

Let that sink in. This is the very meeting at which Donald Jr. expected to obtain "incriminat[ing]" material against Hillary Clinton that was billed as "very useful to your father" as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump" from a "Russian government attorney".[6]

The exchange in which Nunberg made this accusation was from 8:12 to 9:17 in this CNN recording.

Jake Tapper: But let me ask you about that Trump Tower meeting. What do you make of it, as somebody who has worked for President Trump?

Sam Nunberg: [Unintelligible] You know, I've defended that meeting, I don't think there's anything wrong with them [?]. You're gonna, you're gonna disagree with me; there's nothing wrong...

Tapper: I don't know what happened, I don't know what happened at that meeting. Do you think that, Donald Trump says it, President Trump says he knew nothing about the meeting. Do you think that that's true?

Nunberg: No! It it doesn't, and Jake, I've watched your uh news reports. You know it's not true. He [and?], he talked about [slurred] it a week before. And I don't know why he did this. All he had to say was "Yeah, we met with the Russians. The Russians offered us something, and we thought they had something, and that was it". I don't know why he went around trying to hide it.

Tapper: I...

Nunberg: And he shouldn't have.

Tapper: I mean, I think that's one of the mysteries of all of this is that if there is nothing to hide, why is he doing things like firing James Comey....

I've got to say, media, you're doing a very good impression of being in the tank for the GOP. Maybe you should run some more stories about "her emails" to make doubly sure that we forget this accusation?

[1] "Ex-Trump Aide Sam Nunberg Says He Will Refuse Grand Jury Order. Unless He Doesn’t.", New York Times, 3/6/2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/us/politics/sam-nunberg-special-counsel-grand-jury.html

[2] "Yes, Sam Nunberg sounded unhinged. Yes, that’s newsworthy.", Washington Post, 3/6/2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2018/03/06/sam-nunberg-day-cable-news-at-its-best/

[3] "‘He’s not going to do anything’: Sam Nunberg taunts Mueller in wild MSNBC interview", Washington Post, 3/5/2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2018/03/05/hes-not-going-to-do-anything-sam-nunberg-taunts-mueller-in-wild-msnbc-interview/

[4] "Sam Nunberg’s live interviews were strange and uncomfortable. Should he have been on TV at all?", Washington Post, 3/6/2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/06/sam-nunbergs-live-interviews-were-strange-and-uncomfortable-should-he-have-been-on-tv-at-all

[5] "Recreating June 9: A very consequential day in the 2016 campaign", CNN, 7/12/2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/11/politics/trump-campaign-june-9/index.html

[6] "Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said", New York Times, 7/11/2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html