WSJ's Noonan Pushes “Watergate” Style Scandal Hours After It Fell Apart On Fox

Noonan: “The Burglary May Or May Not Be A Scandal - But If It Is, It's A Big One.”

Written by Andrew Lawrence

Published

Despite the right-wing media's most recent attempt to generate a “Watergate” style scandal imploding on live TV, The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan continued to push the conspiracy theory that a recent break-in at a Texas law firm was orchestrated by the government in response to a whistleblower's allegations of misconduct among State Department employees.

Following June 29 and June 30 robberies at the Dallas office of Schulman & Mathias, lawyer Cary Schulman has suggested that State Department officials were responsible for the break-in. Schulman & Mathias represents a former investigator at the State Department's Office of the Inspector General named Aurelia Fedenisn, who provided documents to CBS News alleging misconduct among State Department employees.

In a July 9 Wall Street Journal blog post, Noonan baselessly speculated that the government was behind the break-in at Schulman's law firm, comparing the break-in to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s that resulted in the impeachment proceedings -- and ultimately resignation -- of President Richard Nixon. Noonan wrote:

Still, the Nixon-era whistleblower whose psychiatrist's office was broken into has some tough words, in an op-ed piece, for the current administration -- just as word comes that an Obama-era whistleblower's lawyer's office was broken into by . . . someone.

Eerie.

Just hours before Noonan's post was published, Schulman appeared on Fox News' America Live with guest host Martha MacCallum in a segment hyped as "'Watergate' Style Spy Claims." Schulman said that one reason to suspect State Department involvement in the burglary was because the perpetrators “have been unwilling to come forward with evidence of the crimes voluntarily and we don't know their whereabouts.” When asked by MacCallum if he had any evidence to support these allegations, Schulman was forced to admit, “No I don't. All kidding aside, I was joking earlier. I don't know who did it.”

The admission by Schulman that he has no evidence and was only “joking” about State Department involvement in the burglary did not stop Noonan from speculating that the government was somehow involved. Noonan concluded, “The burglary may or may not be a scandal -- but if it is, it's a big one.”