A New ‘Guardian’ Report Shows Just How Far Team Trump Would Go to Discredit the Iran Deal

Aides allegedly hired an Israeli intelligence firm to dig up dirt on Obama staffers who were involved in negotiations.

Cheriss May/Sipa USA/AP

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According to a new report from the Guardian, Trump aides hired an Israeli private intelligence firm to coordinate a “dirty ops” campaign against former Obama staffers who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal.

The alleged plan was to discredit the agreement, which the president has called the “worst deal ever,” by digging up dirt on Ben Rhodes, one of President Obama’s national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, who was Vice President Biden’s national security adviser. Investigators were supposedly told to look at their personal lives and any involvement with Iran-friendly lobbyists. They were also told to contact journalists who supported the deal to see if Rhodes or Kahl told them any sensitive information.

“I was not aware [of the campaign], though sadly am not surprised,” Rhodes told the Guardian. “I would say that digging up dirt on someone for carrying out their professional responsibilities in their positions as White House officials is a chillingly authoritarian thing to do.”

It’s unclear how much work was done to carry out the plan, but after the Guardian story published, Kahl tweeted about an incident last year in which a supposed “socially responsible private equity” firm contacted his wife while she was serving on the fundraising committee at their child’s elementary school in Washington, D.C.

This seems eerily similar to the tactics used by operatives trying to silence Harvey Weinstein’s accusers. That might not be a coincidence:

The Guardian report comes just days before Trump’s May 12 deadline by which he’s said he’ll make a decision on whether to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. It also follows a recent, very public attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discredit the deal—and potentially provide Trump cover should he choose to pull out of it. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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