The Washington Post has recused its new national editor, Matea Gold, from the news organization’s coverage of the FBI and Justice Department over a personal conflict of interest. A month before Gold was promoted, her husband, Jonathan Lenzner, was named FBI chief of staff.
A Post spokeswoman told RealClearInvestigations that the paper's managing editor, Steven Ginsberg, will be overseeing coverage of the Justice Department and the FBI. Kristine Coratti Kelly, the paper’s chief communications officer, said the decision does not reflect on Gold’s objectivity or credibility.
"We have every confidence in Matea’s professionalism and high standards,” Kelly said. “She has recused herself from this area of coverage to avoid even the appearance of partiality.”
The recusal means that, among other national stories, Gold will be cordoned off from guiding Post coverage of Special Counsel John Durham’s ongoing criminal investigation of the origins of the Russia probe of Donald Trump, which the FBI and Justice Department initially opened under the Obama administration.
Durham's office secured the conviction of a top FBI lawyer last year and in recent months has indicted a top Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer and a campaign subcontractor who provided most of the information in the discredited Steele dossier, which the FBI used to buttress its investigations of Trump and his advisers. In her previous role as investigations editor, Gold helped oversee the Post’s coverage of the Russia “collusion” accusations against Trump and his advisers, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
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