title:  Trump Posts Fox News Story Using Anonymous Source To ‘Vindicate’ Kushner, Entire World Calls BS
text: Donald Trump has been on Twitter for nearly 48 straight hours, clearly making up for lost time during his international trip when his advisers took away his phone. The tweets have been all over the place, a sign of the sort of unhinged mania that has consumed Trump: angry messages directed at foreign leaders, defending Russia, lashing out at critics, and   now   defending his son-in-law Jared Kushner from disturbing allegations that he had gone behind the backs of America s intelligence community to set up a secret  backchannel  with Putin using Russian spy equipment.Numerous media organizations including the Washington Post and the New York Times have confirmed with reliable, high-ranking sources that Kushner did this. The evidence appears to be pretty damning. In fact, the White House seemed unable to defend Kushner. For the first few days after news broke, the only response from Trump supporters was that Kushner should have been allowed to do this.Trump, as he is known to do, imploded that argument with a single tweet. Posting a story from Fox News, Trump and the conservative channel are claiming that Kushner is completely innocent. Their  proof  is a single anonymous source that spoke only to Fox.During the meeting the Russians broached the idea of using a secure line between the Trump administration and Russia, not Kushner, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News. That follows a recent report from The Washington Post alleging that Kushner wanted to develop a secure, private line with Russia.The idea of a permanent back channel was never discussed, according to the source. Instead, only a one-off for a call about Syria was raised in the conversation.Sounds legit.This is a clear aboutface for Trump, who has lashed out at anonymous sources whenever they leak things that make him look bad. Suddenly, the mysterious anonymous source Fox found (or invented) to clear Kushner is completely trustworthy and Trump is back to loving sources again!Smarter people have reason to be skeptical. It s been said that Fox News under Trump has operated as little else than his state media to push his agenda and defend him from attacks. This latest story seems incredibly suspect. After days of reporters from numerous outlets confirming and re-confirming the original claims that Kushner had, in fact, tried to set up a back channel with the Russians, Fox News magically found a  source  that disproves all of it. This flies directly in the face of Trump s own national security advisor H.R. McMaster who, as part of his job to repeatedly humiliate himself in the name of Trump, claimed that Kushner was allowed to set up a back channel.Trump s attempt to save his son-in-law from a possible prison sentence actually may have made things worse. If the original defense of Kushner was that he was right to set up this secret channel with the Russians, Kushner will face a choice if he is ever subpoenaed: Lie about the backchannel to supporter his father-in-law s claim or admit he did talk to the Russians and expose Trump in yet another lie. Whether he then gets charged with perjury hangs on his answer.Kushner might need to have an uncomfortable talk with his father-in-law: Stop trying to help so I don t spend my life behind bars.Featured image via Olivier Douliery   Pool/Getty Images