Choice excerpts from Barry Meiers gutsy book, Spooked The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies Re: Jules Kroll. More to come with commentary but I'll just paste this all here for now.
It soon became clear to me that in writing about private operatives I would need to examine another profession as well: my own, journalism. Reporters get leads or tips from all kinds of sources. Some of them, such as consumers or government whistleblowers, want to alert the public to what they see as a danger or a wrong. Journalists also have long gotten tips from hired operatives. But their relationship to private spies is different: it is a symbiotic and hidden one that benefits both sides. A reporter can obtain material from a private spy that they can’t legally or ethically acquire elsewhere, things like stolen emails or confidential financial records. A private operative uses a reporter to make information public that benefits a client or damages an adversary without leaving their fingerprints behind. The journalist gets a scoop and typically never reveals how they acquired sensitive information. Everyone is happy and the public—the reader or the viewer—is left in the dark wi...