New York Times reporter Ali Watkins’ past tweets provide an eye-opening glimpse into the mindset of the journalist involved in a three-year sexual relationship with former Senate Intelligence Committee aide James A. Wolf.
Wolfe, 57, was the former security director for the Senate panel and he has been accused of leaking sensitive information to journalists, to include his former lover. He’s facing an indictment for giving false statement to the FBI, Fox News reported.
In September 2017, Watkins had the audacity to tweet that the Intel Committee was frustrated by a “constant dribble of leaks.”
Senate Intel has been SOOO frustrated in recent weeks by the constant dribble of leaks about who’s testifying to them, when.
— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) September 19, 2017
The reporter even went so far as to try to blame President Donald Trump’s lawyers for the leaks.
The SSCI read is, Trumpster lawyers will leak info about upcoming appearances, blame the committee, then use as a pretext not to cooperate.
— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) September 19, 2017
According to the indictment, Wolfe began dating Watkins, who previously worked at Buzzfeed and Politico, in 2013 when she was an undergraduate student working as a news intern.
The relationship ended in December 2017.
It's been a good day. pic.twitter.com/2gAi0p5CeJ
— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) September 4, 2017
Even more stunning that the tweets above are two in 2013 of Watkins commenting on the Zoe Barnes character on “House of Cards.”
Talk about art imitating life, this would appear to flip that notion on its head!
Barnes, played by actress Kate Mara, was an ambitious journalist who got her break after she began an affair with the villainous Frank Underwood, played by actor Kevin Spacey, who leaked information to the reporter — her newfound lover would come to push Barnes in front of a subway train in the Netflix hit series.
Watkins began having an affair with Wolfe months after tweeting that she “wanted to be Zoe Barnes,” prosecutors said, according to Fox News.
I wanted to be Zoe Barnes…until episode 4. Sleeping with your source- especially a vindictive congressman? #badlifechoice #HouseofCards
— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) April 2, 2013
It seems the journalists’ inner conscience was speaking to her, as Watkins included the hashtag #badlifechoice.
She even crowd sourced the idea in a second tweet, including a #TOTALLYKIDDING hashtag.
So on a scale of 1 to ethical, how does everyone feel about pulling a @RealZoeBarnes for story ideas? #TOTALLYKIDDING @HouseofCards
— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) June 20, 2013
Wolfe initially denied that he had a relationship with Watkins — identified in court papers as “REPORTER #2 — until confronted with photos of them together.
He is also accused of lying to the FBI about contacts he had with several other reporters, which included sharing non-public information about committee matters, according to Fox News.
Now we await the dropping of the other shoe — who are these “other reporters?”
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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