Donald Trump accused the New York Times of allowing a terrorist to escape. The New York Times corrects the record.

You may remember seeing this tweet Saturday:

The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist,Al-Baghdadi.Their sick agenda over National Security

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017

I remember reading that and having no damn idea what Trump was talking about, but realizing that he was essentially accusing the NYT or treason.

I also thought that it was most likely bullshit.

And I was right.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Mr. Trump’s statement appeared to be based on a report by Fox News; he is known to be an avid viewer, and a version of the story was broadcast about 25 minutes before he posted. The report said that The Times had disclosed intelligence in an article on June 8, 2015, about an American military raid in Syria that led to the death of one of Mr. Baghdadi’s key lieutenants, Abu Sayyaf, and the capture of his wife, who played an important role in the group. 

That Fox News report cited comments by Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of the United States Special Operations Command, in an interview conducted Friday by the network’s intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge, at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. 

General Thomas said that a valuable lead on Mr. Baghdadi’s whereabouts “was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead.” He did not name The Times.

But a review of the record shows that information made public in a Pentagon news release more than three weeks before the Times article, and extensively covered at the time by numerous news media outlets, would have tipped off Mr. Baghdadi that the United States was questioning an important Islamic State operative who knew of his recent whereabouts and some of his methods of communication. Further, the information in the Times article on June 8 came from United States government officials who were aware that the details would be published.

So Trump essentially attacked the New York Times for accurately reporting news, based on fake news that he heard on Fox and Friends. 

Now I don't know if the Times has a legal case against Trump for essentially accusing them of interfering in America's war on terrorism, and helping an enemy to escape, but the reason that I don't know is because NOTHING like this has ever happened before.

Ever!

All I know is that we are in very, very dangerous waters here, and if Trump remains in office much longer there is no telling the amount of damage he might cause.