The Free Beacon’s Continetti Breaks Down Unearthing of the Stephanopoulos Scandal

CONTINETTI: “I think it does taint him for the simple reason that he had an opportunity to disclose his donations when he interviewed the author of this very controversial book “Clinton Cash” and really grilled the officer, Peter Schweitzer. He could have taken that moment to say, I was a Clinton Foundation donor. He didn’t. And I think that’s the reason that “The Washington Free Beacon” pursued the story and the reason why the story has legs in other media.”
STELTER: “So, let’s talk more about that in a minute, but take me to the moment where you all found out about this. How exactly did you all find out this donation even happened?”
CONTINETTI: “Sure. Well, I mean, it’s simple investigative reporting. One of my reporters had composed a spreadsheet of all the foundation’s donors and another of my reporters was spending his off hours going through it. He just happened to see that George Stephanopoulos was in the list. So, he contacts me and says, “I found this out, what do I do?” My first thought was, well, has he disclosed it? We did the research. It turned out George had not. My second thought was — well, we’re going to write it up as a straight news piece but first go to ABC News for comment.”