Sun Darroch Euphoria Ended By Arrest

When Steven Edginton, protégé of mercenary hack Isabel Oakeshott, returned to the subject of now former US Ambassador Kim Darroch last week, not many of those heaping praise upon the self-appointed journalist now at the Murdoch Sun were asking the obvious question: was the story obtained by wholly legal means, and what was its point?

Instead, as Saturday’s Sun front page proclaimed “Exclusive: White House ‘Leaks’ … Our man in Washington probed over Trumpy-pumpy … Married Ambassador Bedded Journo”, there was nothing but praise coming his way, led by Ms Oakeshott telling “Fantastic scoop by the formidable Steven Edginton”. The singularly repellant Dan Wootton simply exclaimed “SCOOP”. And that was just the start of the virtual group hug.

Steven Edginton

The odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, now pretending to be the Sun’s political editor, added “Another diplomatic bombshell via Steven Edginton”. Leave EU went with “Super scoop from The Sun's Steven Edginton: Bad Ambassador Kim Darroch”. The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines mused “Looks like our man in Washington had his own ‘special relationship’”. Fnarr fnarr, yik yik. And then came the pièce de résistance.

Kim Darroch

Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage thundered “We now know what Donald Trump really meant when he spoke after Darroch’s resignation. What a disgrace this man is - he was working to damage the special relationship. The British PM must investigate and, if necessary, strip him of all honours”. Sadly, Frog Features missed, as did the others, that Darroch was cleared. Because he had done nothing wrong.

So what was the point of the story? “Man has affair” isn’t worth the Sun’s front page, not on the weekend that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson’s involvement with Jennifer Arcuri was being splashed all over the Daily Mail - along with a reminder that she had benefited from rather a lot of public cash as a result.

We have not had to wait long to find out: Edginton was intimately involved in the leak of diplomatic cables that kicked off the Darroch saga last year and led to the Ambassador’s departure from his post in DC. And we now learn that the Police have arrested a civil servant, believed to be at the Department for International Trade, in connection with the leaks. He was nicked last Tuesday - three days before the Sun splash.

Indeed, Patrick Wintour, reporting for the Guardian, has noted that “Three days after the man’s arrest, the reporter that received the original leak, Steve Edginton, published fresh allegations in the Sun”. He added “The former CNN reporter Michelle Kosinski, who was named in the Sun report … said her information on a possible meeting between US officials and the North Korea dictator, Kim Jong-un, came from inside Trump’s circle”.

All of which means that the Sun’s story, promoted shamelessly by all those right-leaning useful idiots, was nothing more than a dead cat. The distraction was so obviously necessary for Edginton. After all, “officers from the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command unit” carried out the arrest, “on suspicion of offences under the Official Secrets Act and misconduct in a public office”. Because he could be next.

Illegal information gathering sounds less good that “fantastic scoop”. Because it’s illegal.

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