Police Investigate NY Times Reporter For Breaking Into GOP Staffer’s Home

[mrclose]

A Watergate moment?

The intrusion took place at Bell Stonebridge Apartments in Woodbridge, VA.

“Working in politics, you become accustomed to the rough-and-tumble nature of the sport. But never in a million years could I have anticipated the New York Times sending a reporter to break into my apartment looking for a story. We’re working with police investigators, and look forward to justice being served,” Brian Landrum said in a statement.

The eyewitness was listening to music when she heard rustling, turned around, and saw a female in Landrum’s kitchen. The woman was turning to leave. The kitchen is 5 to 10 feet from the apartment’s threshold. The apartment is a secured facility with key fob doors. Non-residents are not allowed in the apartment building without consent. Access to the apartment building requires a key fob.

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/exclusive-police-investigate-ny-times-reporter-for-breaking-into-gop-staffers-home/

[BlueStateSaint]

She could be an acolyte of Mad Maxine . . .

[Ralph Wiggum]

She could be an acolyte of Mad Maxine . . .

Viva Resistance!

[SVPete]

The apartment is a secured facility with key fob doors. Non-residents are not allowed in the apartment building without consent. Access to the apartment building requires a key fob.

If this happened ...

Whether someone hacked into the apartment building's security system, cloned the key fobs, or this was an inside job, this was a hell of a lot more than a rogue-idiot "reporter". Somebody helped her get in in one or more respects, and there is a high likelihood that someone at the NYT approved paying for that assistance and/or equipment. That "reporter", probably one or more someones at the apartment building, and very possibly an editor and accounting person or three or four should do prison time.

IF this happened ...  DDG and Google searches for news about this came up empty. So that IF is looking rather huge to me right now.

[Eupher]

Why wouldn't Saul actually stop and think about her B&E before actually demanding to see the staffer? She then leaves a note, aka evidence, of her being there?

This ain't passing the smell test.

Either that or Saul is a complete idiot.

Oh, wait........

[SVPete]

My search above used the phrase, "Bell Stonebridge Apartments Woodbridge, VA break in", and came up empty. I just DDGed "Brian Landrum Stephanie Saul" and it came up empty, except for a blog post that linked to the article in the OP.

Unless this is confirmed on some actual news source, I'd regard it as bogus, someone trolling conservatives' confirmation bias (and as can be seen from my post above, I partly bit on it, pretty hard).

[Happy Fun Ball]

I did find a couple of sites, one from Washington Post. Or, if you don't want to unblock their ads (like me), you could go here.

[Ptarmigan]

Isn't that illegal? I am pretty sure it is.

[SVPete]

Yep, it is real. I guess it takes time for stories like this to be posted to websites. I see multiple sources for the story now, including this WashTimes article which also links to the story on the local NBC station site. It looks like the NYT reporter was let in by a person in charge of letting people in and the apartment door was not locked. From there the stories diverge.

Landrum claims a friend that was staying with him heard sound and went and found the "reporter" inside the apartment without having been invited in.

The Times claims Saul never entered the apartment but gave the guest a note asking Landrum to contact her.

Sounds like a she-said--(s)he-said that won't be resolved, but Landrum's version seems more credible, because it explains why he would have contacted the police. And it fits the kind of arrogance I would expect of an NYT "reporter" - entering illegally and lying about it afterward.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Perhaps there's a security tape.

[SVPete]

Based on the times given in this blogpost, it looks like some 15 minutes passed between the "reporter" being discovered in the home and the guest reporting her to the police. IOW, not really time for her to call Landrum and concoct and carry out a story-plan to slander the "reporter".