人兽性交

Miller emailed then-Breitbart News editor Katie McHugh a post from conservative pundit Mickey Kaus criticizing Marco Rubio鈥檚 GOP presidential run on Feb. 6, 2016, a little less than two weeks after joining Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign, saying someone needed to aggregate the piece for the site.

Aggregation in journalism happens when writers turn other outlets鈥� stories, opinion pieces or social media posts into new stories for their publications. Hours later, Breitbart published an article headlined 鈥�.鈥�

Miller viewed the highly trafficked Breitbart as a way to promote his nativist, anti-immigration policies and to attack political enemies before millions of readers. And, while politicians and their staff commonly seek to influence news coverage, the dynamic on display in Miller鈥檚 emails to Breitbart suggests the conservative outlet was 鈥渘ot playing by the same rules that legitimate news organizations play by,鈥� said Kyle Pope, editor-in-chief of the听.

White House senior adviser Stephen Miller (center) is seen during a June congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

鈥淭his is not remotely how a professional news organization functions,鈥� Pope told Hatewatch, regarding Miller鈥檚 often-direct editorial instructions. 鈥淲hat is scary here is Trump, and his team, and also Trump supporters 鈥� hold up this kind of cheerleading news organization as an example of how journalism should be done, and it鈥檚 clearly not.鈥�

The emails examined by Hatewatch demonstrate a pattern of influence by Miller. On April 10, 2016, he sent an email with the subject line 鈥渁ggregate?鈥� to Breitbart with a tweet by conservative commentator Matt Drudge. In , Drudge questioned the integrity of Colorado鈥檚 Republican caucus system in which 听won a majority of delegates and which Trump had criticized as being 鈥�.鈥� Breitbart soon turned Drudge鈥檚 tweet into the story Miller apparently envisioned, 鈥�

Breitbart editors introduced Miller to McHugh in early 2015 to help shape her journalistic output, she told Hatewatch. At the time, Miller was an aide to then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. McHugh leaked to Hatewatch more than 900 of her previously private email conversations with the current White House senior adviser. In them, Miller appears to behave like an uncredited editor 鈥� periodically suggesting where stories should be placed on Breitbart鈥檚 homepage.

Miller suggested such a placement on the Hillary Clinton-focused story, 鈥溾�� in May 2016:

Miller, May 21, 2016, 12:11 a.m. ET: 鈥淢ake sure this is put in lede.鈥�

McHugh, May 21, 2016, 12:12 a.m. ET: 鈥淚t鈥檚 top right.鈥�

McHugh told Hatewatch that by 鈥渢he lede,鈥� Miller meant the story on Breitbart鈥檚 website most prominently showcased to readers. McHugh told Hatewatch that Breitbart management knowingly allowed her to defer to Miller.

鈥淏oth as an aide to Sen. Sessions and an adviser to Trump, Stephen Miller frequently dictated the editorial direction of Breitbart News to me,鈥� McHugh said. 鈥淣o one at Breitbart ever raised a question about whether this was ethical.鈥�

McHugh, who 听from Breitbart in 2017, told Hatewatch she took her position there 10 months after graduating from college. At 23, McHugh said, she did not immediately comprehend the degree to which the website鈥檚 interactions with Miller might prove unusual by traditional journalistic standards.

McHugh told Hatewatch she did not remember being privy to an email discussion on Oct. 3, 2015, in which Breitbart agreed to publish a press release authored by Miller under the generic byline Breitbart News. Miller conversed with Breitbart Washington political editor Matthew Boyle in the email about how to apply a byline to the post. Then-Breitbart chief Steve Bannon, Sessions aide Garrett Murch, McHugh and three other Breitbart employees were copied on the email.

Boyle, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:40 p.m. ET: 鈥淎lso how should we run this? Under Senator Sessions鈥� byline? Or under 鈥楤reitbart News鈥� byline?鈥�

Miller, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:42 p.m. ET: 鈥淚 think Breitbart News. Then it can be introduced as something shared exclusively with Breitbart by the Senate鈥檚 Subcomittee [sic] on Immigration and the National Interest, with the graphic and explanatory text underneath.鈥�

Boyle, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:43 p.m. ET: 鈥淕reat. Guys I will prepare this [post] in the morning for launch tomorrow on the [Breitbart radio] show.鈥�

Miller, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:47 p.m. ET: 鈥淔antastic. I鈥檒l be standing by to assist however I can. I think this is one of the best demonstrations we鈥檝e come up with so far to demonstrate the true scope of immigration.鈥�

The email conversation resulted in the Oct. 4, 2015, Breitbart post titled 鈥溾��

Miller frequently suggested story ideas to Breitbart directly from Sessions鈥� office. In another example, Miller sent a July 6, 2015, email from his government address to McHugh and Boyle with the subject line, 鈥渋llegal immigrant child sex offenders.鈥� He attached a 19-page document labeled 鈥淐hild Sex Offenders,鈥� which he said was a list of undocumented people who were accused of child molestation and other abuses.

Miller, July 6, 2015, 6:34 p.m. ET: 鈥淎rticles compiled by our staff. Didn鈥檛 get from me.鈥�

McHugh did not reply to Miller鈥檚 email about child sex offenders and told Hatewatch she did not remember whether or not she used the list.

Pope noted that Breitbart has lost readers since Trump took office, which the Columbia Journalism Review 听using data from the analytics company Comscore. Breitbart reached more than 12 million unique visitors per month at the time Trump declared his candidacy and had 18 million-plus unique visitors when he won the Republican nomination in July 2016, the Comscore data showed. By May 2019, Breitbart鈥檚 monthly unique visitors had dropped to under 5 million per month, Comscore found.

Breitbart readers in 2015 and 2016 took in something that was more akin to propaganda than journalism, said Tom Bivins, an ethics professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Miller was manipulating Breitbart, he said.

The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding Hatewatch鈥檚 investigation. Bannon also did not respond to two requests for comment on this report. Bannon assumed the role of executive chair at Breitbart News in 2012 following the death of conservative publisher and founder Andrew Breitbart. Bannon was in that job when these emails were sent that Hatewatch acquired. Larry Solov became president and CEO of the news website after Breitbart鈥檚 death.

Elizabeth Moore, a spokeswoman for Breitbart News, responded to Hatewatch鈥檚 request for comment about Miller鈥檚 relationship with editors at the website with the following statement:

The 人兽性交 claims to have three- to four-year-old emails, many previously reported on, involving an individual whom we fired years ago for a multitude of reasons, and you now have an even better idea why we fired her. Having said that, it is not exactly a newsflash that political staffers pitch stories to journalists 鈥� sometimes those pitches are successful, sometimes not.

It is no surprise to us that the 人兽性交 opposes news coverage of illegal-immigrant crime and believes such coverage is disproportionate, especially when compared to the rest of the media, which often refuse to cover such crimes.