Bari Weiss’ The Free Press was accused Saturday of publishing a “hit piece” designed to “trigger” the deportation of outspoken Iran war critic Trita Parsi, but the alleged effort, Parsi argued, ultimately “backfired” spectacularly.
“I have fought the neocons and warmongers in Washington for more than 25 years. Throughout, they have tried to silence, discredit, slander, and cancel me. Only recently, however, have they tried to deport me. At least, that appears to have been the aim of a hit piece in Bari Weiss’s The Free Press,” wrote Parsi, the co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and fierce critic of the U.S. war against Iran.
The Free Press published an exclusive report last Wednesday claiming that the Trump administration was “weighing whether” to deport Parsi for seeking to “undermine the U.S.” It was written by journalist Jay Solomon, who was fired from The Wall Street Journal in 2017 for having “violated his ethical obligations as a reporter.”
Just hours after the report was published, however, the State Department issued a statement refuting its core claim. The report also triggered an “outpouring of support” for Parsi, he claimed in an analysis published on his Substack Saturday, one that undercut what he believed was the potential effort by The Free Press and rogue elements within the State Department to see him expelled from the United States.
“I don’t believe there was any investigation against me. Rather, some elements within the State Department wanted to start one and thought external pressure could help move things forward,” Parsi wrote.
“The effort to trigger an investigation appears to have backfired. In part, that was due to the broad and organic backlash against deporting me – and against the very idea that people should be deported for exercising free speech.”
Parsi’s own sources within the Trump administration shed further light on what he believed was behind the “hit piece” targeting him.
“At the Quincy Institute, we heard from sources inside the administration that there never was an investigation, that none of the principals were aware of the issue, and that the alleged source for the Free Press story may have been a ‘rogue actor,’” Parsi wrote. “That, presumably, is why the State Department took the highly unusual step of publicly refuting Solomon’s report.”
Solomon was axed from his job with the Journal after it was revealed he had gotten involved in deals “involving arms sales to foreign governments” with “one of his key sources,” NPR reported.