Ari Fleischer Calls on CNN to Release Text Messages Between Don Lemon and Jussie Smollett

On Monday, “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, who is on trial for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself, testified that he had correspondence with CNN’s Don Lemon during the early parts of the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) investigation into the incident.

Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer appeared on “Outnumbered” and called on CNN to release the text messages between the two.

Fleischer asked during his appearance, “Did the text cross the line from going to the typical journalistic hook that they give to sources, even people that they know to try to get them to reveal more information for newsgathering purposes or did it cross the line between providing information to Jussie Smollett that awas helpful to Smollett and then trying to maybe give Smollett more information?”

“The only way to know is for Don Lemon and Jussie Smollett to release all of the texts and all the emails,” Fleischer explained.

Fleischer then referenced the situation that recently occurred with disgraced and fired former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

“This could actually be just what journalists do, but if it went beyond that, if it went into the Cuomo direction of controlling influencing, directing, giving ideas, counseling, you’ve got another problem on your hands at CNN,” Fleischer declared.

Fleischer then suggested that Lemon should be given the benefit of the doubt and concluded, “It’s kind of like this new COVID variant, we shouldn’t jump the gun to conclude that Lemon is guilty, but he needs to help himself and release all the texts.”

Co-host Kayleigh McEnany then played a clip that showed Lemon admitting that if Smollett wasn’t telling the truth, he would then have lied to a lot of people, including him.

CNN should release text messages between Don Lemon and Jussie Smollet: Ari Fleischer https://t.co/Ky6IJpzzNd

— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) December 8, 2021