A "fake journalist" embarrasses the White House press secretary

In recent weeks, a number of White House reporters have asked Press Secretary Jane Saki questions from a person claiming to be a fellow journalist who was unable to attend due to the Covid-19 protocols, but a new report revealed a strange secret about this journalist.

According to a report by the American Politico website, the journalist, who goes by the name "Casey Montagu", is not present, or at least he is not a reporter.

Saki answered questions posed by the alleged journalist or journalist. The most recent answers were last Thursday, when Chris Johnson, of the Washington Blade newspaper, was doing his job as a reporter for the White House Journalists ’Association, and he asked Saki, on behalf of an absent colleague, a question that became clear. Later, he is from "Montagu".

Media revealed this fact, after it launched efforts to trace the origin of the question, which was about the relationship of the current US President, Joe Biden, with former President Barack Obama.

Soon the other dominoes fell. The profile page hosted by Google for Montagu was removed, and the alleged journalist’s profile disappeared from the “LinkedIn” site.

But how did this person manage to trick real White House reporters into asking questions on his behalf, and get the White House itself to answer these questions?

The most likely scenario, according to Politico newspaper, is that the fake benefited from the precautions of Covid-19, which were taken by the White House.

During the Corona pandemic, it became customary for the reporter who takes on periodic responsibility for the White House journalists' gathering to ask a question or two on behalf of a colleague in the press corps as courtesy, in light of the reduction in the number of journalists allowed into the White House briefing room to 14, after he It was 49 in normal conditions.

The owner of the name "Casey Montagu", who was not present in the briefing room, was able to ask questions through the other reporters who were there, claiming that he was working on behalf of an outlet called "White House News", which he was known by the acronym "WHN".

In a series of messages on Twitter from an account called "SecMontagu" with the American magazine "People", the person calling himself "Casey Montagu" explained how the White House employees began to answer his questions.

He said that he started this "by sending an email to the press office at the White House to request receiving emails from them", in order to know the identities of the journalists present, to ask someone to ask questions on his behalf.

The fake reporter asserted that his goal behind this was "to see if we can have more transparency."

None of his intentions were "malicious at all," he added.

I will not even say that I "impersonated" a journalist, but rather that I was a journalist, "he only wants answers to questions from the White House.

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