The Right’s Favorite Magic Trick: Turning Old News Into New Scandal

John Solomon’s “discovery” about Jan 6 phone records isn’t a scoop — it’s a rerun dressed as revelation.

Quick Video, then story:

Yesterday, I became aware that I was being accused by disgraced “reporter” John Solomon of involvement in a “scandal” which vaguely implied phone surveillance and the FBI. Today, I was contacted by FoxNews for a statement, so I know that pattern. Here is the original tweet, my response, and the story:

When John Solomon claims he just “discovered” that the January 6th Committee obtained phone metadata, don’t fall for it. What he’s doing is what the right-wing outrage industry does best: take something ordinary, long-public, and fully explained — and repackage it as a “bombshell” scandal for a new audience that doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, that it’s old news.

Here’s what really happened.
In 2021, the Jan. 6 Select Committee subpoenaed telecom and tech companies for phone metadata — the basic call logs that show who called whom, when, and for how long. No wiretaps. No recordings. Just routine investigative work. These subpoenas were announced publicly, covered by every major outlet, and later detailed by Denver Riggleman, the committee’s technical adviser, in his book The Breach and in a 60 Minutes interview.

Solomon, years later, pretends to have stumbled upon this information — as if the committee’s data collection was a secret “surveillance” operation. And now he’s spinning the idea that members of Congress somehow conspired with “Trump’s FBI” (yes Trump was still President) to create January 6 or to spy on Americans afterward. It’s nonsense. Worse than nonsense, it’s deliberate distortion.

This isn’t journalism. It’s storytelling for the angry and uninformed.

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How the “scandal” machine works

First, they relabel the routine as outrageous.
A subpoena for metadata becomes “domestic spying.” Oversight becomes persecution. Every legitimate tool of accountability is recast as tyranny.

Then, they collapse timelines.
The committee’s 2021 subpoenas are fused with other investigations years later to imply one vast, shadowy plot. The audience isn’t supposed to notice the dates — only the drama.

Next, they pretend ignorance.
By claiming to “discover” what was publicly reported three years ago, they get to play both whistleblower and victim. The goal isn’t truth; it’s attention.

Finally, they flood the zone with outrage.
Once the narrative catches fire on social media, on talk radio, or on certain cable shows, facts no longer matter. What matters is the emotional payoff — the feeling that “they” are always after “us.”

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The real story

Congress used lawful subpoenas to obtain phone metadata in 2021. It was routine. It was reported. It was discussed openly. In 2023, I had a brief discussion with members of the FBI reminding them of this data if they needed it in their investigation. Regardless, they didn’t seem interested and that was that. John Solomon is not uncovering a hidden scandal; he’s recycling an old fact and hoping nobody remembers.

His track record speaks for itself. Internal reviews by The Hill and Fox News raised concerns about his credibility years ago, and ProPublica documented how his Ukraine reporting aligned with Giuliani’s disinformation network. This latest stunt fits the pattern perfectly: take something legitimate, strip it of context, and sell it as corruption.

The truth isn’t nearly as exciting as the fiction, but it’s what matters.
What Solomon and his ecosystem are doing is retroactive alchemy — turning public facts into fresh outrage for a new audience. And like all cheap magic tricks, it only works if you don’t look too closely.

Their goal here is intimidation, flipping the script from their authoritarian tactics to pretend it was really the vast conspiracy that they are simply trying to fix, and oh ya, lest we forget, to distract from the real fact that Trump could release the Epstein files TODAY.

I will not be intimidated. I will not back down. In fact I have decided to become louder. Watch as their usual playbook proceeds.