Drip, Drip, Drip

We now have reports that implicated-in-the-UK-phone-hacking-scandal Washington Post publisher Will Lewis told former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to "clean up" his phones in response to the Partygate scanal.

I described the phone hacking scandal here, a nadir in journalistic ethics in the UK, even by the standard of the UK tabloids.

Partygate was the scandal that pushed Johnson out of 10 Downings Street.  Basically, he was holding alcohol fueled parties while public gatherings were prohibited.

Yeah, Chris "Fredo" Cuomo was fired from CNN for providing far more anodyne advice to his brother, former New York Governor Andrew "Rat-Faced Andy" Cuomo.

Why Will Lewis still works at the Post, is beyond me.

Will Lewis, the Washington Post publisher, advised Boris Johnson and senior officials at 10 Downing Street to “clean up” their phones in the midst of a Covid-era political scandal, according to claims by three people familiar with the operations inside No 10 at the time.

The advice is alleged to have been given in December 2021 and January 2022 as top officials were under scrutiny for potential violations of pandemic restrictions, a scandal which was known as “Partygate”.

The claims suggest Lewis’s advice contradicted an email sent to staff at No 10 in December 2021 which instructed them not to destroy any material that could be relevant to an investigation into the flagrant breaking of Covid lockdown rules by Johnson and officials who worked for him.

Sources said they understood they were being advised to remove photos and messages from their phones that could be damaging in any investigations.

Lewis, the sources alleged, made some of the requests personally as he was carrying out work as an informal adviser to Johnson from late 2021 to July 2022.

This is the second time that Lewis has been reported as an active participant in a coverup.

………

Lewis was a member of a so-called “brain trust” of Johnson’s close political allies who were leading an effort – codenamed Operation Save Big Dog – that tried but ultimately failed to salvage Johnson’s premiership. Lewis was awarded a knighthood in 2023 for his political service to the conservative prime minister.

The allegations regarding Lewis’s advice relate to a period covered by a civil service investigation and before the Partygate scandal became a police matter. The Metropolitan police launched its investigation on 25 January 2022.

A spokesperson for Lewis said: “This story is categorically untrue.”

Yeah, Lewis get a knighthood because he did nothing at all.

Bezos, just fire him already.