Ross Coulthart is using David Grusch for attention. His credibility is tied up in Grusch, but Grusch’s credibility should not be tied up with Coulthart.

David Grusch has been credible so far.

He’s followed all the legal processes and testified under oath. The Intercept article has done nothing to his credibility as far as I’m concerned, because all it really said is that he has PTSD. He’s a veteran, this is unsurprising. The bigger scandal remains how the US treats its veterans with PTSD.

His statement on Tuesday night did not claim that The Intercept article came as the result of a leak by the intelligence community designed to discredit him. That claim came from Coulthart. Grusch only noted that the events that were going to come out took place and he took responsibility for them. He didn’t attack the journalist or the journalist’s source.

Ross Coulthart took that statement and ran with it. He went on NewsNation and said quite clearly that this was a leak from the intelligence community and that it was designed to discredit Grusch. He said he was told that the information was not received under FOIA and therefore it must have been a leak from the IC. He pushed this narrative and many bought it (and are still buying it).

When the Intercept article came out, that was proven to be untrue. The information was actually received under FOIA, not a leak. Ross was wrong.

Instead of admitting that, he doubled down. He said, “Their tip could only have come from Grusch’s highly classified security files.” He said police are conducting an investigation of the FOIA, without any evidence.

Grusch is not making any of these claims publicly.

If Ross Coulthart is to be trusted as a journalist, he needs to stick only to things that he can prove are true. That’s what makes it credible when someone like Grusch steps forward. He clearly feels very tied up with Grusch’s destiny and maybe even protective of him, but all that says is that he’s not being objective. It calls his other reporting into question.

What will happen if people don’t hold him accountable for mistakes like these is that Coulthart’s credibility will hurt Grusch’s credibility. His mistakes will be owned by both of them. That’s not good for anyone who wants to learn the truth behind Grusch’s claims.

It should be really troubling to everyone that Coulthart made a mistake and his immediate reaction wasn’t to admit the error and move on.