Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!

In tonight’s edition: It might be Lachlan’s birthday on Thursday, but he has a present for all subscribers – tonight’s lead story is completely free, and it’s a humdinger! It’s a yarn about a lawsuit leveled at an Associated Press investigative reporter by a venture capitalist, now involved with The Washington Post’s latest business enterprise. (No need to send presents, in return, just upgrade from a free to a paid subscription and support truly fearless independent journalism – tips also make great presents!)

Also tonight, the battle for TV talent heats up between MSNBC and NBC, ahead of the official spin-off, and what the appointment of a new national editor at The New York Times means for succession planning at The Gray Lady.

Mentioned tonight: Will Lewis, Jeff Bezos, Marty Kady, Rahm Emanuel, Kurt M. Campbell, Josh Rogin, David Miliband, Juleanna Glover, James Murdoch, André Pienaar, Tom Clare, Libby Locke, Ray Dalio, Jeff Fager, Matt Lauer, Mark Warner, Mark Thompson, Meredith Kopit Levien, Joe Kahn, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jodi Rudoren, Kathleen Kingsbury, Patrick Healy, Ben Mullin, Michael Grynbaum, Nestor Ramos, Jin Lynn Yang, David Leonhardt, Adrienne Carter, Philip Pan, Jodi Kantor, Rebecca Kutler, Rebecca Blumenstein, Vaughn Hillyard, Laura Barrón-López, David Noriega, Marc Santia, Graydon Carter, John Ridding, Richard Rushfield, Jay Penske, Todd Boehly and Anna Wintour.

(Exclusive.) When Will Lewis was appointed Publisher and CEO of the Washington Post in late 2023, one of his main priorities was to generate new revenue streams for the publication, which in 2024 lost around $100 million. 

The Washington Post had been left in the dust by the New York Times’ innovative business strategy to diversify away from traditional journalism. That strategy involved acquiring already popular content titles (Wordle, The Athletic) and creating new platforms (Cooking, Audio), then bundling them together to drive subscription numbers and ultimately support its core journalism. (While CNN’s Mark Thompson has taken a victory lap for that strategy, much of the credit goes to current CEO Meredith Kopit Levien.)

Lewis had touted to owner Jeff Bezos the success he had had while running Dow Jones, juicing their business-to-business (B2B) products and in doing so making the company highly profitable. 

One of Lewis’s first initiatives is WP Intelligence, which was created last year to diversify revenue opportunities for the company via “premium content.” The Post appointed Marty Kady, who had previously overseen POLITICO’s highly profitable Pro division, to head it up. 

WP Intelligence, which officially launches later this month, promotes itself as something Washington insiders can’t live without: “Powerful insights. Exclusive access” and promises: “The Washington Post's newest suite of services providing senior executives with the insights and connections they need to navigate critical issues.”

And it’s that “exclusive access” and just who those “powerful insights” are coming from that has alarmed several senior Washington Post journalists.

Amongst the high-profile list of names, who have paid a fee to join, are Rahm Emanuel, who is considering a run for President in 2028, Kurt M. Campbell, Chairman and co-founder of The Asia Group, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, and corporate public affairs strategist and CEO at Ridgely Walsh Juleanna Glover who amongst others represents James Murdoch. 

But it is a name recently added to the WP Intelligence’s Global Security Council that is of particular concern to WaPo reporters who spoke with Breaker. 

“We’re proud to welcome André Pienaar, Founder and Chief Executive of C5 Capital, to the WP Intelligence Global Security Council,” a post on WP Intelligence’s LinkedIn account announced last month.

“André brings decades of leadership at the intersection of national security, energy innovation, and global investment. At C5 Capital, he pioneered the world’s first dedicated fund for the full nuclear energy value chain, supporting advanced reactors, fuel cycle technologies, and critical infrastructure.”

What the announcement failed to mention was C5 Capital and Pienaar’s involvement in IronNet, a cybersecurity company that, after receiving a $3 billion valuation, crashed and burned. The crash saw staff laid off and led to a class-action lawsuit from investors who alleged the company had fraudulently juiced its revenue projections to jack up its stock price.

In fact, a cursory Google search for Pienaar would lead you to an Associated Press article from October of last year, headlined ‘Collapse of national security elites’ cyber firm leaves bitter wake.’

‘Last September, the never-profitable company announced it was shutting down and firing its employees after running out of money, providing yet another example of a tech firm that faltered after failing to deliver on overhyped promises,” the article by AP investigative reporter Alan Suderman noted.

A year before the article was published, Pienaar, with the help of husband and wife law firm Clare Locke, founded by Tom Clare and Libby Locke, began litigation against Suderman.

In an extraordinary and highly aggressive legal maneuver Clare Locke, (who have also represented Ray Dalio, Jeff Fager, Matt Lauer and played a major role in Fox News’s $787m settlement with Dominion) sued Suderman for $10 million alleging defamation based off of messages he had sent associates of Pienaar seeking interviews in the course of his reporting.

It is not unusual for law firms to send media outlets pre-publication warning letters ahead of a story running. But in this case, Clare Locke bypassed that step and began litigating.

“Plaintiff Andre Pienaar brings this defamation action against Alan Suderman, a reporter for the Associated Press, for falsely accusing him of misusing client funds and improperly managing C5 Capital Limited, the investment firm of which Mr. Pienaar is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, in a malicious campaign to manufacture a sensational news story to draw attention to himself and his reporting–even though he knows his accusations about Mr. Pienaar are false,” the complaint, obtained and reviewed by Breaker states.

As evidence, Clare Locke included two LinkedIn messages titled “Media inquiry” that Suderman had sent to associates of Pienaar’s. In the messages, Suderman asked for their help to confirm details regarding C5 and Pienaar for a story he was working on.

Despite the lawsuit, Suderman and the Associated Press persisted and published their piece in October. ‘Pienaar filed a defamation lawsuit last year against an Associated Press reporter who sought interviews with Pienaar’s former associates,’ the article noted. ‘The AP said the suit, which remains pending, was meritless and an attempt to stifle legitimate reporting.’

Clare Locke and Pienaar quietly dropped the case in April, as discovery in the lawsuit was about to begin, according to the documents obtained and reviewed by Breaker. Suderman declined to comment, and the Associated Press did not respond to a request for comment. 

Breaker has also learned that Pienaar is represented by Glover, who also sits on the Washington Post's Intelligence Global Security Council. Before the election (and after the AP story had been published), Glover hosted a background briefing at her Washington, D.C. home. The briefing about election security was from Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and attended by national security and foreign policy reporters. Afterwards, Pienaar met with several of the journalists gathered for an on-the-record briefing to rebut the AP story, including from The Washington Post. Pienaar and Glover declined to comment for this story. Tom Clare did not respond to multiple messages requesting comment.

On Tuesday, Breaker sent a detailed list of questions to The Washington Post, asking what kind of vetting they did before appointing Pienaar to their “Global Security Council.” We asked if they felt comfortable including someone who has used aggressive litigation tactics against a journalist in the hopes of preventing the publication of a story. And if they were concerned that the Washington Post’s journalistic integrity could be compromised by the appearance that they are allowing the brand to be used for what could be viewed as reputational laundering purposes.

“Leveraging the uniqueness of our audience composition, WP Intelligence is a B2B product that serves as a platform for top executives, thought leaders, and policy makers,” a Washington Post spokesperson responded in a statement. 

“As is the case with similar models from our peers, it’s operated separately from our Post newsroom. The initial soft launch has successfully recruited founding members of our first council products, and we have seen strong interest in our soon-to-launch WP Intelligence subscription product.”

The successful recruiting of founding members for WP Intelligence (including Pienaar) may be a subject of discussion at the next board meeting of the Associated Press – where Will Lewis is a director.

(Exclusive.) On a mission to prove herself, MSNBC's new(ish) boss, Rebecca Kutler, has been on a poaching spree from NBC News ahead of the spin-off from the 30 Rock mothership. On Wednesday, the network announced it had signed NBC News correspondents Vaughn Hillyard, Laura Barrón-López, David Noriega, and Marc Santia.

But Breaker has learned there is one NBC News talent that Kutler had been in talks with about joining MSNBC, but has since made clear they are staying put. 

NBC News President, Editorial, Rebecca Blumenstein, even personally called the person in question to make the case that NBC News was the better of the two news outlets, according to two people familiar with the matter. That person is …