WSJ deputy editor Murray to staff: Don’t leak Trump transcript

Wall Street Journal deputy editor Matt Murray warned the paper’s editorial staff not to leak the transcript of the paper’s interview with President Donald Trump, reports Josh Dawsey and Hadas Gold of Politico.

Dawsey and Gold reported that Journal editor Gerard “Baker, according to the transcript, asked many of the questions and took the lead byline on the main piece about the interview as well, an unusual step for the editor in chief of a paper with a large White House reporting staff.

“The Journal has not published a full transcript of the interview. The newspaper posted certain excerpts of the transcript online, but the full version has circulated around the Journal newsroom as well as among others in New York and Washington.

“Matt Murray, the Journal’s deputy editor-in-chief, warned staffers in a conference call in recent days about leaking the transcript, saying it would be a breach of trust, according to several sources familiar with the call.

“‘Damn right I told them that. It’s true,’ Murray said on Tuesday via a Journal spokesperson.”

Read more here to see the transcript, published by Politico.