Did Obama Wiretap The Donald?

[Brad Austin]

And the scarier thing is that almost nobody cares that any of this is going on at all.

It's unbelievable. Just a few years ago the country was outraged when Snowden revealed metadata collection.

Lib drama queen John Oliver actually had a funny segment with Snowden about "d*ck pic" collection.

There was utter disgust over Bush and the Patriot Act. Then in 2015 Obama re-authorized it but supposedly ended bulk collection.

Now we have mass collection of intel on American citizens under the guise of legal "incidental" collection with apparently flexible masking requirements.

Good luck finding the same type of outrage now that the Reps have the WH.

 

[Joe Fan]

The story keeps changing

First, the NYT told us Trump WAS wiretapped
Then the media unanimously said he was NOT wiretapped
Then Nunes ran down the street and the important part of the story suddenly became that Nunes must "APPOLOGIZE!"
Now the story appears to be "OK, Trump Tower WAS wiretapped but the taps were NOT FOR TRUMP."

Good grief. Why is it so hard to get these people to simply be honest, and tell the truth?

(this is Newsweek)

 

[Joe Fan]

 

[Joe Fan]

Yesterday: There was no wiretapping
Today: Okay, but it wasn't incidental, .... incidental!
Tomorrow: ____________

Tomorrow is about there .... and Fox News has a "source" who, if he is telling the truth, will validates Trump's claim that Obama spied on him and the campaign

"Potential 'smoking gun' showing Obama administration spied on Trump team"

"Republican congressional investigators expect a potential “smoking gun” establishing that the Obama administration spied on the Trump transition team, and possibly the president-elect himself, will be produced to the House Intelligence Committee this week, a source told Fox News.

Classified intelligence showing incidental collection of Trump team communications, purportedly seen by committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and described by him in vague terms at a bombshell Wednesday afternoon news conference, came from multiple sources, Capitol Hill sources told Fox News. The intelligence corroborated information about surveillance of the Trump team that was known to Nunes, sources said, even before President Trump accused his predecessor of having wiretappedhim in a series of now-infamous tweets posted on March 4.

The intelligence is said to leave no doubt the Obama administration, in its closing days, was using the cover of legitimate surveillance on foreign targets to spy on President-elect Trump, according to sources....

* * * *
The FBI hasn’t been responsive to the House Intelligence Committee’s request for documents, but the National Security Agency is expected to produce documents to the committee by Friday. The NSA document production is expected to produce more intelligence than Nunes has so far seen or described – including what one source described as a potential “smoking gun” establishing the spying."​

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...stration-spied-on-trump-team-source-says.html

 

[Joe Fan]

So the Dems execute a witchhunt concerning Trump and Russia.
But, like most attacks on Trump, it backfires and what is actually revealed is Obama's ring of spies, including possible felonies committed by people high in the US Govt.

How does the WAPO react?
Front page news, right?
Just like they did for Watergate?

Uh, no. This time they want to target the truth-tellers and whistleblowers.

 

[Joe Fan]

Back in early Feb, the WAPO thought Obama tapping Team Trump was a wonderful thing. They seem gleeful at the thought of using illegally captured/released phone calls to bring down Mike Flynn.

Now they are running cover for the folks who did the illegal spying

Is this the 'Deep State' at work?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...c2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.ac9080c85b5d

 

[Joe Fan]

Pete Hoekstra in the WSJ today

Says Obama White House officials saw raw intel on Trump's people that Congressional intel leaders don't get to see

"..... When I was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, I was routinely involved in briefings as a member of the “Gang of Eight”—both parties’ leaders in the House and Senate and on the intelligence committees. I cannot recall how many times I asked to see raw intelligence reporting and was refused because that stuff is just not made available to policy makers.

But according to Mr. Nunes, such information made its way to the Obama White House before Inauguration Day. Few if any people working in the White House would ever need to see raw intelligence. Like intelligence committee members, they are typically consumers of intelligence products, not raw intelligence.

The raw transcripts of masked persons—or unmasked persons, or U.S. persons who can be easily identified—making their way to the White House is very likely unprecedented. One can only imagine who, at that point, might be reading these reports. Valerie Jarrett? Susan Rice? Ben Rhodes? The president himself? We don’t know, and the people who do aren’t talking at the moment.
* * * *

Adm. Rogers told the House Intelligence Committee that there are strict controls in place for masking and unmasking the identities of people caught up in the inadvertent collection of information and the distribution of this kind of material. It now appears he either misled the committee or doesn’t know what’s happening inside his own agency. If Mr. Nunes is right, the rules either weren’t followed or were much less stringent than Adm. Rogers let on...." ​

https://www.wsj.com/articles/did-obama-abuse-raw-intelligence-1490309760

 

[Phil Elliott]

Just like they did for Watergate?

This just shows, again, that the liberal bias in the media goes way, way back. They are fine digging for the truth when they are taking down a Republican.

 

[Joe Fan]

This just shows, again, that the liberal bias in the media goes way, way back. They are fine digging for the truth when they are taking down a Republican.

Also shows they are no longer fighting The Establishment. They are The Establishment now. They are protecting their own.

 

[I35]

Also shows they are no longer fighting The Establishment. They are The Establishment now. They are protecting their own.

There are three establishments. The Republican Establishment, the Democratic Establishment, and the Media Establishment. Two of the three are in cahoots with each other. Sad thing is the Media Establishment is the most powerful because they control the perception of the American People and our politicians cave to them way too much instead of standing up and doing what is best for America.

 

[Clean]

I wonder is there is any talk about rolling back Obama's change to the law (with 8 days remaining in his Presidency) that made this kind of intelligence available to many government agencies, instead of just a couple of them?

 

[Musburger1]

Dennis Montgomery has the goods? Hopefully we'll see.

 

[Joe Fan]

.....John Podesta (paid to sit on board of Joule Unlimited which was founded by Putin and which got $35M from a Putin-linked Russian government fund -- all of which Podesta failed to fully disclose on fed forms as Hill's chairman), his brother and big time Dem fundraiser Tony Podesta (actually repped Uranium One as well as Russia’s largest bank Sberbank, which he broke US law by failing to disclose), .....

More on the Podesta-Russian link

 

[Joe Fan]

Dennis Montgomery has the goods? Hopefully we'll see.,,,

If anyone doesnt know, Larry Klayman is an ex-DOJ trial attorney who later beat Bill Clinton in court, he was one of two groups who pushed Hillary over her private server issue that gave the public access to information about her activities that the DOJ would have never otherwise released, and perhaps most famously, be beat the NSA in court over bulk collection (they were found to be violating the 4th A). For balance, he also sued Dick Cheney.

 

[Joe Fan]

It's always easiest to see who scares Lefties the most
They make personal attacks on those who they fear
Trump
Sessions
Bannon
Miller
Spicer
Conway
And now Nunes
The Dems fear whoever they think might be effective
They pretty much leave the ineffective alone -- indeed they are happy to have them (McCain, Graham, Ryan ....)

With Nunes, they have now dropped all pretense of getting to the facts. They are now just trying to get Nunes removed. Why? They are afraid of those facts. It looks like they already know the facts or at least what the facts will reveal and do not want any part of it.

 

[Seattle Husker]

With Nunes, they have now dropped all pretense of getting to the facts. They are now just trying to get Nunes removed. Why?

Why? Because the investigator just ran to tell the person they were investigating the evidence that they had. It doesn't get any more simple than that. Nunes compromised the investigation in multiple ways (likely purposefully) and thus should recuse himself.

Again, a special prosecutor should be leading this investigation. The issue is too politicized for any committee to claim impartiality.

 

[OUBubba]

FISA warrants people. The FBI is investigating Russian banks for, among other things, funding the Trump election.

Read Louise Mench (a conservative Brit https://patribotics.blog/ ) who's been on this since November to some noteriety and this guy (who's anti Clinton). https://20committee.com/

The real question is how many Russians are going to die before this all blows over. They're dropping like flies - in 5 months, 8 prominent Russians have expired from various malodies. As it is turning out, most stuff in the infamous "dossier" are turning out to be accurate. It's just a matter of time until the pee tape rears it's head.

 

[Joe Fan]

John Podesta sent The Daily Caller a C&D letter regarding one of its articles -- "EXCLUSIVE: John Podesta May Have Violated Federal Law By Not Disclosing 75,000 Stock Shares."

"may have violated federal law by failing to disclose the receipt of 75,000 shares of stock from a Kremlin-financed company when he joined the Obama White House in 2014."
​

Let us hope it goes to litigation. The discovery alone would be worth the cost of litigation.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/j...ith-a-cease-and-desist-letter/article/2618832

 

[Seattle Husker]

Sean Spicer in today's press conference: "We are willing to provide them with information that we have, the materials that we have come across, and I think that is an important step,"

This is the same information that Nunes viewed at WH facilities then claimed he didn't get the information from the White House but merely needed to use their facilities as a "secure room" to view it? The information he viewed was so critical that he needed to run back to the WH the next day to tell Trump and have his own press conference only to say that Trump campaign associates "may" have had some of their information gleaned through "incidental surveillance". It was so critical that Nunes left himself every backdoor imaginable.

Most of those advancing the "wiretap" BS is being played as pawns. It's amateur hour in the WH on this topic.

 

[OUBubba]

Sean Spicer in today's press conference: "We are willing to provide them with information that we have, the materials that we have come across, and I think that is an important step,"

This is the same information that Nunes viewed at WH facilities then claimed he didn't get the information from the White House but merely needed to use their facilities as a "secure room" to view it? The information he viewed was so critical that he needed to run back to the WH the next day to tell Trump and have his own press conference only to say that Trump campaign associates "may" have had some of their information gleaned through "incidental surveillance". It was so critical that Nunes left himself every backdoor imaginable.

Most of those advancing the "wiretap" BS is being played as pawns. It's amateur hour in the WH on this topic.

What I think is going to play out is that Boris (not a f'n joke), Jared, et al are going to be heard on FISA warrant surveillance saying things that get them into trouble. It's going to open Pandora's box to Carter Page, Manafort, etc. and their actions over the last year. Roger Stone tweeted out "look out for stuff coming on Podesta" that was obviously done in coordination with Wikileaks. They'll drill down into campaign operations such as $ spent in swing states synced up with release of wikileaks data. I mean the guy reached out to Gucifer 2.0 on the twitter for Christ's sake!!!

To me, the big question to ask now is "will this roll up Mike Pence as well?"

 

[Seattle Husker]

What I think is going to play out is that Boris (not a f'n joke), Jared, et al are going to be heard on FISA warrant surveillance saying things that get them into trouble. It's going to open Pandora's box to Carter Page, Manafort, etc. and their actions over the last year. Roger Stone tweeted out "look out for stuff coming on Podesta" that was obviously done in coordination with Wikileaks. They'll drill down into campaign operations such as $ spent in swing states synced up with release of wikileaks data. I mean the guy reached out to Gucifer 2.0 on the twitter for Christ's sake!!!

To me, the big question to ask now is "will this roll up Mike Pence as well?"

I tend to believe that the Trump campaign were simply the "useful idiots" in the Russian interference. The Trump Campaign was the cheerleader on the sidelines as Russia played on the field. As smart as Roger Stone is, he also can't keep his mouth shut. The Trump campaign didn't need to collude with Russia but merely stand back and cheer/promote their actions. I doubt the investigation will turn up any hard evidence of collusion but Trump will be eternally tainted. It also demonstrates that it wasn't his "showmanship" that won but rather the fortunate aid of Russia. In fact, Trump could have been any candidate with an R behind their name and received the benefit of the Russian propaganda machine.

I just hope that Trump gets smarter than he's been and realizes that he's being played like a fiddle.

 

[nashhorn]

It's amateur hour in the WH on this topic.

It's amateur hour in the WH and Congress on more topics than this. Getting sick of the whole mess, correction I am getting sicker of the whole mess.

 

[OUBubba]

I tend to believe that the Trump campaign were simply the "useful idiots" in the Russian interference. The Trump Campaign was the cheerleader on the sidelines as Russia played on the field. As smart as Roger Stone is, he also can't keep his mouth shut. The Trump campaign didn't need to collude with Russia but merely stand back and cheer/promote their actions. I doubt the investigation will turn up any hard evidence of collusion but Trump will be eternally tainted. It also demonstrates that it wasn't his "showmanship" that won but rather the fortunate aid of Russia. In fact, Trump could have been any candidate with an R behind their name and received the benefit of the Russian propaganda machine.

I just hope that Trump gets smarter than he's been and realizes that he's being played like a fiddle.

I agree with you except for the coordination. I was listening to a podcast discussion on this yesterday and they discussed that Trump was such a long shot a few years ago that he kind of attracted only the folks on the fringe of the GOP, people that weren't mainstream and were that way for a reason - their ties to certain unkosher people and gubmits (Manafort, Stone, Boris, etc.) or their out of the mainstream ideas (Miller, v. Gorka, Bannon, etc.). It creates a gnarly soup.

 

[Joe Fan]

....
With Nunes, they have now dropped all pretense of getting to the facts. They are now just trying to get Nunes removed. Why? They are afraid of those facts. It looks like they already know the facts or at least what the facts will reveal and do not want any part of it.

With regard to Nunes -- Retired Colonel Jim Waurishuk, who served on the White House Nat'l Sec Council Staff under Bush 41 (as well as deputy director for intelligence at CENTCOM), describes what Nunes did in going to the White House as “routine.”

“Speaking from my experience, I talked to members of both sides of the aisle. I’ve done that a thousand times. I say that’s routine because that goes on all the time when you’re dealing with the intelligence committee or the armed services committees. We regularly obliged them. Cleared committee chairmen would go over the White House once or twice a week.”​

 

[Seattle Husker]

With regard to Nunes -- Retired Colonel Jim Waurishuk, who served on the White House Nat'l Sec Council Staff under Bush 41 (as well as deputy director for intelligence at CENTCOM), describes what Nunes did in going to the White House as “routine.”

“Speaking from my experience, I talked to members of both sides of the aisle. I’ve done that a thousand times. I say that’s routine because that goes on all the time when you’re dealing with the intelligence committee or the armed services committees. We regularly obliged them. Cleared committee chairmen would go over the White House once or twice a week.”​

Nothing to see here...it's just a routine visit to the White House to meet with members of the National Security team to view evidence then have a press conference the next day with someone you are investigating. Move on...nothing to see here.

 

[iatrogenic]

Maybe they were viewing the evidence, but unless they can magically change the evidence, there is nothing to see here.

 

[ProdigalHorn]

then have a press conference the next day with someone you are investigating.

I thought the whole point of this was that Trump wasn't being investigated?

 

[OUBubba]

I thought the whole point of this was that Trump wasn't being investigated?

No. The point was that there was no wire "tapp" ordered by President Obama of the phones of Trump Tower [insert mental image of G. Gordon Liddy placing clips on the lines in the phone closet]. There WAS a FISA warrant issued by a FISA court to investigate two Russian banks operating in Trump Tower that were under sanctions, I think. Trump folks have apparently gotten rolled up into that ish. Remember these names: Manafort, Page, Boris, Stone, and (it seems) Kushner.

What did we learn from Watergate? It's the cover up...

 

[ProdigalHorn]

The point was that there was no wire "tapp" ordered by President Obama of the phones of Trump Tower [insert mental image of G. Gordon Liddy placing clips on the lines in the phone closet]. There WAS a FISA warrant issued by a FISA court to investigate two Russian banks operating in Trump Tower that were under sanctions, I think. Trump folks have apparently gotten rolled up into that ish.

So... you're agreeing that Trump wasn't being investigated?

 

[Seattle Husker]

I thought the whole point of this was that Trump wasn't being investigated?

That depends on how you translate Comey's statement that they are investigating ties between Russia and the Trump Campaign. I think most of us hope that Trump isn't involved if there has been collusion between the Russians and his campaign.