Intentionally or accidentally, Trump just forced the press to admit how weak the bulk of those allegations were. The wiretapping timeline that has drawn so much attention since Saturday night was largely based on mainstream media reporting. The media is effectively saying, “Hey, wait, we were just blowing smoke. We didn’t think anyone would take those reports seriously and build a case that Obama was wiretapping Trump. We just wanted to make Trump look bad by pumping up vague rumors that he and his campaign might have been under observation!”
Trump’s allegations raised questions about whether federal authorities had obtained a legal warrant to tap Trump's or his associates’ calls, perhaps through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which can authorize wiretaps against potential foreign spies. Those orders are typically classified, and Trump’s comments sent Washington scrambling to understand his allegations.
One of the best and most even-handed observers of the wiretapping drama is Andy McCarthy, who writes for the decidedly non-Trumpian National Review. McCarthy’s Sunday post on the matter is well worth reading in full.
His key point is that some highly unusual FISA requests for surveillance on the Trump campaign were made and were denied by the court, as very few such requests are. The Obama administration was persistent and eventually obtained the authorization it wanted, but there is reason to suspect it was not entirely candid with the FISA court on its final, successful request.
Steve James wrote:Well, Obama would have been right to examine all Trump's Russia connections as deeply as he could. Trump's a liar, so it's necessary to check. Shucks, all he really had/has to do was say "Yes, I do loads of business in Russia. What's wrong with that?" Like he's said, he could murder someone in the broad daylight and his supporters wouldn't mind. He said it, and it wasn't hyperbole.
Steve James wrote:Well, Obama would have been right to examine all Trump's Russia connections as deeply as he could. Trump's a liar, so it's necessary to check. Shucks, all he really had/has to do was say "Yes, I do loads of business in Russia. What's wrong with that?" Like he's said, he could murder someone in the broad daylight and his supporters wouldn't mind. He said it, and it wasn't hyperbole.
This bring us to Watergate-on-Steroids, or #ObamaGate. Here are the problematic aspects of the Obama surveillance on Trump’s team, and on Trump himself. First, it is not apparent FISA could ever be invoked.
Second, it is possible Obama’s team may have perjured themselves before the FISA court by withholding material information essential to the FISA court’s willingness to permit the government surveillance.
Third, it could be that Obama’s team illegally disseminated and disclosed FISA information in direct violation of the statute precisely prohibiting such dissemination and disclosure. FISA prohibits, under criminal penalty, Obama’s team from doing any of the three.
That raises the third problem: it seems the FISA-compelled protocols for precluding the dissemination of the information were violated, and that Obama’s team issued orders to achieve precisely what the law forbids, if published reports are true about the administration sharing the surveilled information far-and-wide to promote unlawful leaks to the press.
This, too, would be its own crime, as it brings back the ghost of Hillary’s emails — by definition, FISA information is strictly confidential or it’s information that never should have been gathered. FISA strictly segregates its surveilled information into two categories: highly confidential information of the most serious of crimes involving foreign acts of war; or, if not that, then information that should never have been gathered, should be immediately deleted, and never sourced nor disseminated. It cannot be both.
Then where did all the "evidence" and "transcripts" of trump contacts with russia come from?
its a win-win for trump. either there were no taps and the russia accusations are completely fabricated, as are the stories that the fbi, etc. have transcripts of trump contacts with russia.
or obama really wiretapped trump and people are going to fry for it.
Steve James wrote:A lot of posts. Ok, what did Obama find out?
The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank.
While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.
but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank.
First Public Hearing for Russia Election Interference Probe Called
http://www.voanews.com/a/trump-justice- ... 177.htmlte
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