George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide, was the target of an F.B.I. investigation into connections between the campaign and Russia.CreditCreditTom Brenner for The New York Times
New York Times: F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016
WASHINGTON — The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?
The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.
The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it “Spygate.”
The decision to use Ms. Turk in the operation aimed at a presidential campaign official shows the level of alarm inside the F.B.I. during a frantic period when the bureau was trying to determine the scope of Russia’s attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, but could also give ammunition to Mr. Trump and his allies for their spying claims.
Read more ....
Update: FBI sent undercover investigator to meet with Papadopoulos in 2016: report (The Hill)
WNU Editor: This is an explosive story and a follow up on a previous New York Time's report from last year .... New York Times Reveals How U.S. Intelligence And The Justice Department Targeted And Spied On The Trump Campaign During The Election Campaign (May 17, 2018). The New York Times is trying to rationalize why the FBI sent an agent to spy on a Trump aide, and in the process giving them cover for why they did it. Good luck on that. This is (again) another validation on previous claims by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. So why did the New York Times release this story today? To get ahead of Attorney General Barr's upcoming investigation on what precipitated the investigation/spy operation on the Trump campaign. To say that I smell panic in those who are afraid on what Attorney General Barr is going to find is an understatement.
Update #2: The MI6 connection via through the use of Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper in this FBI operation is intriguing. Did MI6 sanctioned this operation, and what role did the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community specifically play in using Professor Stefan A. Halper in this operation? And then there is this interesting Pentagon connection to Stefan A. Halper .... Pentagon Analyst Stripped Of His Security Clearances After Questioning Exorbitant Contracts for Trump-Campaign Spy Stefan Halper (August 17, 2018).
Update #3: George Papadopoulos has already commented on this article. He agrees with the New York Times, but is saying that it was not an FBI agent that was sent to spy on him, but a CIA agent (link here). A direct tie to former CIA Director John Brennan? And if true did he approve it?
5 comments:
But that paper is fake news. till they post what you like
Papadopoulos sent emails concerning meeting with Putin to at least seven campaign officials. Clovis, as Trump national campaign co-chairman, encouraged Papadopoulos to fly to Russia to meet with agents of the Russian Foreign Ministry, after Papadopoulos had been told that Russia had "dirt" on Clinton it wanted to share with Trump's campaign.[35][36][37][38] This occurred after public knowledge that Clinton had deleted thousands of her emails, but before there was public knowledge of the hack of Democratic National Committee and of John Podesta's emails, the latter two of which U.S. intelligence agencies believe were carried out by Russia.[39]
@Anonymous
It's clearly written to soften the landing for this story. If your only goal with a comment is to provide snarky quips that sway few, then congratulations. Frustration noted. However mischaracterizing WNU's words into something like "NYT damns FBI spy operation!" is a pretty obvious strawman.
Slightly OT but related - fake news gets it right twice in one day.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/politics/cnn-poll-mueller-report-trump-approval/index.html
[snip] WASHINGTON (CNN)With Robert Mueller's investigation finished, Donald Trump's approval rating stands at its highest level since April 2017 in a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS, as the share who say Democrats in Congress are doing too much to investigate the President rises 6 points.
Trump's approval rating remains largely negative in the new poll -- 52% disapprove and 43% approve -- but that approval figure is the highest -- by one point -- since a CNN poll completed around the 100-day mark of his time in office. At the same time, the share who say they strongly approve of the way the President is handling his job (35%) is at its highest level ever in CNN's polling.
In one point of partisan agreement over Mueller's work, 69% think Congress ought to investigate the origins of the Justice Department's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including 76% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 62% of Republicans.
35% approve in a very good job market and good economy?
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