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Showing posts with label Trump wire tapping scandal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trump wire tapping scandal. Show all posts
In the aftermath of the WaPo story accusing Trump of improperly sharing highly confidential information with Russia's foreign minister Peskov during their meeting one week ago (and one day after the firing of James Comey), Donald Trump took to Twitter to defend his Russia comments amid mounting criticism he may either have broken the law or acted inappropriately in divulging secret information.
In two tweets, Trump said "As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism."
WNU Editor: He had every right to do so ..... and as I had mentioned in an earlier post, if these terror plots involved civil aviation, the U.S. is obligated by treaty and security agreements to provide this information to members of ICAO (the UN's civil aviation organisation). The more that I think about it .... especially when I learned that Washington Post reporter Greg Miller did not even bother to contact the only U.S. officials who were in the meeting .... Director of National Security McMaster, Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell and US Secretary of State Tillerson (who have all denied this story) .... this Washington Post story with anonymous sources is beginning to look more as a hit job than anything else.
The FBI obtained a warrant to secretly surveil former Donald Trump aide Carter Page last summer under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), according to a Tuesday Washington Post report.
The FBI and Justice Department demonstrated probable cause that Page is acting on behalf of a foreign state in order to be granted the warrant.
The FISA warrant was part of the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump campaign associates, law enforcement and U.S. officials told the Post.
WNU Editor: From ‘I know nothing’ about unmasking of Trump officials (first video from PBS) .... to today's awkward NBC interview (second video) where Rice confirmed that she requested the demasking of Americans while she was National Security Adviser .... but she was very careful to not deny that she asked that names of Trump officials to be demasked .... instead insisting the Obama administration did not spy on Mr. Trump or his staff for political purposes. Hmmmm .... she is going to satisfy no one from this NBC interview.
Her interest was not in national security but to advance the political interests of the Democratic party.
The thing to bear in mind is that the White House does not do investigations. Not criminal investigations, not intelligence investigations. Remember that.
Why is that so important in the context of explosive revelations that Susan Rice, President Obama’s national-security adviser, confidant, and chief dissembler, called for the “unmasking” of Trump campaign and transition officials whose identities and communications were captured in the collection of U.S. intelligence on foreign targets?
Because we’ve been told for weeks that any unmasking of people in Trump’s circle that may have occurred had two innocent explanations: (1) the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the election and (2) the need to know, for purposes of understanding the communications of foreign intelligence targets, the identities of Americans incidentally intercepted or mentioned. The unmasking, Obama apologists insist, had nothing to do with targeting Trump or his people.
Former national security adviser Susan Rice on Tuesday categorically denied that the Obama administration inappropriately spied on President Trump or members of his transition team.
“The allegation is that somehow, Obama administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes,” Rice told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “That’s absolutely false.”
Rice had requested that at least one Trump transition team member be “unmasked,” Bloomberg View reported Monday, leading to claims that the Obama White House had intended to use that intelligence to damage Trump’s transition.
Read more ....
More News On Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice Denying Reports That the Obama Administration Spied On The Trump Team
White House lawyers last month learned that the former national security adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The pattern of Rice's requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government's policy on "unmasking" the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like "U.S. Person One."
WNU Editor: It looks like my trusted contact and reader of War News who gave me a heads-up on this story yesterday was right ....Is Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice The Person Who Unmasked Trump Administration Officials?This is .... as I keep on saying .... a huge story. If true .... senior officials of the White House were using the intelligence apparatus of the U.S. government to monitor their political opponents during an election season. I will not be surprised if in the coming weeks/months Susan Rice will be asked to testify under oath on this story .... specifically .... did she do it? Why did she do it? Was she ordered by President Obama to do it .... and if not .... did she informed the President on what she was doing.... and if she did .... when? Did she order the intelligence community to unmask these names? And was she the one who leaked this intel to the press?
On a side note .... my source also told me last night that the New York Times has had this story for the past few days .... but decided to not publish it. As for Susan Rice .... she is avoiding the press for now.
More News On Reports That President Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice Requested The Names of Trump Associates In Raw Intelligence Reports
A U.S. Senate investigation into Russia's meddling during the U.S. election should include a thorough review of any financial ties between Russia and President Donald Trump and his associates, Democratic senator Ron Wyden said Wednesday.
In a formal written request made to the leaders of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden said financial relationships between Trump, a real estate developer with properties around the world, and Russia are deserving of scrutiny because of resistance by Trump and some in his orbit have not been forthcoming about their finances.
"Efforts to understand these relationships and to separate fact from speculation have been hampered by the opacity of the finances of President Trump and his associates," Wyden, who also sits on the intelligence panel, wrote to Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Mark Warner.
The House intelligence chairman says there's no reason for him to step down from probe into ties between Trump's campaign and Russia.
Embattled House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Tuesday rejected calls for his recusal, questioning why he should step aside from leading the panel’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the presidential election and possible collusion between Russian officials and President Donald Trump’s associates.
“Well, why would I not?” Nunes (R-Calif.) told reporters when asked whether he’d continue to lead the investigation. “Why would it not?” he said when asked whether the probe could continue with him at the helm. Read more ....
WNU Editor: Another day in the Trump - Russia story .... where we learn one thing from the media in the morning .... Trump administration sought to block Sally Yates from testifying to Congress on Russia(Washington Post), an explanation later .... Former acting attorney general Yates warned that testimony could be barred(USA Today), and the truth later .... White House Denies Claims That Former Attorney-General Sally Yates’ Testimony Was Blocked (NBC). What's my take .... this specific controversy blew up when the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes went to the White House last week to review intel documents that verified surveillance was being done on the Trump team. And while everyone in the media, the Democrats, and the usual 2 Republican senators (McCain and Graham) are now upset with where the investigation is going (i.e. who permitted the surveillance of the Trump team and the unmasking of who was under surveillance and not the Russia-Trump story) .... I find it fascinating that no one is demanding to see the intel documents that caused this uproar in the first place. There must be something there, because if there was not every Democrat would have read what Devin Nunes had read .... and they would be accusing him of gross misconduct at a level far greater and louder than what they are doing now. As for the chaos in this investigation ... as I have said more than once .... for this "investigation" to move forward .... the Democrats and the media now need to produce evidence and officials to validate their claims .... instead of demanding a special investigation and/or prosecutor to look for the evidence that validates their case .... in short conducting a witch-hunt in the hope of finding something. But that is not going to happen .... it is clear the Republicans are united on this one .... and it is also clear that after months of claims and accusations .... the Democrats have nothing .... and I will not be surprised if months from now they will still have nothing to show. But this story is far from dead. There is a lot of damning evidence that the Trump team was under surveillance by someone in the U.S. government .... this blog alone posted many stories from the media on leaks that could only have come from a surveillance operation .... and that is where in the end the investigation will probably lead. In the meantime .... and I feel like a broken record because nothing new has been produced since all of these claims started after the election .... here is the usual main stream media reporting of this story ....
For the last few days, much of Washington has been obsessed with what Representative Devin Nunes did last Tuesday evening. That was the night before Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made the explosive allegation that he had viewed dozens of intelligence reports obtained through government eavesdropping that inappropriately included details about the Trump transition team.
According to a Daily Beast report later over the weekend, Nunes went off the grid that night to meet a source and view dozens of intelligence reports, including accounts of meetings involving President Donald Trump's advisers.
WNU Editor: The opponents are piling on (see below) .... but Eli Lake (see above) does make a good explanation on why Representative Devin Nunes had to go to a secure location (i.e. the White House grounds) to view the documents and records that his intel source told him that he had .... information that led him to make his announcement the next day, and his visit to the President. The fact that members of the committee will also get the same access to view the same documents/records that Representative Devin Nunes had seen should temper the outcry over what has happened .... but I am willing to bet that it will not, and I am sure that the Democrats are going to have an interpretation of the intel that will be disclosed to them when they get the chance to see it. My hope is that one day we .... the public .... will also get the same access, but I suspect that it is going to be a while before that happens.
Longtime Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward said officials who served under the Obama administration could be facing criminal charges for illegally revealing the names of people working on President Donald Trump’s transition team.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes said on Wednesday that he received new information unrelated to alleged Russian interference, suggesting team members or even Trump himself may have had their identities “unmasked” after communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies during surveillance of foreign individuals.
Woodward, in an interview with Fox News, said if the allegation is true, “it is a gross violation.”
WNU Editor: We are a long way from what Bob Woodward is talking about .... and I doubt that it will eventually come to that (i.e. Obama officials facing criminal charges). But as I have said more than once in this blog on this story .... the 800lb gorilla in the room has always been the same .... who gave the press all of these leaks after the U.S. election .... leaks that are illegal, and leaks that could have only come from "intercepted" communications and surveillance. Find that answer with solid proof .... and you may have a story that will rival Watergate.
Update: From someone who served in the Nixon White House and was there during Watergate, he is starting to connect the dots .... The Obama Plot to Sabotage Trump (Pat Buchanan, Towhall)
The House Intelligence Committee chairman said Friday that Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, has volunteered to be interviewed before his committee, which is investigating alleged ties between Trump campaign officials and Russia as well as the Kremlin’s activities in the 2016 election.
Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said that Manafort’s lawyer “contacted the committee yesterday to offer the committee the opportunity to interview his client.”
Nunes did not say whether the Manafort briefing would be public or take place behind closed doors, leaving the decision mostly up to Manafort himself.
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.
WNU Editor: There may be some truth to this story. Apparently the FBI is not cooperating with the House Intel committee .... Intel chair Nunes: FBI not yet cooperating on surveillance questions (Washington Examiner) .... but the NSA is .... Nunes: NSA cooperating with our investigation, the FBI is not (West Virginia) .... and they are the ones who are providing the intel to Chairman Nunes. But I am still sceptical of all of this .... no one has provided anything that I would call evidence .... all that I am hearing and reading is just talk.
A Russian billionaire paid former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort millions of dollars to boost the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Associated Press reports. The new allegations arise months after Manafort resigned from the campaign amid concerns over his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
"According to documents that we've reviewed, Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian oligarch who wanted him to promote Russian interests," the AP's Chad Day tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "And in particular, he wrote a memo that outlined this kind of vast plan for him to promote Russian interests in the former Soviet republics — and also to specifically benefit the Putin government."
WNU Editor: The Russians are denying this story ....Kremlin says new report linking Trump team to Moscow ‘defies reason’ (Washington Times). More denials here .... Kremlin denies any involvement in Manafort-Deripaska contacts (TASS). There is also some good background information on Paul Manafort here .... Trump Just Hired His Next Scandal(Eli Lake, Bloomberg). When the story first broke out I avoided it because a good part of the case against Paul Manafort was coming from Ukrainian sources .... Paul Manafort, Former Trump Campaign Chief, Faces New Allegations in Ukraine (New York Times). I have one rule when it comes to Ukrainian sources .... always be sceptical. But the Cyprus bank revelations are new .... and these revelations are "independent" from Russian and Ukrainian pressures. I also know that the banking system in Cyprus is favoured by many Russian oligarchs who like to move money around .... so if they were to pay some money to someone like Paul Manafort .... they would use that system. But the problem with this entire Manafort story is that there is really no evidence of any collusion between Russia and the Trump team .... just claims based on what the people who are investigating this case believe happened. They is also another big problem with this story .... doing business with Russian oligarchs (which is what the Russians and Manafort are claiming) .... is still not against the law. In fact .... U.S. - Russian business activities (even with sanctions) is now a huge business, that now involves literally everyone who makes up the who's who list in America's business community .... and this also includes the political establishment in Washington. In this context .... Paul Manafort is really a small fish, and the only reason why the focus is now on him is because of his Trump connection. If he was not Trump's former campaign chairman .... this would not even be a story. My prediction .... this is going to be President Trump's next scandal .... and it is going to be a tough one to defend. The image and optics of your campaign manager receiving millions of dollars from associates who know President Putin directly is not a good one .... even if you broke no laws nor violated any rules. And as to the question .... were laws broken .... the FBI are going to have their work cut out for them because no one on the Russian side is going to talk .... and I doubt that Paul Manafort is going to be accommodating. But politically .... for President Trump .... this is going to hurt, and for the media .... they are not going to avoid this story.
More News On The Case Of Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort And His Russian Connections
One of the strangest turns in the story of Russia and the Trump campaign has been the recent outrage from Democrats over politicization of the investigation.
This all centers on Chairman Devin Nunes, the Republican who is leading the House Intelligence Committee's investigation. He was an adviser to the Trump presidential transition. The White House asked him last month to talk to a reporter to rebut news stories that alleged Trump associates had many contacts with Russian intelligence officers. On Wednesday, Nunes briefed the president about new information he had regarding dozens of widely disseminated intelligence reports on the Trump transition. He did this before he briefed his committee's Democrats.
WNU Editor: The media and Democrats (plus some Republicans) are piling on Chairman Devin Nunes ... but Eli Lake tries to make the case that maybe some of the points that Chairman Devin Nunes are raising should be pursued and investigated. As to what is my take .... Devin Nunes should have first briefed his colleagues on the panel on what was brought to him, and from there go to the President (or not). He choose to go straight to the White House .... hence becoming the story instead of what he has discovered .... which should be the main story. But in all fairness .... this story has become 100% politicised .... and it is going to get worse .... especially if the intel that Chairman Devin Nunes claims he has do reveal that there was wide spread surveillance of the Trump team, and that this intel was then disseminated to the press and others. And if the paper trail reveals that this was done under the direction of officials from the Obama administration ..... wow .... this is then going to be an even bigger story than I could have ever imagined. But .... if I was a betting man .... I am willing to bet that there is going to be no smoking gun or evidence of anything .... and that all sides are going to be deeply disappointed .... especially on the Democrat/progressive side who still cannot accept the idea that President Trump won the election. In the meantime .... the Trump agenda rolls on.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is claiming that he has been presented with new information on collusion between associates of President Donald Trump and Russia that would merit a grand jury investigation.
Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN Thursday that he had seen additional evidence, but would not specify what it was.
"We continue to get new information that, I think, paints a more complete picture of at least what we know at the outset of our investigation," Schiff said.
Asked to explain his comments earlier in the week when he said there was more than just "circumstantial evidence of collusion," Schiff said, "I do think that it's appropriate to say that it's the kind of evidence that you would submit to a grand jury at the beginning of an investigation.
WNU Editor: The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee (Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has already come out and said that he does not know what this new evidence is. Also .... the top Democrat in the US Senate does not share the same point of view that his Democrat colleague in the House is saying .... Top Senate Democrat Won't Go As Far As House Counterpart On Trump-Russia Collusion (NBC). What's my take .... I have been hearing the same thing from Rep. Adam Schiff since the election .... now is the time to produce his new evidence to the committee instead of just talking about it.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hammered the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee on Thursday, saying Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is simply a “stooge” for President Trump who can’t be trusted to lead an unbiased investigation into ties between Russia and the White House.
Pelosi said Nunes “acted outside the circle of respect” for his responsibility as Intelligence chairman when he went Wednesday to the press and the president with new information surrounding the panel’s probe into Russian hacking of the 2016 election and possible surveillance of Trump's team — without telling the other members of the committee.
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.
(CNN)House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's personal communications may have been picked up by investigators through "incidental collection."
Nunes said at a news conference he discovered the potential surveillance of Trump himself while reviewing intelligence reports, but said it was not related to Russia.
"This is a normal, incidental collection, based on what I could collect," Nunes said. "This appears to be all legally collected foreign intelligence under" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Nunes said he alerted House Speaker Paul Ryan about the collection and is traveling to the White House Wednesday afternoon.
WNU Editor: Oh Oh. President Trump said this happened to him in a Tweet two weeks ago .... and has paid for it from constant negative media coverage since. Apparently House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes found this intel and information by himself reviewing past reports, and is now going to the White House to brief the President on this story. So much for all the denials from the FBI and NSA Director on Monday. I could be wrong .... but if this is true .... the media is going to have a lot of egg on its face, officials from the former Obama administration are going to be faced with some embarrassing questions, and the big question .... who ordered and directed all of this surveillance (while unmasking President-elect Trump) will need to be answered. This is a big story.
Update: Today's White House press conference is a sight to see. The media are just beyond themselves that there appears to be evidence that President Trump was under surveillance, and that what was obtained was given to the press via through the leaks. (Go here for the White House news conference).
More News On The House Intel Chairman Believing Trump Transition Members Were Under Surveillance During The Obama Administration And That President-Elect Trump's Personal Communications May Have Been Collected
* He says FBI probing any links between Trump campaign, Russia
* ‘Putin hated Secretary Clinton so much’ he tried to help Trump
FBI Director James Comey confirmed the bureau is probing potential ties between President Donald Trump’s associates and Russia during the 2016 campaign and said there’s no evidence to support the president’s allegation that his predecessor “wiretapped” Trump Tower last year.
“I have no information that supports those tweets and we have looked carefully inside the FBI," Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on Monday.
Comey said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a broad inquiry into Moscow’s efforts to “interfere” in the presidential election, an effort he said began in late July of last year.
WNU Editor: The anti-Trumpers are having a field day with today's FBI Director's official announcement that (1) no wire-tap of Trump Tower, and (2) there is (since July) an investigation on the relationship between the Trump team and the Russian government. Other notable remarks from the FBI Director is his comment today that the Russian government wanted to hurt the Clinton campaign .... that Putin personally hated Clinton (something that I have more than once pointed out in this blog) even though the the FBI Director admits that there is no evidence that the Russians influenced the outcome of the election in anyway. But what also caught my attention was the FBI Director's statement that Russia did not provide the email leaks to Wikileaks .... a bombshell that (so far) has not been reported by the main stream media. No evidence of collusion. No Russia - Wikileaks ties over leaked emails. These admissions alone would be more than enough to have put an end to these hearings today. But .... this is Washington .... this story has been ongoing since the fall of last year and I expect this circus to continue and the need for the Democrats to feed their base that this story/conspiracy theory .... call it what you want .... is true .... that the election was stolen from Hillary Clinton. But as I have mentioned more than once in the past .... there is one problem with this narrative ..... no evidence has been provided. I repeat .... no evidence has been provided .... even today.
On a personal note .... after listening to the hearings this morning .... there are some questions that I do like the answers to. One .... who in the Justice Department ordered the FBI to do this investigation in July .... an investigation that started even before Trump had won the Republican nomination. And two .... is there (or was there) any investigations on the Clinton campaign's contacts with officials from the Russian government (that we know also happened last summer). Will these questions be answered later today .... I do not know .... but what kills me about today's hearing is that it was Trump's tax return that was illegally leaked. That it was also his phone conversations that were illegally leaked. But it is Trump who is the focus of the FBI investigation? This is why I am now wondering if these hearings are being used by the Washington "establishment" to send a message to President Trump. In the past I scoffed at the many reports and commentaries ... primarily from the extreme right (and left) that the Washington establishment .... both Republican and Democrat .... would stop at nothing to make sure that President Trump would not push for the reforms and changes in policy that he won his mandate on. Now .... I am not sure. And after listening to the FBI Director's remarks today with no evidence to back-up any of these claims/charges .... and the lack of follow-up questions from the Republicans .... is a message being sent to president Trump to stop Obamacare/trade/immigration/drain the swamp/etc. .... "or else". I let you guys and gals who read this blog to be the judge of that.
Update #2: Someone just made a good point. If Hillary Clinton had won the election .... would the Republicans be doing the same thing today?
Update #3: Another good point from another reader. For the past few months the media has been reporting on leaks and reports of Russian collusion with the Trump team. President Trump states 2 weeks ago in a tweet that that he was/is under surveillance as ordered by the former Obama administration .... and is immediately condemned by everyone .... even though these same media people have been reporting on leaks of intercepted communications non-stop since the election. But we now know today that there is an official investigation but Trump Tower was not "wire-tapped". So who is being investigated? The FBI Director is refusing to answer that question today. Bottom line .... these hearings are a charade .... but man-o-man .... it is going to feed the conspiracy theories for those who hate President Trump.
Update #4: Some are criticising me for going out of my way in defending President Trump. Nope. I am 99% sure that all of this will come to nothing when it is concluded 2 or 3 years from now. What makes me upset is that the debate should be on President Trump's national and international agenda and policies .... policies that will have a far greater impact on all of us than what is happening right now in the House Intel Committee. Sighhh .... but that is Washington. While everyone's focus is on what the FBI Director is saying right now .... and hope that someone somewhere will produce a smoking gun .... President Trumps agenda and policies are being negotiated and implemented with little if any debate or attention.
More News On FBI Director Comey And NSA Director Rogers' Testimony At The U.S. House Intelligence Committee
FBI Director James Comey's appearance Monday before the House committee investigating Russian interference in the election could put to the test a fragile truce between the panel's top Republican and Democrat.
Comey and National Security Agency (NSA) head Adm. Michael Rogers are slated to testify in the House Intelligence Committee's first open hearing in the probe — a hotly-anticipated panel that is expected to quickly divide members by party.
While it's unclear how much the pair will be able to discuss openly, lawmakers are expected to be largely united in pushing the FBI director to resolve President Trump’s claim that he was “wiretapped" by his predecessor.
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