June 8, 2018
As more information surfaces about the extent of the surveillance of the Trump campaign by Obama’s intelligence agencies it is becoming apparent that the actual goal was to ensnare the Trump team in collusion with the Russians. Not, as stated by many, including those in charge at the top level of intelligence during Obama’s tenure, to just investigate Russia, to prevent Russian interference.
The comment by Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, that the informant was “a good thing”, and was not spying on the Trump campaign, but on Russia, is ludicrous. Clapper’s implication, that the objective of the intelligence agencies was to protect the Trump campaign, belies the facts as have been reported.
The media has been gleeful over Rep. Trey Gowdy’s (R-S.C.) claim that only Russia was the target of the investigation, and that the Trump campaign wasn’t spied upon. Gowdy even added that the FBI acted “appropriately”.
Many have hailed Gowdy’s comments because he’s a Republican, and because of his recent attendance at a briefing where he purportedly saw relevant documents that had been subpoenaed by the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence (HPSCI). However, reporting by Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist has revealed that the Department of Justice did not allow access to all of the documents subpoenaed by the HPSCI. Hemingway cites tweets from a CNN reporter and a CBS News reporter, which both state that Gowdy and the other lawmakers in attendance did not receive the requested documents.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” affirmed the reporting that no documents were shown about the paid informant during the two briefings.
It’s inexplicable why Gowdy would claim that the documents he has seen have satisfied him that the FBI did not spy on the Trump campaign. Perhaps, as a former prosecutor he is hesitant to criticize other law enforcement officers. Or perhaps he is defining a “spy” as an embedded mole. There is no evidence that a spy infiltrated the Trump camp, and this is not what is being asserted. However, the evidence that Obama’s Justice Department surveilled, aka spied on the Trump campaign, and not just Russia, is overwhelming.
The New York Times has reported that four Trump campaign aides were monitored during the course of the probe. The four men included Paul Manafort- Trump’s short-lived campaign manager, Mike Flynn- Trump’s then National Security advisor, George Papadopolous, and Carter Page-brief campaign advisors. In the case of Carter Page, Obama’s Department of Justice applied for and was granted a foreign intelligence surveillance warrant four times. Incredibly, the now debunked salacious dossier was presented to the courts as evidence to gain the FISA warrant against Page. Shamefully, the FBI never told the FISA court that the Hillary Clinton campaign financed the dossier.
This intrusive FISA warrant, allowed the FBI to look at the content of Page’s present, as well as past emails, and allowed them to wiretap his phone calls. A FISA warrant was also issued for Manafort.
Members of Trump’s campaign were also monitored using a secret subpoena called a National Security Letter. This is less invasive than a FISA warrant. This type of surveillance allowed the DOJ and FBI to monitor phone and email records.
Obama’s intelligence agencies also employed a paid informant, Stefan Halper. Halper is a Cambridge professor with ties to American and British intelligence. Who, not incidentally has publically stated his preference for Hillary over Trump.
Halper contacted and met with Page, Papadopolous, and campaign associate Sam Clovis. Page’s first encounter with Halper was in early July, predating the July 31 date given by the FBI as the official start of the probe, which means that this meeting mat have been in violation of Bureau rules. The FBI forbids the targeting of an American with a paid informant prior to the official opening of a probe.
Gowdy, along with liberal lawmakers and many pundits have made the claim that it is not unusual for the FBI to use a paid informant to solicit information. Perhaps this is true. However, after almost two years it is still unclear what evidence there was to justifying the opening of this probe. Also is it really standard operating procedure for the administration in power to employ an informant to surreptitiously elicit information from the presidential campaign of the opposition party? That’s probably a big “No”.
The claim by Gowdy, and others, including James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence under Obama, that only Russia, and those suspected of Russian contacts were spied upon, not the Trump campaign is nonsensical. Members of Trump’s campaign were actively surveiled and approached by a paid informant. You cannot parse these individuals from the campaign as a whole, to make the claim that the “campaign” was not investigated. If members of the campaign were actively monitored the campaign was indeed spied upon. Undoubtedly these four individuals had many communications with other members from the Trump team, including Trump.
If truly the only objective of Obama’s intelligence agencies was to protect Trump, as implied by Clapper, and prevent Russian intrusion, then why not inform and warn Trump and his associates, and elicit their help? When Trump hired Manafort why didn’t the FBI let him know that he had a problematic history? Perhaps, it was because the actual goal was not to prevent interference, but was to implicate member(s) of the Trump team nefariously colluding with the Russians. Was this the “insurance policy” mentioned in the infamous text exchanges between FBI agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok?
The claim that this probe was business as usual is contradicted by the fact that the FBI did not inform the congressional “Gang of Eight”, (a bipartisan group of congressional leaders from the House and Senate Intelligence committees) until March 20, 2017. It was a full eight- months into the investigation before James Comey, then Director of the FBI, revealed that the FBI was conducting a counterintelligence investigation. If only Russia was the target of their investigation then why the need for such secrecy?
It is also very odd that when Comey briefed then President-elect Trump, in January 2017, for the first time about the infamous Steele dossier he only informed him of the salacious aspects involving prostitutes. Why did he not tell him the main allegation made in the dossier, which accused Trump and associates of being in collusion with Russian officials to sway the election? Most likely, the obfuscation was necessary because indeed the Trump campaign was under investigation by the incumbent administration.
Unfortunately, the Justice Department has been stonewalling Congress for over a year in their efforts to see requested information related to the investigation into Trump and Russian collusion. Since April Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Senate Intelligence Committee, has been attempting to see the corroborating documents related to the informant hired by the FBI to spy on the Trump campaign. Citing national security concerns the department originally denied access.
Notable Happenings this week
Most likely due to the pressure exerted by President Trump, House speaker Paul Ryan and Nunes, the DOJ has consented to provide the requested documents. The briefing, which will be provided to the Gang of Eight is set to take place early next week.
It was also recently announced that the long awaited inspector general report on the FBI handling of the Clinton email investigation is set to be released next Thursday, June 14, which happens to be President Trump’s birthday. Based on leaked information, the report is expected to be highly critical of former FBI Director James Comey, and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who came under scrutiny after her infamous meeting on the tarmac with Bill Clinton. It has also been reported that the IG has referred Andrew McCabe, the FBI Deputy Director under James Comey, for possible prosecution as a consequence of his lying to internal investigators.
Although this IG report is not specifically addressing the Russia Trump collusion probe, only the Hillary Clinton email investigation, as both involve the same cast of characters the outcome of this report will have ramifications for the current probe into the Trump Campaign and Russian interference into the 2016 election.
Lastly, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are set for their historic summit on Tuesday, June 12. This will be the first face-to -face meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
Should be an interesting week…
