Posted on 04/13/2017 5:45:41 PM PDT by Pinkbell
Donald Trump set the media into a frenzy on March 4 when he Tweeted in the morning that Obama had "wiretapped him." The Tweets read as follows:
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
This all hit the scene on March 3 thanks to Mark Levin and Breitbart which does an in depth piece citing multiple media outlets:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/03/mark-levin-obama-used-police-state-tactics-undermine-trump/
On January 20, the NYT headline on their print addition read "Wiretapped Data Used In Inquiry of Trump Aides." It said the following:
The January 20th New York Times story reports that "American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort..."
The report goes on to say that "intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House."
http://www.hannity.com/articles/election-493995/new-york-times-confirmed-wiretaps-used-15618638/
The media kept asking Trump for proof. Besides referring to the media's own reporting, Trump pointed to comments made by Judge Napalitano who said that the Obama Administration used the British intelligence agency GCHQ:
On "Fox & Friends" this morning, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that even if the Obama administration did spy on Trump, there may never be a way to prove it.
He explained that the statutes allow the president to order the surveillance of any person in the U.S., without suspicion, probable cause or a warrant, but that would leave "fingerprints."
In this case, the alleged surveillance was reportedly ordered in a way that left no record, he said. "Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command," Napolitano said. "He didn't use the NSA, he didn't use the CIA, he didn't use the FBI, and he didn't use the Department of Justice."
Instead, Napolitano said, Obama used GCHQ, a British intelligence and security organization that has 24-7 access to the NSA database.
"There's no American fingerprints on this," Napolitano said. "What happened to the guy who ordered this? Resigned three days after Donald Trump was inaugurated."
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/03/14/judge-napolitano-why-there-may-never-be-proof-even-if-obama-spied-trump
The British were not pleased with this at all. The media went into doomsday mode and ginned up the outrage mafia by saying that Trump had ruined relations with the UK. The GCHQ defended themselves:
The comments prompted a furious response from GCHQ, which in a break from normal practice issued a public statement: "Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wiretapping' against the then president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."
Teresa May condemned the allegations:
"We've made clear to the US administration that these claims are ridiculous and should be ignored. We've received assurances that these allegations won't be repeated," May's spokesman said.
The British said there is no way they would ever do this:
May's spokesman argued this pact precluded the kind of spying alleged by Napolitano, saying: "I would add as a matter of fact that under the 'Five Eyes' intelligence agreement, we cannot use each other's capabilities to circumvent the law. It's a situation that simply wouldn't arise."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/17/politics/gchq-trump-wiretap-denial/
While there were reports of apologies from Sean Spicer and General McMaster, Sean Spicer said there was no apology. Trump, for his part, a press conference with Angela Merkel, shrugged it off and said he did nothing wrong by citing Judge Napalitano:
"We said nothing," Trump said. "All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for [the claim].”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/17/trump-stands-by-wiretap-claim-jokes-has-something-in-common-with-merkel.html
Judge Napalitano promptly was temporarily suspended from Fox News who tried to distance themselves from the report with Shep Smith declaring, "Fox News Knows Of No Evidence Of Any Kind That The Now President Of The United States Was Surveilled At Any Time In Any Way, Full Stop."
https://mediamatters.org/video/2017/03/17/shep-smith-fox-news-cannot-confirm-judge-napolitano-s-commentary/215744
Judge Napalitano was back on Fox on March 29, however, after a 9 day suspension, and he stood by what he said:
“Yes, I do” stand by the initial claim, Napolitano stated. “And the sources stand by it.
“The American public needs to know more about this rather than less because a lot of the government’s surveillance authorities will expire in the fall, and there will be a great debate about how much authority we want the government to have to surveil us.”
http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/29/fox-news-brings-back-judge-napolitano-who-still-stands-by-obama-wiretapping-claim-video/
This brings us to today. CNN, who is particularly preoccupied with the Russia investigation with the hopes that collusion will be spotted, reported that:
Washington (CNN) British and other European intelligence agencies intercepted communications between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and other Russian individuals during the campaign and passed on those communications to their US counterparts, US congressional and law enforcement and US and European intelligence sources tell CNN.
The communications were captured during routine surveillance of Russian officials and other Russians known to western intelligence. British and European intelligence agencies, including GCHQ, the British intelligence agency responsible for communications surveillance, were not proactively targeting members of the Trump team but rather picked up these communications during what's known as "incidental collection," these sources tell CNN.
The European intelligence agencies detected multiple communications over several months between the Trump associates and Russian individuals -- and passed on that intelligence to the US. The US and Britain are part of the so-called "Five Eyes" agreement (along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand), which calls for open sharing among member nations of a broad range of intelligence.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/trump-russia-british-intelligence/index.html
CNN does proceed to note Napalitano's allegations and Trump's repeating of them:
GCHQ's surveillance became politically sensitive when Trump -- citing an uncorroborated Fox News report -- claimed that Britain had tapped his phones in Trump Tower at former President Barack Obama's behest.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeated Trump's claim and cited Fox News' reporting about GCHQ's surveillance to reporters in the briefing room. "Judge Andrew Napolitano made the following statement, quote, 'Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command (to spy on Trump). He didn't use the NSA, he didn't use the CIA ... he used GCHQ,'" Spicer told journalists.
Those comments angered British officials. After Spicer's remarks, White House officials told CNN British ambassador to the US Kim Darroch and Sir Mark Lyall Grant, national security adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May, "expressed their concerns to Spicer and Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster" in two separate conversations.
The GCHQ also issued a statement saying: "Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wire tapping' against the then President-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/trump-russia-british-intelligence/index.html
While CNN notes it, there is no glaring headline that Napolitano, Trump, and Spicer were vindicated. Rather I believe they will say Trump was wrong using the terms "routine surveillance" and "incidental collection" to downplay this. The bottom line is, regardless of how their surveillance was obtained, it was, and that is what Judge Napolitano was trying to say. Trump put "wiretap" in quotes. Most reasonable people understand that he meant surveillance, but the media is playing semantics. As CNN glosses over the point, they end the article with the following:
Last month, Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said that "based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016."
The conclusion isn't vindication, it's doubling down on the narrative. Sad!
What’s this CNN i keep hearing of?
I heard rumors that before the great upheaval they were of some importance, i think, in the media world.
I remember CNN back when they were allowed to stay in Baghdad as long as they said only nice things about Saddam Hussein.
It's Judge Napolitano...
Regardless of one’s opinion on the invasion, the guy was a sadistic POS and they treated him like gold.
CNN proudly acted as his ministry of propaganda.
:)
Or Crazy Neocon Nihilists. Though I don’t know if they’re neocons.
The Judge better get a big apology from lots of folks
So now they can fire shemp smith
Actually that is CVG. Don’t know why
So now they can fire shemp smith
_____________________
From your fingertips to God’s inbox.
Maybe we should kill Alan Turing again
CNN confirms? It must be really official now.
That’s my error. I’ll correct it in the blog link. I can’t edit here. I’m not a rocket scientist.
Well, they didn’t do it intentionally. It’s just their latest Russia bombshell happens to prove Napolitano correct.
Crickets
There must be a there there.
Why would God allow Napolitano back to double down on his claim?
They must have an ace up their sleeve and bi-line ready to drop when the time comes for the big reveal...
Amazing.
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