Posted on 03/10/2017 1:35:27 PM PST by drewh
The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee have formally asked the Justice Department to turn over any documentary evidence -- applications, orders or warrants -- related to alleged wiretaps of President Donald Trump and his associates during the campaign, two congressional aides confirm to ABC News.
They have asked DOJ officials to provide information -- if it exists -- by March 13, one aide said. The request was submitted to acting deputy general Dana Boente, who stepped in for Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he recused himself.
The request from House Intel Committee Chairs Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) follows a similar inquiry from Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) earlier this week.
Trump accused Obama of wiretapping his phones last Saturday, but he has not provided any evidence and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said no wiretapping took place.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who was among top members of Congress briefed last night by FBI Director James Comey, also called on Comey this morning to go public with his views if he believes that Trump was mistaken with his series of tweets last weekend accusing President Obama of ordering him to be wiretapped.
Pelosi declined to comment on whether she has been told of any specific communications between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. But she did say the fact that Paul Manafort was removed from his position as Trump campaign chairman last summer suggests that the Trump operation knew of a connection between Manafort and Russian officials.
Manafort was ousted last August amid internal feuding and media scrutiny over his past work for pro-Russian interests. The Trump operation has denied that campaign officials had contacts with the Russians, a claim that has come under fire in recent weeks
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Here’s the problem for the Dems:
If there was wiretapping, but no FISA warrant to accompany it..........boom.
The NYT has already reported there was according to their sources.
There has been no warrant .....................
It is Dana Boente. He was nominated by Obama.
"Its unclear why Trump chose Boente, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who seemed to hold no greater ambition than keeping his job as U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. President Obama had spelled out a succession order in January that listed the three other U.S. attorneys as being in line to succeed the attorney general should something happen, though Trump, of course, had the option to pick his own person."
Trump (Sessions) skipped over several others to appoint Boente. And Sessions seems comfortable having him as his active deputy until his guy gets on-board. We will see if the trust is well-founded or not.
If they reveal in the end there were no warrants, this story will detonate. Then again from my perspective, I think it's going to blow wide open either way. I don't see how it could not.
I don’t like this. The easy answer is, no of course there were no “wiretaps of President Donald Trump and his associates during the campaign.” Not stated will be that there were wiretaps of the Russians who might have interacted with them, starting with the ambassador of course, and that instead of “minimizing” the inadvertent U.S. citizens (Trump and his associations) who were caught up in that wiretap as required by law and the Constitution, they feloniously spread that data as widely as possible.
Translation:
We do investigate, without a FISA court, Americans here or abroad.
Some crazy rumor that he would save himself and testify against Trump for dealing with the Russians.
Sounds like the most far fetched theory I’ve heard yet.
We now have a Government at war with itself.
Each department unaccountable to any other or even the Congress and or the President of the United States.
Black mail and extortion are the currency and leverages of power.
That’s what happens when no one is prosecuted and jailed for obvious felons for 8 years or more. They get away with everything and keep on doing it.
Some body BETTER have a WARRANT There was ABSOLUTELY WIRETAPPING of the opposition party 6 weeks before the election by OBAMA and his regime.
“connection between Manafort and Russian officials.”
ABC is fake news.
They just made this up. Manafort was never accused of having connections with Russian officials. That’s not why he left.
Great summary - well done!
Mark
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.