Posted on 03/23/2017 1:29:23 PM PDT by Liz
The Washington Post's Bob Woodward warned on Wednesday that there are people from the Obama administration who could be facing criminal charges for unmasking the names of Trump transition team members from surveillance of foreign officials.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said earlier that he had briefed Trump on new information, unrelated to an investigation into Russian activities, that suggested that several members of Trump's transition team and perhaps Trump himself had their identities "unmasked" after their communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence officials.
The revelation is notable because identities of Americans are generally supposed to remain "masked" if American communications are swept up during surveillance of foreign individuals.
During an interview on Fox News, Woodward said that if that information about the unmasking is true, "it is a gross violation."
He said it isn't Trump's assertion, without proof, that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower that is of concern, but rather that intelligence officials named the Americans being discussed in intercepted communications.
"You can learn all kinds of things from diplomats gossiping, because that's what occurs. Under the rules, and they are pretty strict, it's called minimization. You don't name the American person who is being discussed," Woodward said.
He noted that there are about 20 people in the intelligence community who, for intelligence reasons, can order this "minimization" be removed.
"But the idea that there was intelligence value here is really thin," Woodward said. "It's, again, down the middle, it is not what Trump said, but this could be criminal on the part of people who decided, oh, let's name these people."
He drove the point home, adding that "under the rules, that name is supposed to be blanked out, and so you've got a real serious problem potentially of people in the Obama administration passing around this highly classified gossip."
Copyright (c) 2017 The Washington Examiner. All Rights Reserved
PING
I’d love to see Ben Rhodes & ValJar tossed in the slammer, along with the usual suspects.
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Adds up to major problems for Obama and his minions.
<><> clearly, the intent was to abuse Obama's executive power.
<><> the Obama minions got FISA court to approve a warrant submitted without Trump’s name but “which Obama then misused to spy on Trump and many connected to Trump.”
<><> that might mean perjury for lying to the FISA court,.
<><> Most serious is the dissemination of collected intelligence, including names of Americans, that should have been kept tightly classified.
(REAGANGENERATION2 HAT TIP)
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It is also entirely possible that Obama and his legal team may have perjured themselves before the FISA court by willfully withholding material information in order to manipulate the FISA court’s willingness to permit the government surveillance. And falsified official govt documents in the process.
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"Aloha Obama, put down that tropical drink and activate your cell phone....s-o-m-e-b-o-d-y wants to talk to you."
KEEP THIS ON THE FRONT BURNER——The Royal Idiot signed an order as he was about to exit “to share raw info between agencies.”
That was his back-ended act to “legitimize” the issues under discussion here.
He needed a paper trail to cover his royal ***.
time for Comey to turn himself in.
Deep Throat has spoken........................
Id love to see Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sharing a cell at Gitmo
Linked this thread over on the repository thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3537239/posts?page=258
Translation: This is a big f..king deal.
“I better say something so as not to appear a big f..king hypocrite, having taken down the nixon admin on trumped up sensationalism”
Woodward must realize that the pretext for bringing Nixon down was FAR less serious than what Obama and his minions have done in using a politicized, weaponized IRS and National Security apparatus against opponents.
It is enticing to dredge up the old Watergate characters....but this is bigger than that.
Looks like the Obama characters need to be nicknamed.
All the pieces fit together, eh?
Hindsight is always 20-20 vision.
Watching Woodward and Bernstein on the 2 opposing networks makes me ask how did they ever work together in their prior lives.
The question that should be asked over and over is “What did Obama know and when did he know it?”
His last minute order is the smoking gun that he knew something.
Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey and Doc....................
But NBC told me the “Right Wing Radio Talk Show Host” Mark Levin made the whole thing up and there was nothing to see here. I’m so confused. /sheeple
Lots of pieces-— like a puzzle.
If you find anything we haven’t already catagorized. Please add. Lots of material
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