Posted on 09/21/2017 3:10:57 AM PDT by billorites
Last week, CNN revealed (and excused) one phase of the Obama spying operation on Trump. After lying about it on MSNBC, Susan Rice admitted unmasking the identities of Trump officials to Congress.
Rice was unmasking the names of Trump officials a month before leaving office. The targets may have included her own successor, General Flynn, who was forced out of office using leaked surveillance.
While Rice’s targets weren’t named, the CNN story listed a meeting with Flynn, Bannon and Kushner.
Bannon was Trump’s former campaign chief executive and a senior adviser. Kushner is a senior adviser. Those are exactly the people you spy on to get an insight into what your political opponents plan to do.
Now the latest CNN spin piece informs us that secret FISA orders were used to spy on the conversations of Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. The surveillance was discontinued for lack of evidence and then renewed under a new warrant. This is part of a pattern of FISA abuses by Obama Inc. which never allowed minor matters like lack of evidence to dissuade them from new FISA requests.
Desperate Obama cronies had figured out that they could bypass many of the limitations on the conventional investigations of their political opponents by ‘laundering’ them through national security.
If any of Trump’s people were talking to non-Americans, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) could be used to spy on them. And then the redacted names of the Americans could be unmasked by Susan Rice, Samantha Power and other Obama allies. It was a technically legal Watergate.
If both CNN stories hold up, then Obama Inc. had spied on two Trump campaign leaders.
Furthermore the Obama espionage operation closely tracked Trump’s political progress. The first FISA request targeting Trump happened the month after he received the GOP nomination. The second one came through in October: the traditional month of political surprises meant to upend an election.
The spying ramped up after Trump’s win when the results could no longer be used to engineer a Hillary victory, but would instead have to be used to cripple and bring down President Trump. Headed out the door, Rice was still unmasking the names of Trump’s people while Obama was making it easier to pass around raw eavesdropped data to other agencies.
Obama had switched from spying on a political opponent to win an election, to spying on his successor to undo the results of the election. Abuse of power by a sitting government had become subversion of the government by an outgoing administration. Domestic spying on opponents had become a coup.
The Democrat scandals of the past few administrations have hinged on gross violations of political norms, elementary ethics and the rule of law that, out of context, were not technically illegal.
But it’s the pattern that makes the crime. It’s the context that shows the motive.
Obama Inc. compartmentalized its espionage operation in individual acts of surveillance and unmasking, and general policies implemented to aid both, that may have been individually legal, in the purely technical sense, in order to commit the major crime of eavesdropping on the political opposition.
When the individual acts of surveillance are described as legal, that’s irrelevant. It’s the collective pattern of surveillance of the political opposition that exposes the criminal motive for them.
If Obama spied on two of Trump’s campaign leaders, that’s not a coincidence. It’s a pattern.
A criminal motive can be spotted by a consistent pattern of actions disguised by different pretexts. A dirty cop may lose two pieces of evidence from the same defendant while giving two different excuses. A shady accountant may explain two otherwise identical losses in two different ways. Both excuses are technically plausible. But it’s the pattern that makes the crime.
Manafort was spied on under the Russia pretext. Bannon may have been spied on over the UAE. That’s two different countries, two different people and two different pretexts.
But one single target. President Trump.
It’s the pattern that exposes the motive.
When we learn the whole truth (if we ever do), we will likely discover that Obama Inc. assembled a motley collection of different technically legal pretexts to spy on Trump’s team.
Each individual pretext might be technically defensible. But together they add up to the crime of the century.
Obama’s gamble was that the illegal surveillance would justify itself. If you spy on a bunch of people long enough, especially people in politics and business, some sort of illegality, actual or technical, is bound to turn up. That’s the same gamble anyone engaged in illegal surveillance makes.
Businessmen illegally tape conversations with former partners hoping that they’ll say something damning enough to justify the risk. That was what Obama and his allies were doing with Trump.
It’s a crime. And you can’t justify committing a crime by discovering a crime.
If everyone were being spied on all the time, many crimes could be exposed every second. But that’s not how our system works. That’s why we have a Fourth Amendment.
Nor was Obama Inc. trying to expose crimes for their own sake, but to bring down the opposition.
That’s why it doesn’t matter what results the Obama surveillance turned up. The surveillance was a crime. Anything turned up by it is the fruit of a poisonous tree. It’s inherently illegitimate.
The first and foremost agenda must be to assemble a list of Trump officials who were spied on and the pretexts under which they were spied upon. The pattern will show the crime. And that’s what Obama and his allies are terrified of. It’s why Flynn was forced out using illegal surveillance and leaks. It’s why McMaster is protecting Susan Rice and the Obama holdovers while purging Trump loyalists at the NSC.
The left’s gamble was that the Mueller investigation or some other illegitimate spawn of the Obama eavesdropping would produce an indictment and then the procedural questions wouldn’t matter.
It’s the dirty cop using illegal eavesdropping to generate leads for a “clean” case against his target while betting that no one will look too closely or care how the case was generated. If one of the Mueller targets is intimidated into making a deal, the question of how the case was generated won’t matter.
Mueller will have a cooperative witness. And the Democrats can begin their coup in earnest. It will eventually turn out that there is no “there” there. But by then, it’ll be time for President Booker.
There’s just one problem.
If the gamble fails, if no criminal case that amounts to anything more than the usual investigational gimmick charges like perjury (the Federal equivalent of ‘resisting arrest’ for a beat cop) develops, then Obama and his allies are on the hook for the domestic surveillance of their political opponents.
With nothing to show for it and no way to distract from it.
That’s the race against the clock that is happening right now. Either the investigation gets results. Or its perpetrators are left hanging in the wind. If McMaster is fired, which on purely statistical grounds he probably will be, and a Trump loyalist who wasn’t targeted by the surveillance operation becomes the next National Security Adviser and brings in Trump loyalists, as Flynn tried to do, then it’s over.
And the Dems finally get their Watergate. Except the star won’t be Trump, it will be Obama. Rice, Power, Lynch and the rest of the gang will be the new Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell.
Once Obama and his allies launched their domestic surveillance operation, they crossed the Rubicon. And there was no way back. They had to destroy President Trump or risk going to jail.
The more crimes they committed by spying on the opposition, the more urgently they needed to bring down Trump. The consequences of each crime that they had committed spurred them on to commit worse crimes to save themselves from going to jail. It’s the same old story when it comes to criminals.
Each act of illegal surveillance became more blatant. And when illegal surveillance couldn’t stop Trump’s victory, they had to double down on the illegal surveillance for a coup.
The more Obama spied on Trump, the more he had to keep doing it. This time it was bound to pay off.
Obama and his allies had violated the norms so often for their policy goals that they couldn’t afford to be replaced by anyone but one of their own. The more Obama relied on the imperial presidency of executive orders, the less he could afford to be replaced by anyone who would undo them. The more his staffers lied and broke the law on everything from the government shutdown to the Iran nuke sellout, the more desperately they needed to pull out all the stops to keep Trump out of office. And the more they did it, the more they couldn’t afford not to do it. Abuse of power locks you into the loop familiar to all dictators. You can’t stop riding the tiger. Once you start, you can’t afford to stop.
If you want to understand why Samantha Power was unmasking names, that’s why. The hysterical obsession with destroying Trump comes from the top down. It’s not just ideology. It’s wealthy and powerful men and women who ran the country and are terrified that their crimes will be exposed.
It’s why the media increasingly sounds like the propaganda organs of a Communist country. Why there are street riots and why the internet is being censored by Google and Facebook’s “fact checking” allies.
It’s not just ideology. It’s raw fear.
The left is sitting on the biggest crime committed by a sitting president. The only way to cover it up is to destroy his Republican successor.
A turning point in history is here.
If Obama goes down, the left will go down with him. If his coup succeeds, then America ends.
BACKSTORY Through the last half of 2016, the Obama administration was desperately searching for evidence of some link between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.
<><> They went to great lengths, falsifying requests, twice seeking, then finally obtaining, a court-ordered FISA, that allowed them to spy on at least one Trump associate.
<><> In addition, we now know that Susan "The Sifter" Rice had an operation wherein raw NSA intelligence was sifted through for names of Trump associates, in hopes of uncovering dirt of some sort.
<><> These efforts came up dry. The Obama administration found no compromising information about Trump or any of his associates.
=========================================
Not surprisingly, ever since the Trump Inauguration, the Democratic Party, especially its NY/DC press wing, has relentlessly pushed the Trump/Russia story. But that hasn’t stopped Democrat factotums in the press from talking about little else for the last three months.
This is the kicker----- all along, the Democrats have known that their spying produced nothing.
This whole Obama/Rice/Comey/Mueller/Democrat spy apparat is almost unbelievably sordid. The relevant Congressional committees should investigate thoroughly, and criminal prosecutions should follow where laws have been broken.
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It's high time the Obama/Rice Police State and its spying apparat be investigated.
Odumbo’s spying is one thing, what he does with the information gathered is another. I strongly believe that his intent will be surfaced one day BUT, ask the question, “Who will pursue”? Until someone actually does go after odumbo and his ilk, we will continue to listen to the crickets.........
>> We here at free republic had all of this figured out approximately 10 months ago.
Exactly. I’ve been saying this for months, along with many others. But Greenfield does a great job of spelling it out.
IMO, there is a lot more to it than this, however. IMO, if the 0vomit administration and its many, many connections in business and the media are investigated, far more heinous crimes than illegal wiretapping will come to light. Murder. Treason. Pedophilia. Human Trafficking. Treason. Sedition. Money Laundering. Embezzlement of government (taxpayer) funds to enrich the liberal elite. Invasion of privacy of many additional citizens. IRS abuse of citizens. And probably a few other serious crimes that should be on this list.
Judicial Watch is pretty good about getting information. It’s hard to ignore at that point.
I’m not sure he was smart enough to steal that much. I’m not saying he didn’t. But someone like 0vomit has poor impulse control and poor planning skills. It’s far more likely that he was living large on our dime in the moment, but too stupid and lazy to do a lot of theft. Any money he stole/has is, I will bet, the result of someone else doing the planning and dirty work for him.
Prior to the primary election one can assume that all Republican campaigns were spied on by the democrats under the orders of Barack Obama.
Obola spied on Trump to protect his "legacy",*himself* and others.
Just read "Rules For Radicals" for a more concise,detailed explanation.
Spot on Jeff I believe that’s been the theory around here for months. I like how how jeff is using Obama and spying next together... It this the scandal to him like Obamacare
Thanks for posting this, billorites !
Ping to 0 spying on people & it being worse than Watergate.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3587607/posts?page=1#1
“They had to destroy President Trump or risk going to jail”
Wrong. They had to destroy President Trump or come face to face with a military firing squad. Their actions are going to result in their own executions. The clock is running out on them, and they know it.
It is the end for the Bolsheviks. This time they will be the ones in the cellar receiving the bullets.
Links the scandal meant to say
Amen
And its probably worse than we can even imagine. Obama helped and aided our enemies more than we know.
Nails it.
Been saying this myself for months, but he of course says it a lot better.
President Trump: GET RID OF the snakes around you, like McMaster who is over NSA...!
Russians.......what a bunch-a-BS.
Obama is the real crime.
The investigations and related costly defence fees are simply part of the MSM-Dem-Establishment-GOPe punishment of Trump for winning. Trump, and all who surround Trump, are targeted to perform a cross between a soft impeachment and hostile coup. Has Jeff Sessions showed up to work yet?
Fantastic post!
Cripes!
Some had this scenario already in the bank BEFORE BO’B took office. They knew deep in their hearts and minds that he was no good, anti-American, and Hussein the Destroyer. Once in office, he could never be replaced. Thus, the prayers and work for a candidate who had the resources and intelligence to slay the rabid fox. America was a hair’s breadth to being brought down by this creature.
Thanks for the post! Americans had best wake up, learn American Civics, and clean house.
Thank You Holy Father for Your intersession.
Bkmrk
Wow! Does this mean that Jeff sessions fell into the trap?
Certainly makes you wonder.
Excuses are running short, for the southern man from Alabama. This should’ve been the first case to go after. Not street gangs.
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