Why Obama Really Spied on Trump. Obama had to spy on Trump to protect himself.

Front Page ^ | September 20, 2017 | Daniel Greenfield

[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.

[poconopundit]

Wow, real interesting, Liz.

Barkie has been laying low. The public is starting to forget about him. The scandals are actually keeping his name out there, and steadily destroying his legacy.

I see a few FReepers dinging Sessions, but all in good time. The steady drip-drip-drip of this scandal will surely come to a head before the mid-terms.

Trump first needs to seal some legislative victories. All in good time the Mau Mau Boobamba will be thoroughly disgraced -- if not incarcerated -- for his many crimes against America.

Meanwhile, I wonder which of Obama acolytes will take the fall for Boobamba. Better yet, Mueller and his buddy Comey will collude to turn state's evidence and go after the Big Game. It's already proven Comey lied. He's vulnerable and he should be protected from the good ol' boy enforcers from Little Rock.

Wonder if Bill and Hill's henchmen also protect Obama. Wonder how many big names in the press have been warned not to stray off the Clinton/Obama/Bush plantation.

[ThunderSleeps]

I believe every word of it. There is nothing, absolutely nothing I would put past the obama crime machine. They have killed people, violated the Constitution willfully and knowingly with the intent of harming the United States. For that matter there is nothing I'd put past Clinton crime Inc. either. They have killed people and knowingly committed treason. They should all - both crime families and their cohorts - be tried, convicted, and stood up against a wall.

[poconopundit]

PING. A splendidly written and powerful story by Daniel Greenfield.

[poconopundit]

Yeah, and this time, there’s no need for an inside informant who had a vested personal interest in using a journalist to help take down a President.

Woodward has always been the “friend” of Deep Throat... and the Deep State.

[Tammy8]

This is like Watergate on steroids.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

Calling it "data" does not reveal the true picture. Obama's henchmen gathered thousands of unredacted TRANSCRIPTS of private phone calls of an opposition party's leaders. They widely disseminated these transcripts and likely stored fhem in a searchable database. Thousands of private phone calls, between hundreds of people.

[Lazamataz]

Well, by Hapless Jeff Sessions not pushing forward on any prosecutions, it is now common knowledge that any DEMOCRAT President and their staff can violate absolutely any law with impunity.

Hell, they could round up millions of white males for death camps, and there would be no prosecution.

[originalbuckeye]

bkmk

[shanover]

We have known this for years. I also believe the NSA has every bit of information concerning spying and "wiretapping". The FBI and DOJ are useless and compromised.

Unfortunately, nobody will ever go after the Kenyan Magic Half-Negro. The Nazi Soros and the Iranian Lizard Face Jarret (Obama's brain)knows this. They laugh at us as they destroy the country.

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Could Sessions end up in jail

[Mr. Jeeves]

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.

It wasn't allowed last time - how could the Deep State be weakened enough to allow another attempt?

Trump's big problem is that he has to bring in true outsiders, who are easy to isolate and marginalize.

[Nothingburger]

I hope you are right, FRiend Maximus.

The Left has blood on its hands, starting with the lives of peace officers assassinated by Leftist-inspired criminals, and extending to the lives of servicemen who died in their foreign adventures.

America will not have peace and prosperity until these communists have atoned for their crimes ... in blood!

[Paladin2]

Sessions needs some help in choosing some assistants to clean house at DOJ and start prosecuting Rat activists (follow the money).

[Grampa Dave]

Cat got your tongue, Bob Woodward?

Woodward and that worthless alcoholic pos partner of his re Watergate seem to be like the calico cats with the spying on Trump by the Deep State Thug, Obama.

All that is left of them is their damn grins.

[DuncanWaring]

Ping.

[LakeEffectLad]

PING

[Lady Heron]

I’m picturing that whoever Mueller indicts, they are going to demand that his conversations (plotting ) with Comey be an issue at trial, to expose the ilegal political motives. And I think Mueller is arrogant enough he doesn’t see this coming.

I agree. The cover up is going to be a lot worse than the petty crime Mueller comes up with and it would be used a defense in court and easily proven.

The other slim possibility that my brain keeps coming back to is that this is all show and Mueller has been turned by Trump and his target is actually foreign help in a campaign which nabs the dems not Trump(the dossier is just one example). He did meet with Trump the night before being named special counselor and I read somewhere that the donations to dems from the lawyers hired are minimal. Would you want to go down in history as the front man of one of the most corrupt conspiracy's in US history to take out a sitting US president or would you want to use this time to distance yourself from you own past involvements with dems, Clinton cover-ups and missions and save your family name?

Mueller knows where Hillary's skeletons are and was supposedly Justice Scalia's good friend. So giving him a chance to turn and get out of the swamp, would have been a smart Trump move. Hiring dem lawyers that care more about the law and their reputations to give this investigation legitimacy, if the target was dems, was smart. Going after republicans with this overtly biased team is nothing but the start of civil war in some shape or form....stupid move if you want your investigation not to look corrupt with this team, then dems are the target.

I know, slim chance but this investigation makes no sense if the real target is the President, unless your goal is civil war.

[Liz]

......the latest CNN spin is that Obama used secret FISA's to spy on Manafort, then discontinued for lack of evidence, then a shiny new FISA appeared. This is 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 figured out that they could bypass limitations on conventional investigations of the political opponents they despised by ‘laundering’ them through "national security." So if Obama Inc. found (A) any of Trump’s people talking to ANY non-Americans, (B) they got a FISA to spy on them. The redacted names of innocent Americans got casually unmasked by Obama knee-padders Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and others. Obama had a technically legal Watergate going for himself.....

What? No break-ins? (smirk).

[Liz]

Keep in mind that the Obama syndicate incessantly going to the FISA trough is very interesting. B/c not only is it a no-no to LIE to a FISA court.....it is a felony to WITHHOLD info from the FISA court.

<><>Did Obama/Rice/Power's request for a FISA warrant stipulate that Obama and Susan Rice wire-tapped Trump Tower......while Trump was a candidate?

<><> Did Obama/Rice/Power's request for a FISA warrant stipulate that Obama's CIA director Brennan used phony foreign intel as a pretext for a multi-agency investigation into candidate Trump?

<><> Did the request for a FISA warrant stipulate that phony foreign intel led the FBI to probe a computer server connected to candidate Trump residing and conducting business in Trump Tower?

<><> Did the request for a FISA warrant stipulate that foreign intel gave cover to Susan Rice's sifting/unmasking operations?

I didn't think so.

==============================================================================

The heinous "legacy" of the Obama presidency is writ large.....so much damage inflicted in the little time the citizenry allotted him.

Obama and his Democrat fellators, ValJar, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and the rest of the knee-padders, turned every federal agency into a political weapon: the FBI, the IRS, NSA, CIA, the UN, even the FISA court.

Obama and his factotums weaponized and corrupted everything for their insatiable thirst for power, for their despicable "progressive" ideology, their obsession w/ a permanent Democrat majority, and for their twisted political ambitions.

[Kenny]

Not to start baseless rumors but personally I thought Sessions looked at Rosenstein with adoring eyes, an image I’ll need bleach bit to erase from my brain.

However, probably just my overactive imagination.