I'm pretty sure this isn't quite true.
I think Obama (and Hillary) began "looking at the Russians" as part of their preparation for eventually sabotaging Trump based on evidence that Obama (and Hillary) were going to plant.
Start an "investigation".
Plant evidence.
Find evidence.
Skewer Trump.
It’s possible that as part of the plan to humiliate Trump and send a signal that no one should ever challenge the DS again, they were going to pin this Russia lie on him and prosecute him after the election. Had he lost, he would have had no way to fight back, and he would have been ruined, all his businesses seized and his children’s businesses, too.
the Obama administration had quietly opened an FBI counterintelligence investigation of Russian cyber-espionage — hacking attacks — to disrupt the 2016 election. And not random, general disruption; the operating theory was that the Russians were targeting the Democratic party, for the purpose of helping Donald Trump win the presidency.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t quite true.
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There has been nothing legitimate whatsoever behind the Russian hacking charge from the get go. HRC knew that Rich leaked the DNC e-mails based on Crowstrikes contracted computer search and Podesta had him eliminated. The big bad wolf nursery tale we all know from our youth, was concocted out of whole cloth into a big bad Russian/Trump story line.
They planted the information, THEN started the investigation.
Halper wasn’t a mole, spy, or informant. He was a CIA Contractor, on the fedgov payroll. It was recently dug up, he got north of $400,000 within this 2 year period.