AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Posted on 05/21/2018 7:23:48 AM PDT by servo1969
The scenario anticipated more than a year ago in King vs. King has advanced to the semi-finals. The Russian collusion affair, which began with the incoming president on the defensive, has now become a set of simultaneous offensives with each side trying to jail the other. "President Trump on Sunday said he would 'demand' a Justice Department investigation into whether the FBI 'infiltrated' his 2016 presidential campaign," USA Today reported.
I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!
This demand follows revelations that an FBI operation codenamed Crossfire Hurricane ran "at least one government informant" against the Trump campaign in counterintelligence fashion. Andrew McCarthy writes:
The FBI, lacking the incriminating evidence needed to justify opening a criminal investigation of the Trump campaign, [in contrast to the Clinton campaign, he adds elsewhere] decided to open a counterintelligence investigation. With the blessing of the Obama White House, they took the powers that enable our government to spy on foreign adversaries and used them to spy on Americans -- Americans who just happened to be their political adversaries.
This implication was quickly denied. "Former Director of Intelligence James Clapper said Thursday night on CNN that it was 'a good thing' there was an FBI informant spying on the Trump campaign."
Clapper admitted the FBI "may have had someone who was talking to them in the campaign," referring to President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. He explained away the possibility of an FBI informant spying on the campaign as the bureau was trying to find out "what the Russians were doing to try to substantiate themselves in the campaign or influence or leverage it."Obama's Director of National Intelligence then went on to say, "So, if there was someone that was observing that sort of thing, that's a good thing."
The invaluable timeline of the investigations compiled by Sharyl Attkisson seems to confirm what Lee Smith of Tablet Magazine has already suggested: that the roots of domestic spying predated the Trump candidacy. He notes that "Obama officials vastly expand[ed] their searches through NSA database for Americans and the content of their communications. In 2013, there were 9,600 searches involving 195 Americans. But in 2016, there are 30,355 searches of 5,288 Americans."
The context in which this ramp-up took place was an actual uptick in foreign tensions largely underplayed to the public. By 2016, all pretense of a "reset" with Russia had collapsed. Former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul notes how he was being hazed by Putin's thugs the instant he left the embassy in 2012. Someone was hacking the DNC emails. Not only the Russians but the Ukrainians were active participants in events. The timeline shows that in April 2016:
Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee lawyer Mark Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, hire Fusion GPS for anti-Trump political research project. Ukrainian member of parliament Olga Bielkova reportedly seeks meetings with five dozen members of U.S. Congress and reporters including former New York Time reporter Judy Miller, David Sanger of New York Times, David Ignatius of Washington Post, and Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt.
But none of this was played up to the public. Even while McFaul was being hazed, Obama was "zinging" Romney.
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In October 2016, "President Obama advises Trump to 'stop whining' after Trump tweeted the election could be rigged. 'There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even -- you could even rig America's elections,' said Obama."
But by the time the 2016 elections were happening, furious activity was taking place. In late August 2016 the timeline notes:
...reportedly working for the FBI, one-time CIA operative Professor Halper meets with Trump campaign co-chair Sam Clovis offering his services as a foreign-policy adviser, according to The Washington Post. Halper would later offer to hire Carter Page.
On January 20, 2017, "Fifteen minutes after Trump becomes president, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice emails memo to herself purporting to summarize the Jan. 5 Oval Office meeting with President Obama and other top officials. She states that Obama instructed the group to investigate 'by the book' and asked them to be mindful whether there were certain things that "could not be fully shared with the incoming administration."
In response to Trump's demand, Rod Rosenstein has asked the DOJ inspector general to review the possible infiltration of the Trump campaign. The hunters have themselves become the hunted. For better or worse, two major American political factions are trying to jail each other. The outcome of their struggle may determine not only who occupies the White House, but what future role the intelligence agencies play in public life.
The specifics of the individual accusations may be fake, but the struggle over the control of the bureaucracy is frighteningly real. Concern over the independence of powerful bureaucracies has long been paramount for a reason. The biggest problem with weaponizing intelligence agencies is it CREATES a pathway for the foreign takeover of the system. If a once hostile power takes over the White House and that president corrupts the agencies, an unfettered secret police will have the ability to remain in power indefinitely.
Who's on first? Worse yet, who's playing?
The current conflict in Washington, though dismaying, is at least much more comforting than the condition where everyone sings each other's praises. The whole purpose of oversight, checks, and balances is to avoid the formation of an absorbing Markov transition -- a kind of political Hotel California -- which you can enter but never leave.
Avoiding a crisis depends on not crossing certain lines and concealing that fact if it has occurred. That has now gone by the board. When a system is undeniably confronted with deceitful lawlessness it is like finding the dealer was cheating at cards. Trump, by officially demanding an answer into whether the previous administration engaged in political spying, is effectively accusing them of cheating at cards. As everybody knows, once you ask this question at a table, the surface game stops and a deeper game begins. Suddenly the little cardboard rectangles don't matter anymore.
The King vs. King battle appears to be moving into a new phase. The smaller players have skirmished and been cleared away. Now the clash between the heavier units is about to begin.
It's about time The DonaldTM went on the offensive!
notice that phony handshake ...
You know what, after Trump is vindicated and Obama/FBI/DOJ are found guilty and executed, the reward in damages to the Trump administration and the American people should be a reset of the POTUS term in office making 2020 his 1st term in office.
Anyone who shakes your hand and doesn’t look you in the eye can’t be trusted.
5.56mm
Trump shoulda cuffed him right there.
The “one” with no papers simply looks at the camera. It is all about him.
BFL
——two major American political factions are trying to jail each other-—
Good article but shy of reality
Jail is not the objective in what is a war. Victory will result with the death of one or the other combatants.
The Trump side has barely entered the fray. The presence of Rudy riding around like a cavalry officer showing the flag from out of range is a solid indication of what is to come
To the antiSessions FReepers....... why do you think Trump is a fool?
I agree. And a little help from the GOP Congressional leadership would also be appreciated.
The Democrats and Obama have also received a Free Pass from the Republicans concerning Left Wing political corruption at the IRS.
Beginning around 2012, the IRS targeted multiple Conservative groups for harassment, audits, and inexcusable delays concerning their nonprofit tax status.
Republicans would have gone to jail for that kind of conduct. But when Democrats do it to Conservatives, Republicans just...go to sleep.
Slightly off topic - I just Googled “IRS and conservative political organizations” to see if any investigations are currently underway.
Nine of Google’s first ten hits were written by elite Left Wing news organizations. The same two themes appear in all the articles - IRS bias against Conservatives is “Fake” news, or “The IRS was doing exactly the same thing to Democrats.”
Pathetic - and the GOP just goes to sleep.
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