Take Donald Trump's Wiretap Claims Seriously

The current scandal surrounding President Donald Trump’s tweeted accusations that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower is proof of what might be called the Salena Zito rule. Zito, of course, wrote the essay in the Atlantic how Trump’s supporters took him “seriously, but not literally,” whereas the press took him “literally, but not seriously.”

This is a good way to understand the current state of the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Trump’s wild accusations against Barack Obama. Barring an unexpected turn of events, FBI director James Comey will confirm on Monday before the House Intelligence Committee that what Trump tweeted on March 4 was literally false. There was no authorized surveillance of Trump Tower.

Nonetheless, there may be reason to take the gist of Trump’s tweet seriously. At least this is the upshot of the latest turn in the story. On Wednesday Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence panel, and that body’s ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff announced they were seeking information on how the identities of American citizens picked up in eavesdropping on foreign targets were unmasked in more widely disseminated intelligence reports.

This is important because of the case of Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser. He resigned after the Washington Post reported on his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak, that took place after Trump’s victory but before his swearing in. At the time, the story was about how Flynn had not come clean about an element of those conversations, touching on sanctions just imposed on Russia.

But another big part of that story is how the intercepted communications of an incoming national security adviser found its way into the newspaper. Earlier this month, Obama’s last director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said there were no Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants that he knew about targeting Trump or his campaign. This surely means that Flynn was caught on a wiretap of the Russian ambassador. Normally, the names of Americans “incidentally collected,” to use the intelligence community’s phrase, are redacted from reports that are sent out to senior government officials. Was Flynn’s name redacted in this case? If not, were summaries or transcripts of his conversation widely distributed within the government? Which would have made it easier to leak.

That’s what Nunes and Schiff want to know. In a March 15 letter to the heads of the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency, they asked for the total number of times a U.S. person’s identity was unmasked between June 2016 and January 2017. They also want to know the names of any U.S. persons unmasked in incidental collection who were affiliated or part of the Trump or Hillary Clinton campaigns in this same period, and who inside the executive branch asked for these names to be unmasked.

In Flynn’s case, there may be sound reasons for why his name was not redacted from intelligence reports. Adam Klein, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told me Wednesday that it’s plausible to find a foreign intelligence justification for unmasking the identity of someone like Flynn. “That in and of itself is not necessarily improper,” he said. “But we should remember what is relevant for foreign intelligence purposes is in the eye of the beholder. Something that might seem innocent on its face, might appear more nefarious from the perspective of someone who views the incoming team’s policies with skepticism.”

There is already some evidence to suggest Nunes and Schiff are onto something. On March 1, the New York Times reported that in the final days and weeks of the Obama administration, White House officials rushed to preserve and distribute intelligence on connections between Russia and Trump’s associates throughout the government. In practice this meant that raw intelligence was processed into analytical reports and classified at a relatively low level. “As Inauguration Day approached, Obama White House officials grew convinced that the intelligence was damning and that they needed to ensure that as many people as possible inside government could see it,” according to the Times.

Did this raw intelligence include Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador? Depending on what Schiff and Nunes turn up, this could be a real scandal, particularly if the names of other Trump associates picked up in incidental surveillance were unmasked and distributed widely within the government.

This would mean that the Obama administration had effectively short-circuited the FISA process by checking to see if Trump associates were picked up incidentally on existing surveillance, and then disseminating the take widely within the intelligence bureaucracy. That’s not the same as ordering — without court oversight — a targeted wiretap on Trump Tower. But it’s pretty serious, nonetheless.

Pay very close attention to ITEMS #5 and #6:

Found by Mrk Levin at Mark Levin PROVES Trump Wiretapping Claims: ‘The Evidence Is Overwhelming’ #ObamaGate
(They went to the FISA, that's the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Court not once ... BUT TWICE ! ) :

EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia

“Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia. … The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank. While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.”

John McCain passes dossier alleging secret Trump-Russia contacts to FBI

“ … The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. … “ … The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus. According to one report, the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October, … “

FBI, 5 other agencies probe possible covert Kremlin aid to Trump

“The FBI and five other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have collaborated for months in an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the November election, including whether money from the Kremlin covertly aided President-elect Donald Trump, two people familiar with the matter said. The agencies involved in the inquiry are the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and representatives of the director of national intelligence, the sources said. …”

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates

“… The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the WIRETAPPED communications had been provided to the White House. …”

N.S.A. Gets More Latitude to Share Intercepted Communications

“In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies BEFORE APPLYING PRIVACY PROTECTIONS.”

Obama Administration Rush To Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking

"In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government.”

Flynn Is Said to Have Talked to Russians About Sanctions Before Trump Took Office

The Daily 202: Trump’s Russia headache gets worse, as Sessions struggles to spin undisclosed meetings

“ U.S. Investigators have examined contacts Attorney General Sessions had with Russian Officials during the time he was advising Donald Trump’s Campaign. The focus of the U.S. Counter Intelligence Investigation has been on communications between Trump Campaign Officials and Russia. … The inquiry involving Sessions is examining it’s contents while serving as Trump’s Foreign Policy Advisor in the spring and summer of 2016. “

Investigators Probed Jeff Sessions’ Contacts With Russian Officials

“U.S. investigators have examined contacts Attorney General Jeff Sessions had with Russian officials during the time he was advising Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. ”

Also, read this from " hoosiermama" :

Fusion GPS hired UK based Orbis Business Intelligence, run by ex-British spies Christopher Steele and Christopher Burrows. Steele was MI6 and had been posted in Moscow in the 1990s. Orbis used Steele’s ex-KGB sources to attempt to dig up information against Trump. Orbis created the famous and now discredited “dossier” against Trump. Sen. John McCain notified the FBI of the dossier in October 2016. He hand delivered the dossier alleging secret Trump-Russia contacts and extremely embarrassing allegations to the FBI in November. The files were widely circulated within the Obama administration.

In their enthusiasm, FusionGPS/Orbis and their Russian operatives placed numerous calls and sent emails to both to Trump campaign members and to current Russian intelligence operatives early in 2016. The volume of these calls and emails caught the attention of the CIA. An FBI Counter-Intelligence project was started to assess whether these communications represented a threat to the US. Because of the sheer volume of the communications and the known Russian agents involved, FBI Director James Comey sought a FISA Court warrant to investigate the nature of the calls in June 2016. The FISA Court rejected the request. Not to be thwarted, the FBI, working with the CIA and the NSA, created a list of Russian individuals that had communicated with the Trump campaign that would be monitored. The calls and emails were intercepted without warrant under current FBI Counter-Intelligence authorizations. The communications were recorded and attempts to identify the US person(s) on the lines were conducted. The now famous call between Gen Flynn and the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was captured in this sweep.

Following the GOP Convention, the funding for FusionGPS/Orbis from NeverTrump and the GOP Mormon Mafia ended. Fusion GPS did not want to see their efforts end and solicited the continuation of the project to Democracy Partners and others in the DNC. They were successful in securing some additional funding form DNC affiliated donors. With the assistance of James Comey, the FBI agreed to pick up some of their expenses to continue forward. The FusionGPS/Orbis efforts continued until early January 2017. James Comey and all of the members of the Obama administration national security leadership knew that the Trump/Russian interference conspiracy was based on these FusionGPS/Orbis activities in October of 2016.

No evidence of wrong-doing by any member of the Trump campaign was found.
... Mar 9, 2017 5:11am

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