Congress needs to learn how Obama's FBI meddled in the 2016 campaign

[Русский агент]

When Donald Trump claimed in March that he’d had his “wires tapped” prior to the election, the press and Obama officials dismissed the accusation as a fantasy. We were among the skeptics, but with former director James Comey’s politicized FBI the story is getting more complicated.

CNN reported Monday that the FBI obtained a warrant last year to eavesdrop on Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager from May to August in 2016. The story claims the FBI first wiretapped Mr. Manafort in 2014 while investigating his work as a lobbyist for Ukraine’s ruling party. That warrant lapsed, but the FBI convinced the court that administers the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to issue a second order as part of its probe into Russian meddling in the election.

Guess who has lived in a condo in Trump Tower since 2006? Paul Manafort.

The story suggests the monitoring started in the summer or fall, and extended into early this year. While Mr. Manafort resigned from the campaign in August, he continued to speak with Candidate Trump. It is thus highly likely that the FBI was listening to the political and election-related conversations of a leading contender for the White House. That’s extraordinary—and worrisome.

Mr. Comey told Congress in late March that he “had no information that supports those [Trump] tweets.” Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was even more specific that “there was no such wiretap activity mounted against—the President-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign.” He denied that any such FISA order existed. Were they lying?

The warrant’s timing may also shed light on the FBI’s relationship to the infamous “ Steele dossier.” That widely discredited dossier claiming ties between Russians and the Trump campaign was commissioned by left-leaning research firm Fusion GPS and developed by former British spy Christopher Steele—who relied on Russian sources. But the Washington Post and others have reported that Mr. Steele was familiar to the FBI, had reached out to the agency about his work, and had even arranged a deal in 2016 to get paid by the FBI to continue his research.

The FISA court sets a high bar for warrants on U.S. citizens, and presumably even higher for wiretapping a presidential campaign. Did Mr. Comey’s FBI marshal the Steele dossier to persuade the court?

All of this is reason for House and Senate investigators to keep exploring how Mr. Comey’s FBI was investigating both presidential campaigns. Russian meddling is a threat to democracy but so was the FBI if it relied on Russian disinformation to eavesdrop on a presidential campaign. The Justice Department and FBI have stonewalled Congressional requests for documents and interviews, citing the “integrity” of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

But Mr. Mueller is not investigating the FBI, and in any event his ties to the bureau and Mr. Comey make him too conflicted for such a job. Congress is charged with providing oversight of law enforcement and the FISA courts, and it has an obligation to investigate their role in 2016. The intelligence committees have subpoena authority and the ability to hold those who don’t cooperate in contempt.

Mr. Comey investigated both leading presidential campaigns in an election year, playing the role of supposedly impartial legal authority. But his maneuvering to get Mr. Mueller appointed, and his leaks to the press, have shown that Mr. Comey is as political and self-serving as anyone in Washington. No investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 campaign will be credible or complete without the facts about all Mr. Comey’s wiretaps.



https://archive.is/secIz#selection-2125.0-2161.435

[Darth Omar]

By all means.

Some sources claim the FBI paid Steele for the Fake News Piss Dossier.

We need an investigation to find out.

[Русский агент]

By all means.

Some sources claim the FBI paid Steele for the Fake News Piss Dossier.

We need an investigation to find out.

Little Thingy Wingy the High Oracle of Situational Selectivity may be able to explain what that's not a valid justification for such an inquiry.

[Darth Omar]

Little Thingy Wingy the High Oracle of Situational Selectivity may be able to explain what that's not a valid justification for such an inquiry.

Thing's opinion doesn't matter lol.

Sessions' does though.

[Русский агент]

Thing's opinion doesn't matter lol.

Sessions' does though.

I hear that Session is rayciss, though.

[dukkha]

By all means.

Some sources claim the FBI paid Steele for the Fake News Piss Dossier.

We need an investigation to find out.

WTF>????

[Русский агент]

WTF>????

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/fbi-wont-confirm-deny-existence-records-payment-british-trump-dossier-researcher/

[dukkha]

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/fbi-wont-confirm-deny-existence-records-payment-british-trump-dossier-researcher/

what?? look at this! it's outrageous. WTF is the FBI doiing in collusion w/Steele??
++
the Washington Post reported earlier this year that Steele had reached an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before Election Day in November to continue investigating then-candidate Trump.

Cause of Action Institute, or CoA, a nonprofit watchdog group, wanted to know whether Steele was ever paid by the FBI to probe Trump.

In March of this year, CoA filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI seeking access to records to determine whether the FBI paid, or intended to pay, Steele. CoA filed a lawsuit in federal court the following month against the FBI for not responding to the request.

The FBI replied to CoA last week in a letter, writing that the agency cannot speak to the potential existence of such records.

[Celticguy]

Because all of them were targets too. They need to know the illegal actions of the prior administration.

[Русский агент]

Agreed.

[Getin the ring]

there's a reason why Obama is being careful in raising his ugly head to pot shot Trump.
he knows Trump has the stick now

[Русский агент]

there's a reason why Obama is being careful in raising his ugly head to pot shot Trump.
he knows Trump has the stick now

Maybe he'll "vacation" again soon in another place that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US.

[chink]

Little Thingy Wingy the High Oracle of Situational Selectivity may be able to explain what that's not a valid justification for such an inquiry.

attention is a complex and necessary process in the brain, and awareness is a simplified model of that process, Situational Selectivity is a theory , The selective perception theory holds that we filter stimuli both consciously and unconsciously,no kidding and it took a phd to figure that out.

[Русский агент]

[Русский агент]

By all means.

Some sources claim the FBI paid Steele for the Fake News Piss Dossier.

We need an investigation to find out.

Behold...it has been revealed.