WaEx: At a contentious hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General William Barr dropped a big hint about his investigation into the conduct of the Trump-Russia investigation.
“Many people seem to assume that the only intelligence collection that occurred was a single confidential informant and a FISA warrant,” Barr said. “I would like to find out whether that is in fact true. It strikes me as a fairly anemic effort if that was the counterintelligence effort designed to stop the threat as it is being represented.”
Here is what he meant. There has been a lot of discussion on the Right about the FBI’s use of a confidential informant, an England-based college professor named Stefan Halper, to spy on some Trump campaign figures, including the sometime foreign policy volunteer advisers George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. There has also been talk about the FBI’s use of a FISA warrant, a court-approved permission to wiretap, against Page.
There was also speculation about other possible FBI surveillance, but the Halper operation and Page FISA case were the only ones definitely known. So Barr was saying: If the FBI really took the Trump-Russia matter seriously, if they thought it was a threat to the republic, would that be all they would do? No other wiretaps or other surveillance? No other confidential informants? Nothing?
Given that Barr was already looking into the question, his phrasing suggested he suspected there was more.
Sure enough, just days later the New York Times reported that in the summer of 2016 the FBI sent an undercover agent, a woman who went by the alias Azra Turk, to London to pose as Halper’s research assistant and tease information out of Papadopoulos. (The Times was so reluctant to call Turk a spy that it referred to her, in a headline, as a “cloaked investigator.”) more
Like being a little pregnant… you can’t soft-pedal it!
You either did it or you didn’t.
Guilty!
Next!
“They were either spying on Trump too much, or not enough.”
(It’s amazing how well Wiggum’s Logic works sometimes.)
Obumbles was a total micromanager. Troops in the Middle East couldn’t even use the crapper unless he ok’d it. He was definitely the orchestra conductor this spying on President Trump as well, with the FBI, CIA, NSA, DOJ & other secret “Spook Groups” we don’t know about as members of his orchestra.
TRF — You beat me to the analogy! I have a sneaking suspicion Barr and his DoJ are going to be very thorough. I hope Wray is looking for a new job soon.
I do apologize Abby. I’ll let you go first the next time. {|;>)
What no one is admitting is the extent of the illegal spying. It wasn’t confined to Carter Page or George Papadopoulos. Their supposed Russian connections were used as the excuse to spy on everyone they were in contact with by email or telephone, and all of those people were then spied upon by the FBI, the CIA and the NSA. Then, these agencies spied on all of the people they were in contact with until it reached right into Donald J. Trumps closest advisers. This could have involved hundreds of individuals. Much bigger than Watergate. Spying or illegal surveillance? Take your pick.
I’m guessing the others like Ben Carson were spied on too. Just in case.
I am willing to bet that somewhere somehow, GWB’s name comes up. Not as a participant, but as a person who may have heard some shit from his daddy’s CIA buddies and just didn’t care to warn Trump or the others. (Like he warned McCain when they were about to do it to him in ’08)
I think this whole spy shit will not only uncover Dems, but a bucket of R’s, too.
It’s still the mono-party. Even with the good senators and reps stuck inside the pit.
why are huma and weiner so quiet lately? They’re the only assholes from the hillary clan who haven’t made a peep.
I’d like to see more emphasis on the point that spying on political opponents was business as usual for Barky’s cabal going right back to his first year as president. The worst episode was the spying on Trump and his people, but remember that that was because not only were they Dem enemies, but also that setting up the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and the Mueller inquisition was to shield all those involved in prior illegal surveillance.
MJA: Bingo! Papadopoulos was just on Tucker Carlson, and he confirmed that he was first called in to discuss his involvement with the Ben Carson campaign. Papadopoulos believes that he was also being spied on because of his connections with Israel. This probably will expand to include all sorts of people who were opposed to the Iranian nuclear scam. Bigger than Watergate!
MJA — I think every Republican candidate was spied on. This goes way back before the end of the primaries. What is so weird is you’d think the last thing the Ds would want right now is to continue raging about redacting anything.
Trump is in a dodgy position. The right thing to do is to go after and prosecute all of the weaponized government illegality of the Obama administration, be it spygate, IRS targeting, etc. without being cast as a vindictive tyrant going into the election.
Heinous crimes were committed. They should not go unpunished. It’s a matter of timing. I expect thorough investigations and grand juries to be convened.
After 2020.
Then Lois Lerner, John Koskinen, Peter strozk, Lisa paige, John Brennan, Jim Comey, plus a sh’load of people we’ve never heard of will be walking the plank.
Deep state reckoning.
Timing is crucial. They can all sweat in the meantime.
Schadenfreude delayed is not schadenfreude denied.
Be patient. And do what you can to muster Trump voters. Not necessarily through organizations bur every day conversation.
A lot.
A lot more than we have thus far dared guess.