Ed Morrissey:
For eight years, Barack Obama blamed George W. Bush for the performance of his own economic policies. Donald Trump has managed to eclipse that by accusing his predecessor of bugging his communications. Earlier today in a series of tweets, Trump lashed out at Obama for his “McCarthyism” and his surveillance of Trump’s communications as part of the probe into Russian interference in the election:
President Donald Trump on Saturday accused his predecessor Barack Obama of “tapping” his phone during last year’s White House campaign, without providing evidence of the explosive charge.
“I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp (sic) my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” he wrote in another tweet. …
The businessman-turned-politician, who has accused his political foes of conducting “a total witch hunt” on Saturday directed his Twitter tirade at his Democratic predecessor.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote a day after departing Washington for a weekend getaway at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort for the fourth time in five weeks.
What’s the purpose of this accusation? The adage the best defense is a good offense goes all the way back to George Washington, in substance if not in form. “[O]ffensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence,” wrote the first president in the conclusion of a letter to John Trumbull not long after leaving office, and not long before he died. A series of leaks have kept the White House on the back foot ever since taking office (or even before that), and Trump may have decided to go on the attack as a means of playing defense. Unless Trump has some substantive evidence for that charge, though, all it does is perpetuate the negative narrative.
But does he? Mark Levin alleged on Thursday that the previous administration of seeking a FISA warrant against Trump and his associates to do exactly what Trump accuses Obama of doing (via RealClearPolitics):
“There’s a much bigger scandal here: We have a prior administration. Barack Obama and his surrogates, who are supporting Hillary Clinton and her party, the Democratic Party. Who were using the… intelligence activities to surveil members of the Trump campaign, and to put that information out in the public. Those are police state tactics. Nothing Flynn or Sessions has done is even in the same category as that,” Levin said.
“The question is: Was Obama surveilling top Trump campaign officials during the election?” he asked.
“We absolutely know this is true, the FBI did a preliminary criminal investigation based on a potential connection between a server in Trump Tower and a couple of Russian banks. That turned out to be a dry hole, but one of the most outrageous things I’ve ever seen… totally uncovered by the media. Instead of closing the investigation, the Obama administration tried to turn it into a FISA court investigation in June [2016]. Apparently the first application they submitted named Trump.”
“Even the FISA court said no. There wasn’t enough evidence to make out probable cause involving Donald Trump,” he said. “In the middle of the campaign the administration was actively having Trump investigated.”
This is actually not a new revelation; in fact, the Guardian reported it on January 11th. The Obama administration allegedly did ask the FISA court for permission to surveil Trump and his operation at Trump Tower. Despite an almost unbroken series of approvals for such warrants by FISA courts, that time they refused to grant one. However, that wasn’t the end of the effort:
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, but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation.
Heat Street reported last November that the FBI did get a FISA warrant on their second try. Just before the election, the White House went back to the FISA court with a warrant that didn’t specifically name Trump — and this time got the warrant:
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.
Contrary to earlier reporting in the New York Times, which cited FBI sources as saying that the agency did not believe that the private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower which was connected to a Russian bank had any nefarious purpose, the FBI’s counter-intelligence arm, sources say, re-drew an earlier FISA court request around possible financial and banking offenses related to the server. 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.
Bear in mind that the FBI’s link to the FISA court would have been on counter-intelligence and not in criminal investigations. Criminal warrants go through normal courts, while FISA warrants deal with intelligence, espionage, and counter-terrorism that normally would not directly produce criminal prosecutions. NRO’s Andrew McCarthy wrote about this almost two months ago, and mentioned it on my show Thursday afternoon as well. McCarthy worries that the Obama administration abused the FISA system to jump-start a criminal probe where no probable cause existed for one:
Again, agents do not ordinarily draw FISA requests around possible crimes. Possible crimes prompt applications for regular criminal wiretaps because the objective is to prosecute any such crimes in court. (It is rare and controversial to use FISA wiretaps in criminal prosecutions.) FISA applications, to the contrary, are drawn around people suspected of being operatives of a (usually hostile) foreign power. …
To summarize, it appears there were no grounds for a criminal investigation of banking violations against Trump. Presumably based on the fact that the bank or banks at issue were Russian, the Justice Department and the FBI decided to continue investigating on national-security grounds. A FISA application in which Trump was “named” was rejected by the FISA court as overbroad, notwithstanding that the FISA court usually looks kindly on government surveillance requests. A second, more narrow application, apparently not naming Trump, may have been granted five months later; the best the media can say about it, however, is that the server on which the application centers is “possibly” related to the Trump campaign’s “alleged” links to two Russian banks — under circumstances in which the FBI has previously found no “nefarious purpose” in some (undescribed) connection between Trump Tower and at least one Russian bank (whose connection to Putin’s regime is not described).
That is tissue-thin indeed. It’s a good example of why investigations properly proceed in secret and are not publicly announced unless and until the government is ready to put its money where its mouth is by charging someone. It’s a good example of why FISA surveillance is done in secret and its results are virtually never publicized — the problem is not just the possibility of tipping off the hostile foreign power; there is also the potential of tainting U.S. persons who may have done nothing wrong. While it’s too early to say for sure, it may also be an example of what I thought would never actually happen: the government pretextually using its national-security authority to continue a criminal investigation after determining it lacked evidence of crimes.
Most of this was known before the inauguration, so why is Trump tweeting about it now? The continuing leaks prompted Levin to revisit it on Thursday, and that Joel Pollak put together a timeline of the issue at Breitbart yesterday. The timeline makes a few of the subsequent leaks about Team Trump look a little more than just coincidental — although they certainly may still be just coincidences. The recent reporting around this from Levin and Pollak would have certainly come to Trump’s attention, and that’s why Trump made the accusations today.
Are they true, however? AFP notes that Trump made the accusation “without providing evidence,” which is tough to do in a tweet, but that doesn’t make them false, either. The circumstantial evidence surrounding the two FISA requests and the warrant granted by the court certainly suggests that some form of surveillance at Trump Tower did take place, although whether those were wiretaps on Trump’s phones has still not been established. It may not end up being true that Trump’s phones were bugged, but the circumstances show that it’s not necessarily just a paranoid fantasy, either.
I would’nt doupt it a bit these liberal demacrats are the lowest form of life on earth lower then a snake in a wagon rut
Yeah, this guy is definitely ready to respond appropriately and with instant clarity of thought to that 3 AM White House telephone call we all worry about. Right?
People have no idea how much danger we may be in.
Hey dumbass, is this the time of the day each day you pull your head out of your ass and type stupidity?
There is actual evidence that the shithead obama intercepted Trump campaign communications. No wonder democrats are so stupid maybe even mentally retarded. They ignore actual evidence and believe lies from the alt left media.
What evidence would that be? The intelligence agency reports that there were repeated contacts between Trump campaign officials and highly-placed individuals within or associated with the Russian intelligence community?
You can’t have it both ways. And the fact that such communications were intercepted doesn’t demonstrate that it was because President Obama ordered wiretapping of the Trump Tower.
You guys need to get your story on the same page. What’s sad is that troubling questions were apparent long before the election. Before Trump was nominated, even. But no one wanted to look.
More democrat troll bullshit.
This is far worse than “watergate” on exponential level. Blanket spying on private US citizens, on the basis of their political expression (with the exception of communists, and anarchists whose intent is the destruction of our country)— is big time criminal behaviour. Leading anyone to examine the Marxist beliefs of obamaumao— and his alinsky tactics (all of which are “radical” in nature, yet inside our very government). Explains why they would do anything to get rid of Sessions, who can, and will pursue this, and will NOT be recusing himself in re: abuse of govt. office and current Sedition, and also how this entails the clintoonians and Valerie Jarrett, different branches of the same criminal gang cutting out their turf and the money, with the Russians actually brokering the democrats all the way, with the Iranian “payoff” money going straight to the Russians.
The “turd world” community organizer, his criminal former AG of the Just US department and Loretta cankles Lynch believe they can force their continuing gangsters in govt. machinery to run all over the US and our new elected President. They think they can “change the story”, and flip the Russians onto Trump. They are going to get the shock of their lives. Marshals to appear at the Kalorama DC neighborhood rental house the obamaumaos live in with their live in Iranian agent manager, Valerie Jarrett- with arrest warrants and manacles, the Secret Service having been ordered aside (and if any one of them does not— they would be shot down, cause that is what the law provides. See: Lincoln and the Pinkertons- there is precedent)
@Greg:
Indeed. A former President involved in sedition, undermining the legal government and putting the entire nation in jeopardy of attack from foreign powers due to confusion, conflict and weakness is indeed the greatest danger this nation has ever faced. We’ve been in danger since Obama was inaugurated in 2008, but his clinging to power by any means is endangering the entire country… and the world.
@July 4th American: It should be noted that this was what what prompted the weasel Snowden to try and bring down our intelligence gathering capabilities; he believed Obama was going to curtail surveillance capabilities when, in fact, he was expanding and abusing them. Obama wants a police state as that is the only way a liberal “utopia” can be imposed… for our own good, of course.
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
Exactly, total surveillance of the people to create fear and submission. Very East German of obama.
Obama is trying very hard to become the 45th president. That is the 45th worst president until there is another president, then he would be the 46th worst. He may be the first President to see jail time. Only Trump can prevent Obama from jail time if he is found guilty.
I think that Obama over estimated the support he has with current government employees as well as the citizens of the US. I also think he underestimated Trump and his supporters. I would not be surprised if all 8 Red State Dem senators lose their election in 2018.
I would not be surprised if there is a lot of information coming out of Mexico on Obama interfering with the Mexican elections and government Once someone rolls over from the Obama administration, everyone will be looking to stay out of jail.
@Randy:
Word is coming out there is a discussion this week end with Trump and AG Sessions regarding indictments perhaps coming forward concerning the recent revelations concerning wiretapping.
Donald (Grab em by the Vagina) Trump has it within his power to declassify this information at his descretion. He isn’t likely to do that because (a) there probably isn’t anything there as he’s a renowned serial liar, (b) it would likely mean exposing other Russian issues he’d probably rather keep hidden and (c) unhinged Trump Twitter toilet Tweets are usually just that and they generally serve as a distraction to the god awful governance of this vile and disgraceful administration.
And it appears that even the very Trump administration has a hard time believing the lying bigoted son of a bitch as just today on ABC’s “This Week” show, WH Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders made the statement of “IF this happened”. So his very own staff has to question the serial liar. Even mouth piece Sean Spicer has been left pretty much speechless.
As we see, weasels will support the weasel, even when the weasel is a traitor to the country.
@Bill: The issue here is finding the information with all of the Obama drones still in the various departments. Obama is not smart enough to cover his tracks. If there is a trail, it will be found. Yes, Ajay and Greg are supporting sedition. We all know what they are!
@Randy:
For what it is worth, I have heard many on the inside know have said President Trump needs to find one of these dirtbags and make a public example in order to show strength and push back.
I tend to disagree, he needs to go big or not at all….
I say he go after obama, lynch, jarrett, holder, brennan or clapper. An indictment on anyone or a multiple of those sends a nuclear bomb signal.
Going after some low level operative only makes it seem like some one went rogue, ie the Cincinnati IRS scandal….
The Sunday lib shows all saying there is nothing to this wire tap tweeting, its all Bannon and Levin.
Well how many times do they have to be proven wrong before they wait with the attacks?
It will be interesting to follow this.
@July 4th American:
What you and your fellow sock puppets are missing in your delusional witch hunt is the fact that a sitting president cannot simply order wiretapping. He can’t do it. He doesn’t have the authority. Read it yourself:
18 U.S. Code § 2511 – Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited.
In order for Obama to have accomplished Trump’s accusation would be to convince the DOJ to convince a Federal Judge that there was sufficient evidence to wiretap. If there was to have somehow been manipulated or exploited issues of this alledged wiretapping, Trump has it in his powers to declassify these docs which would explain it all. He doesn’t seem too interested in doing that.
I argued earlier that Trump’s toilet Tweet rants were meritless and something only earlier spread through far right batshit crazy sources that provided no evidence and that it may have been an effort to steer away from the terrible week of Russian exposures of his staff. If his accusations are true, it can only mean that there was credible evidence that Trump may be guilty of high crimes.
So let me redundantly reitterate this fact. A President cannot just order a wiretapping. Get that? Any questions? So this has to mean either 1 of 3 things and Robert Riesh put it as honest as anyone.
Mark Levin PROVES Obama Wiretapping on President Donald Trump | Fox & Friends 3/5/17
https://youtu.be/Diyd9Glawu8
@July 4th American: Mark Levin + Fox and Friends = proof.
Got it.
@Ajay42302: Obama has made it a habit of breaking the law and violating the constitution
So a little thing like spying on a citizen really would not bother him a whittle, he has never made anyone under him or himself accountable.
@kitt:
What is it with this defiance of facts with you blind kowtowing freaks? When clear hard evidence is provided to you, what is it that your hear? Dolphin squeak?
One more time my slow learning friend- a President does not have the power or authority to order wiretapping. You might check out the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Or you might say, “no, that’s not what I want to know”. You could check out Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 or then again, you could cover your ears and stomp your feet in some dancing fashion. Or you could look into the USA Freedom Act that was enacted the year prior to this accusation which put tighter restrictions and demanded more transparency on government surveillance as a result of the Snowden leaks. Or of course, you could ignore that as it conflicts with your Obama witch hunt and Trump suckup madness.
A president just can’t order willy nilly such a search but instead, has to work with the DOJ who then works with the FBI (an agency that wasn’t all that Obama friendly by the way and would be quick to produce any smoking gun) and CIA who then works with a Federal Judge who weighs the evidence to decide if such a wiretapping warrant is justified. And all of these are classified documents which Trump now has access to and could easily declassify them.
So again, either Trump is making up another outright lie or there is credible evidence that a warrant against him had merit.
But one has to remember that Trump is a serial liar. This is a guy that lied for years about Obama’s citizenship, lied that Obama was the founder of the Islamic State and created of Isis, and has taken lying to an entirely new level on every front. It should be noted that he’s an egomaniac and seems to go into paranoid meltdowns on his late night Tweeting.
And again, Trump’s accusations has no evidence, no substance, doesn’t make sense, is inconsistent with law, could be declassified but isn’t, originated from unhinged and ultra right radio talk shows and such, consistent with his blow hard/off-the-cuff late night Tweet madness, and is conveniently timed to offset his horrible Russian exposures.
@Ajay42302: You will have to liberalspain the treason/selfish goals comment to me.
What I was pointing out that the Previous president had no respect for the constitution or laws and often did impeachable acts but was protected by the race card and the salivating Media.
My memory may be selective, but I cant name 1 great or good accomplishment of BHO in 8 years. Can you help me with that?
Its not paranoia if they are out to get you, already the dems are calling for impeachment do you want examples?
I am running a bit low on butter for my popcorn, as I watch the Dems melt down and spin trying to get The President Donald J Trump.
The crazy NYT in January also backs Trump https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5xt1og/wiretapped_data_used_in_inquiry_of_trump_aides/
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #9:
It didn’t happen. “The evidence is overwhelming,” Mark Levin says. Sure it is. The man talks for 12 and a half minutes. He says things as if he’s laying out a case, voice rising as he becomes increasingly excited. The actual evidence he presents? There is none. There’s just this guy, reading random bits from newspaper articles, stringing them together to fit his conspiracy theory. Even the FOX host seems to realize he’s presenting his case like a crazy uncle. What he’s actually doing is functioning as a Trump tool.
Trump’s Twitter wiretap accusations were nothing more than a means to divert all weekend media attention away from the Sessions situation, while Sessions hurriedly patches together a serviceably plausible tale explaining his private meeting with Sergey Kislyak, and revises his confirmation testimony subsequent to his confirmation accordingly. “Wait, now I remember what the meeting was all about! It somehow slipped my mind before. Give me a couple of days to write it all down.”
This is how things are done in America’s newly established reality television ideocracy.
Do the country a favor. Fully investigate the entire Russian situation, including Trump’s allegations that Obama ordered him to be wiretapped. Find all of the facts, and lay them out in full detail. Then we’ll see what we’ve really got, and exactly how we got it.
Actually, an NSA employee is guiding the Trump administration around the road blocks Obama instilled the last few days of his reign. The evidence is mounting. This may lead right p to Obama. I would bet that the drones will start singing as the incitements start arriving.
Actually, the SVR is probably calling all the shots.
Just because people say things doesn’t make them true. Truth is established with evidence, and evidence is found by investigation. Therefore, a full and honest investigation is the only way we will ever come to know the truth.
The only reason someone would stand in the way of that or argue against it is because they don’t want the truth to be discovered.
Trump Is Said to Reject Comey Assertion That Wiretapping Claim Is False
He’s reading Levin’s rants on Breitbart, but not bothering to talk to the FBI director, who has actual reasons for saying what he has said?
Think about what that means for a moment, in broader terms. Who is the President relying on for information about what’s going on in the world?
The Russian meme is pure fake news.
It is all the democrats have left because they can not appeal to the American People having had their agenda completely repudiated.
@Greg: Sessions should tell everyone it was just about their grandkids, totally plausible. Even if it was the Obama admin that arranged that private meeting with the ambassador.
Obama did not have to order it just as he did not have to order Lerner to not give tax exemptions to conservative groups, its just what minions do, what they should ask him if he was fed information coming out of the illegal spying. He knew it was happening and is helping the attempted cover up, just like Nixon only helped cover up for his rouge minions.
If I want to know what the liberals are up to I just listen to what they accuse conservatives of.
@July 4th American, #29:
It all depends on who you ask.
A majority of republicans aren’t worried about the Trump administration’s possible Russian connections. A majority of democrats and independents—which constitute an overall majority of Americans in general—are concerned.
CNN/ORC poll: Most back special prosecutor for Russia investigation
obama has nothing after all of his surveillance on Trump and his campaign or they would leak it.
The alt left media has nothing on Trump or the campaign or they would be rolling it 24/7
There is nothing and that is exactly why nothing of an evidential nature has been presented.
obama has a detailed history of abusing the surveillance mechanisms for his political use and as a consequence having broken many laws, deserves a lifetime assignment to prison.
@kitt:
I absolutely understand the festered and deranged hatred you and your low life ilk have for Democrats (especially a black one) and yes, I understand that you and your low life ilk will go to any extreme to spin and lie in order blame Obama for any and all woes of the world. I get that.
But “what I was pointing out that” and have been pointing out is that your bigoted hatred of Obama doesn’t exonerate the egomaniac con man you put in office. Yeah, sure, Obama is really really a bad person and you hate him with your every fiber. Again, understood. But that constant default spew from you and yours to deflect every blunder, breach of the Constitution, outright lies, and mad elephant Tweets from this freak show of a president is becoming rather stupid.
You clowns should really consider growing some balls and hold the Frankenstein you created accountable for, for, for hell, at least something rather than cowardly clinging to your scapegoat Obama hatred while this madman sells out the country.
Telling? Josh Earnest refuses to deny if Obama camp is behind recent intel leaks
@July 4th American: lol Levin is saying he got all his research from …yes fake news! All the Russian connections were made up all the sources by NYT and other liberal media was a big fat lie, outed by Levin, oh I have that extra butter now. And they call Levin a conspiracy theorist only based on their reporting and their sources. ROFL! Ya lets all have congressional hearings bring the reporter of the NYT to testify.
@Ajay42302: Nice try we are all racists, thats old, try giving me the greatest accomplishment of ol Barry.
Its like Bigfoot, global warming and the greatest accomplishments of Hillary.
Will all those news outlets now run retractions of the lies they put out for their followers?
Now it looks like Harry Reid knew of wire taps on the Trump campaign in a letter he sent to Comey asking him to disclose the information the FBI had. It looks like Trump is making head way in identifying the leakers who have committed a felony. I expect that soon, people will be coming out of the wood work and Obama rat holes to provide testimony to avoid their going to prison..
@kitt:
It is beginning to look like there is some serious lying occurring or a massive media cover up. If you are a Levinite it is my guess you have heard his Monday show.
My instinct tells me something most likely happened with respect to intercepting info from the Trump campaign or transition team.
It appears the media is in full coverup attempting once again to form and shape the narrative that excludes them from culpability.
@July 4th American: Yes I listen to his radio and have a CRTV subscription, have all of his books except men in black., his new book due some time this year. He does his fair share of railing against DT but in an open manner, not back stabbing. He also defends DT, he sees the long game.
Mondays show was exposing the most liberal MSM hand in a coup, watch the interviews carefully he never claims this is his research he gives them all the credit.
He clearly says IF there reports are true there are some very serious crimes committed by the Obama administration, if not they are a pack of liars and the Russians are coming story is just that a story.
Like Trump, if you dont listen to Mark directly the MSM will gaslight you, Trump going past the media so he speaks directly to the people is so they cant gaslight what he says. You can only decide if he is really a radical right-wing conspiracy theorist if you actually listen to him.
Oh yes if there are actually transcripts of Flynns phone calls, there needs to be a criminal investigation. If Levin ends up dead, he didnt jump from a window.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/06…
July 4th for his book. I think I heard him say last week it would be on Amazon later this spring(book cover only) presumably to initiate pre order sales.
This interception of info of the Trump campaign and the Trump transition team most likely happened either legally or covertly. obama obviously needed to prepare for his post presidency anarchist activities heading up (OFA) organizing for anarchy.
I would say the rope around the neck of obama is beginning to cinch up….