BREAKING: CNN admit Paul Manafort was wiretapped

[Faun]

take Crooked Obama to jail. lock him up!

US government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman - CNNPolitics

Seriously, at what point did you figure out that Manafort was subject to at least one FISA warrant? I mean you had to be pretty fucking brain dead not to figure that out sometime last Mar or so.

FISA has no jurisdiction over wiretaps and surveillance targeted at American citizens. Any authorization to wiretap Manafort would have been illegal.

As always, you have no fucking clue what you're yappin' about.

The standard for electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes, though, is a little lower. This is because when it comes to national security, as opposed to criminal prosecutions, our Fourth Amendment rights are balanced against the government’s interest in protecting the country. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the FBI to get a warrant from a secret court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), to conduct electronic surveillance on U.S. persons if they can show probable cause that the target is an “agent of a foreign power” who is “knowingly engag[ing]…in clandestine intelligence activities.” In other words, the government has to show that the target might be spying for a foreign government or organization.

It Ain’t Easy Getting a FISA Warrant: I Was an FBI Agent and Should Know​

 

[Dragonlady]

Their reasoning was because Manafort worked for the Party of Regions. BUT guess who else worked for the Party of Regions? The Podesta Group.

Obviously they were only targeting the Trump campaign.

The original FISA warrant was issued in 2014, long before Manaforte became Trump's campaign chairman. So Obama did not tape the Trump campaign. After Manaforte became Trump's campaign chair, the warrant was allowed to expire. The FBI reapplied for a NEW FISA warrant after he was fired because he was under criminal investigation.

Apparently you idiots didn't bother to read the article.

 

[Dragonlady]

We have 60 pages of people insulting each other over what are facts and we fail to see the bigger picture. The wiretapping of manafort was just a smokescreen that the obama administration used to stealthily surveil the opposing parties candidate running for election. Let me reiterate. Obama used the nations intelligence system to spy and collect dirt on Americans of the opposing party and then on the president elects team. this should concern any American way more than so-called Russian interference. As Nikita kruchev(sp) often said in the sixties, we will not have to conquer America, it will fall from within. But an administration violating wholesale not only the laws but the trust of the American people is our most dangerous enemy.

But, but, but you have no proof. What are some of the facts. Well obama is a serial liar, Susan rice is a serial liar who earlier claimed she knew nothing about unmasking, James clapper has lied to the committees and on and on and on.first there was no evidence, now there is some evidence, tomorrow their will be more evidence. Inotherwords the momentum is toward more discovery of illegal activity. The media seeing the direction this is going will drop the story.

Former DNI Clapper: 'I can deny' wiretap of Trump Tower

James clapper stated unequivocally that there was no surveillance of trump, trump tower, or the trump campaign but if manafort was wiretapped in the fall of 2016 it is preposterous to think that communications between manafort and the trump campaign were not intercepted. So is it stupid not to believe people that have continually lied to you? Is it stupid to say Clapper and the FBI have some explaining to do. Are you lefties not even a wee bit concerned if these claims turn out to be true.

In true conspiracy fashion, I am beginning to believe that the extent of obama spying on innocent American citizens is so great that even republicans in the know think that exposing the facts would indeed cause more unrest than the political system could handle, so they are agreeing to squash the investigation.

Maybe my leftist friends could agree on this. The truth. Just tell us who was unmasked, who gave the order to unmask, who leaked the unmasking, and why were these people unmasked when it is unlawful to do so, and who was privy to the unmasking. That doesn't seem so extreme or radical.

Prediction: this story is going to get worse for obama and Dems before it gets better.

Paul Manaforte quit the Trump campaign in August of 2016. If the FBI obtained their FISA warrant in the Fall of 2016, Manaforte was no longer a member of the Trump campaign.

So Obama didn't wiretap the campaign but nice try suckers.

 

[basquebromance]

I'm just going to say it - the whole Russian conspiracy theory is likely just to cover the fact they spied on Trump

 

[Dragonlady]

I'm just going to say it - the whole Russian conspiracy theory is likely just to cover the fact they spied on Trump

The whole Russian conspiracy came about because Trump hired all of these people who were employed by Russians BEFORE Trump hired them. He surrounded himself with them.

Trump begged Putin to hack Hillary Clinton - on national television. And to publish her emails.

Not once ever has Trump criticized Putin. Not once. Why is that?

Trump has been cozy with Russian oligarchs looking to launder stolen money buying expensive properties in the US for 15 years.

The Russia Conspiracy is not a theory. It's a fact. Even Republicans admit Putin meddled in this election. The question then becomes was the Trump Campaign involved?

Manaforte was under FBI surveillance BEFORE he became Trump's campaign manager. The Meuller investigation has an email written by Manaforte offering a private update on the campaign's progress to a Russian oligarch and close Putin associate two weeks before the RNC Nominating Convention.

Why did so many members of Trump's campaign have so many meetings with the Russian Ambassador before the election? Why did they lie and say they never met with any Russians?

It never ceases to amaze me that right wingers are so eager to convict Hillary Clinton of crimes when they have no evidence, no witnesses and no evidence that there even was a crime, but are willing to look the other way where Trump is concerned despite lawsuits, settlements, fines, witnesses and tons of evidence.

Flynn was chanting "Lock her up!" while accepting money from the Russian government for work he was doing. For a retired army general, that's illegal and Flynn knew it. Despicable.

 

[tinydancer]

Their reasoning was because Manafort worked for the Party of Regions. BUT guess who else worked for the Party of Regions? The Podesta Group.

Obviously they were only targeting the Trump campaign.

The original FISA warrant was issued in 2014, long before Manaforte became Trump's campaign chairman. So Obama did not tape the Trump campaign. After Manaforte became Trump's campaign chair, the warrant was allowed to expire. The FBI reapplied for a NEW FISA warrant after he was fired because he was under criminal investigation.

Apparently you idiots didn't bother to read the article.

What are you talking about. The CNN article is very vague on the time lines. And the Obama administration hacks definitely targeted the Trump campaign.

"By then the FBI had noticed what counterintelligence agents thought was a series of odd connections between Trump associates and Russia."

Meanwhile the Podesta Group was on Capitol Hill lobbying for sanctions to be lifted on the Russian government bank. Sberbank. It's the Kremlin's bank. But it was the Trump team that needed to be investigated for their so called Russian connections.

Oh no freaking bias there. It's a witch hunt plain and simple.



"The media’s focus on Trump’s Russian connections ignores the much more extensive and lucrative business relationships of top Democrats with Kremlin-associated oligarchs and companies.

Thanks to the Panama Papers, we know that the Podesta Group (founded by John Podesta’s brother, Tony) lobbied for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.

“Sberbank is the Kremlin, they don’t do anything major without Putin’s go-ahead, and they don’t tell him ‘no’ either,” explained a retired senior U.S. intelligence official.

According to a Reuters report, Tony Podesta was “among the high-profile lobbyists registered to represent organizations backing Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.” Among these was the European Center, which paid Podesta $900,000 for his lobbying.

That’s not all: The busy Podesta Group also represented Uranium One, a uranium company acquired by the Russian government which received approval from Hillary Clinton’s State Department to mine for uranium in the U.S. and gave Russia twenty percent control of US uranium. The New York Times reported Uranium One’s chairman, Frank Guistra, made significant donations to the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 for one speech from a Russian investment bank that has “links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.”

Notably, Frank Giustra, the Clinton Foundation’s largest and most controversial donor, does not appear anywhere in Clinton’s “non-private” emails. It is possible that the emails of such key donors were automatically scrubbed to protect the Clinton Foundation.

Let’s not leave out fugitive Ukrainian oligarch, Dymtro Firtash. He is represented by Democratic heavyweight lawyer, Lanny Davis"

No One Mentions That The Russian Trail Leads To Democratic Lobbyists

 

[tinydancer]

I'm just going to say it - the whole Russian conspiracy theory is likely just to cover the fact they spied on Trump

The whole Russian conspiracy came about because Trump hired all of these people who were employed by Russians BEFORE Trump hired them. He surrounded himself with them.

Trump begged Putin to hack Hillary Clinton - on national television. And to publish her emails.

Not once ever has Trump criticized Putin. Not once. Why is that?

Trump has been cozy with Russian oligarchs looking to launder stolen money buying expensive properties in the US for 15 years.

The Russia Conspiracy is not a theory. It's a fact. Even Republicans admit Putin meddled in this election. The question then becomes was the Trump Campaign involved?

Manaforte was under FBI surveillance BEFORE he became Trump's campaign manager. The Meuller investigation has an email written by Manaforte offering a private update on the campaign's progress to a Russian oligarch and close Putin associate two weeks before the RNC Nominating Convention.

Why did so many members of Trump's campaign have so many meetings with the Russian Ambassador before the election? Why did they lie and say they never met with any Russians?

It never ceases to amaze me that right wingers are so eager to convict Hillary Clinton of crimes when they have no evidence, no witnesses and no evidence that there even was a crime, but are willing to look the other way where Trump is concerned despite lawsuits, settlements, fines, witnesses and tons of evidence.

Flynn was chanting "Lock her up!" while accepting money from the Russian government for work he was doing. For a retired army general, that's illegal and Flynn knew it. Despicable.

Stop with the fairy tale. Both sides of the aisle have been involved with the Russians for years. As it should be. Russia was a member of the G8 and is still a member of G20.There is nothing illegal about having dealt with the Russians.

 

[easyt65]

CNN / Snowflakes seem to be trying to have it both ways - Manafort Wire Tap Bringing America Closer To Evidence Of Trump Colluding With Russians ... BUT ....the Wire Tap Had Nothing to do with Trump and the 'Russian Collusion' accusation....

Which is it? Turns out it is just part of the 'big picture' smear / undermining campaign by the Leftist Liberal Extremists.....


Left-Wing Media Continue to Drop Russia-Trump Conspiracy Stories at Strategic Times - Breitbart

"Whenever President Donald Trump is about to embark on a major diplomatic initiative, like clockwork CNN, the Washington Post or the New York Times drop a leak about the Trump-Russia conspiracy narrative seemingly designed to taint the presidency with the aura of treason.

With Trump’s major foreign policy speech today at the United Nations General Assembly, it was only a matter of which of those three news media outlets would drop an anonymously sourced story attempting to once again tie Trump to Russia despite the lack of any actual evidence.

As we learned last night, it was CNN’s turn. Lo and behold, the cable network that played a critical role in originally publicizing the existence of a largely discredited 35-page dossier on Trump released a new story last night trying to ratchet up the Russia conspiracy storyline.

CNN cited “three sources familiar with” the Russia investigation revealing that the government utilized a FISA court warrant to secretly snoop on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort before and after the 2016 presidential election, including during periods when Manafort was known to have communicated with Trump.

One has to read to the bottom of the story to discover that the original warrant had nothing to do with the Trump campaign, but was first reportedly obtained in 2014 as part of another government investigation into consulting work done by Manafort and others for Ukraine’s former ruling party, according to the sources."

Fake News CNN was part of the Conspiracy, running this story to try to keep the NON-EXISTENT 'Collusion' Scandal alive when it had nothing to do with 'Trump-Russia Collusion'.

SSDD! No Evidence. No Collusion.

 

[NotfooledbyW]

ColonelAngus, post: 18177290,

If you dont think it's bad for a sitting president to spy on domestic political opponents, you are truly fucked in the head.

Your head has been fucked by Trump. Obama did not spy on a political opponent. So there is nothing to think about.

Spicer has told you that Manafort "played a very limited role" in the Trump presidential campaign.

The wiretap was not on Trump. Obama did not spy on Trump and to this day he probably knows nothing about what the Manafort wiretap contains.

 

[NotfooledbyW]

Stop with the fairy tale. Both sides of the aisle have been involved with the Russians for years. As it should be. Russia was a member of the G8 and is still a member of G20.There is nothing illegal about having dealt with the Russians.

Dealing/ colluding with a foreign government that is interfering with our election is immoral illegal indecent and treasonous.

Other open dealings are not those things.

 

[Dragonlady]

CNN / Snowflakes seem to be trying to have it both ways - Manafort Wire Tap Bringing America Closer To Evidence Of Trump Colluding With Russians ... BUT ....the Wire Tap Had Nothing to do with Trump and the 'Russian Collusion' accusation....

Which is it? Turns out it is just part of the 'big picture' smear / undermining campaign by the Leftist Liberal Extremists.....


Left-Wing Media Continue to Drop Russia-Trump Conspiracy Stories at Strategic Times - Breitbart

"Whenever President Donald Trump is about to embark on a major diplomatic initiative, like clockwork CNN, the Washington Post or the New York Times drop a leak about the Trump-Russia conspiracy narrative seemingly designed to taint the presidency with the aura of treason.

With Trump’s major foreign policy speech today at the United Nations General Assembly, it was only a matter of which of those three news media outlets would drop an anonymously sourced story attempting to once again tie Trump to Russia despite the lack of any actual evidence.

As we learned last night, it was CNN’s turn. Lo and behold, the cable network that played a critical role in originally publicizing the existence of a largely discredited 35-page dossier on Trump released a new story last night trying to ratchet up the Russia conspiracy storyline.

CNN cited “three sources familiar with” the Russia investigation revealing that the government utilized a FISA court warrant to secretly snoop on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort before and after the 2016 presidential election, including during periods when Manafort was known to have communicated with Trump.

One has to read to the bottom of the story to discover that the original warrant had nothing to do with the Trump campaign, but was first reportedly obtained in 2014 as part of another government investigation into consulting work done by Manafort and others for Ukraine’s former ruling party, according to the sources."

Fake News CNN was part of the Conspiracy, running this story to try to keep the NON-EXISTENT 'Collusion' Scandal alive when it had nothing to do with 'Trump-Russia Collusion'.

SSDD! No Evidence. No Collusion.

You can't cite Breitbart as a source while calling CNN "fake news" with a straight face.

You can call the Russia investigation a "smear campaign" while going apol

Their reasoning was because Manafort worked for the Party of Regions. BUT guess who else worked for the Party of Regions? The Podesta Group.

Obviously they were only targeting the Trump campaign.

The original FISA warrant was issued in 2014, long before Manaforte became Trump's campaign chairman. So Obama did not tape the Trump campaign. After Manaforte became Trump's campaign chair, the warrant was allowed to expire. The FBI reapplied for a NEW FISA warrant after he was fired because he was under criminal investigation.

Apparently you idiots didn't bother to read the article.

What are you talking about. The CNN article is very vague on the time lines. And the Obama administration hacks definitely targeted the Trump campaign.

"By then the FBI had noticed what counterintelligence agents thought was a series of odd connections between Trump associates and Russia."

Meanwhile the Podesta Group was on Capitol Hill lobbying for sanctions to be lifted on the Russian government bank. Sberbank. It's the Kremlin's bank. But it was the Trump team that needed to be investigated for their so called Russian connections.

Oh no freaking bias there. It's a witch hunt plain and simple.



"The media’s focus on Trump’s Russian connections ignores the much more extensive and lucrative business relationships of top Democrats with Kremlin-associated oligarchs and companies.

Thanks to the Panama Papers, we know that the Podesta Group (founded by John Podesta’s brother, Tony) lobbied for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.

“Sberbank is the Kremlin, they don’t do anything major without Putin’s go-ahead, and they don’t tell him ‘no’ either,” explained a retired senior U.S. intelligence official.

According to a Reuters report, Tony Podesta was “among the high-profile lobbyists registered to represent organizations backing Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.” Among these was the European Center, which paid Podesta $900,000 for his lobbying.

That’s not all: The busy Podesta Group also represented Uranium One, a uranium company acquired by the Russian government which received approval from Hillary Clinton’s State Department to mine for uranium in the U.S. and gave Russia twenty percent control of US uranium. The New York Times reported Uranium One’s chairman, Frank Guistra, made significant donations to the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 for one speech from a Russian investment bank that has “links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.”

Notably, Frank Giustra, the Clinton Foundation’s largest and most controversial donor, does not appear anywhere in Clinton’s “non-private” emails. It is possible that the emails of such key donors were automatically scrubbed to protect the Clinton Foundation.

Let’s not leave out fugitive Ukrainian oligarch, Dymtro Firtash. He is represented by Democratic heavyweight lawyer, Lanny Davis"

No One Mentions That The Russian Trail Leads To Democratic Lobbyists

Meeting with Russians and doing business with Russians isn't illegal. Inviting Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's email is illegal. If all of these meetings were so innocent, why did everyone on the Trump campaign lie about them?

The Russian interference in the election was all to aid Donald Trump. Putin didn't want Clinton as President.

The Russia investigations don't constitute a witch hunt. A witch hunt is 25 years of Republican investigations costing in excess of $100 million dollars of tax payer money which produced absolutely nothing but a lie about a blow job. No criminal charges, no evidence and no convictions. The target - Hillary Clinton.

 

[easyt65]

Meeting with Russians and doing business with Russians isn't illegal. Inviting Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's email is illegal.

...except that is NOT what happened. That is your opinion and the opinion of many other butt-hurt snowflakes who still won't accept that Hillary lost an election...AGAIN.

Again, there is no evidence of a crime.

Snowflakes' CLAIM that Trump's sarcastic comment during a debate equates to an illegal request by Trump for the Russians to interfere in our election process is LAUGHABLE and would NEVER stand up in a court of law.

Dear, you could ask Hillary Clinton to break into an ATM and steal money, and if they did it you would not be guilty of the crime or participating in it, especially if there is no evidence to suggest there was ever a crime.

Finally, only snowflakes are STUPID enough to claim Trump would use a world-wide televised platform to officially ask Vladimir Putin and the Russians to illegally interfere in our elections on his behalf to help him defeat Hillary.

 

[ColonelAngus]

Stop with the fairy tale. Both sides of the aisle have been involved with the Russians for years. As it should be. Russia was a member of the G8 and is still a member of G20.There is nothing illegal about having dealt with the Russians.

Dealing/ colluding with a foreign government that is interfering with our election is immoral illegal indecent and treasonous.

Other open dealings are not those things.

Exactly...that's why this hot mic moment by Obama was so disturbing.

 

[Dragonlady]

Meeting with Russians and doing business with Russians isn't illegal. Inviting Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's email is illegal.

...except that is NOT what happened. That is your opinion and the opinion of many other butt-hurt snowflakes who still won't accept that Hillary lost an election...AGAIN.

Again, there is no evidence of a crime.

Snowflakes' CLAIM that Trump's sarcastic comment during a debate equates to an illegal request by Trump for the Russians to interfere in our election process is LAUGHABLE and would NEVER stand up in a court of law.

Dear, you could ask Hillary Clinton to break into an ATM and steal money, and if they did it you would not be guilty of the crime or participating in it, especially if there is no evidence to suggest there was ever a crime.

Finally, only snowflakes are STUPID enough to claim Trump would use a world-wide televised platform to officially ask Vladimir Putin and the Russians to illegally interfere in our elections on his behalf to help him defeat Hillary.

It wasn't during a debate it was during a press conference. Trump was asked about the impropriety of the Russians hacking the DNC and he said he had no problems with Russians hacking the DNC.

Interesting that you would call his remarks a "sarcastic comment". There was no sarcasm at all. He openly called for the Putin government to hack Clinton and release all of Hillary's lost emails. Said it would be a "service" to the American people.

Had you been an American living in the US instead of a Russian troll farmer, you would have known that his remarks were called "treasonous" at the time.

 

[danielpalos]

I'm just going to say it - the whole Russian conspiracy theory is likely just to cover the fact they spied on Trump

I am going to say it too; y'all are lucky this federalist is not in Congress.

 

[Rambunctious]

 

[The Original Tree]

Manafort was framed. That is why Mueller gave The Podesta Group Immunity so Manafort could not defend himself by requesting The Podesta Group Financial Records.

Mueller, Lynch, Comey, McCabe, all of them, their only job is to protect Obama & Clinton who ordered all of this skull duggery.

 

[LaDairis]

For the first time in recorded US history, a sitting US President used FBI, Homeland Security, and other government assets to help his Party win an election....

It is the same level of contempt for America as having a man as First Lady....

 

[toobfreak]

Manafort was framed. That is why Mueller gave The Podesta Group Immunity so Manafort could not defend himself by requesting The Podesta Group Financial Records.

Mueller, Lynch, Comey, McCabe, all of them, their only job is to protect Obama & Clinton who ordered all of this skull duggery.

Mueller’s performance made it clear for all to see that what he ran for the last two years wasn’t an independent investigation pursuant to the rule of law so much as an inquisition motivated by political animus.

Mueller and his team refused to charge prominent Democrats for crimes he charged against Republicans. Paul Manafort was charged with unregistered lobbying for foreign governments, while Mueller left alone long-time Democrat donor Tony Podesta and former Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig.

George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn were charged with making false statements to federal investigators, while Clinton campaign cronies Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele’s false statements to Congress and the FBI were ignored.

Trump’s nonexistent Russian connections were plumbed while a dubious Clinton campaign-funded dossier sourced directly to Russian officials was used as a prosecutorial roadmap rather than rock-solid evidence of actual campaign collusion with the Kremlin.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

I'm just going to say it - the whole Russian conspiracy theory is likely just to cover the fact they spied on Trump

I am going to say it too; y'all are lucky this federalist is not in Congress.

What do you fantasize you would do?