Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.
There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.
Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that
In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.
FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review
We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.
Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.
Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.
The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.
There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.
I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails
II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions
II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions
Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that
the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.
In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.
FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review
We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.
Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.