Townhall ^ | 11/28/2019 | Matt Vespa
It's all over, folks. Itās settled. The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not spy on the Trump campaign in 2016ā¦The New York Times said so. Right, the liberal New York Times has declared there was no bias and no spying concerning the upcoming inspector general report into alleged FISA abuses under the Obama administration. If you think this is true, then words have lost all meaning. Weāre debating distinctions without differences hereāand even the Timesā own reporting on this saga seems to suggest that, yes, the FBI tried to spy on the Trump campaign. You canāt polish a turd and the liberal media has been so appallingly bad covering this White House, you simply should just their pages to wipe your backside. It has more utility in that regard. We donāt believe you, folks. I sure as hell donāt, even though I admit that this paper has, at times, written some great stuff. Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut, but this spin is trash. The FBI didnāt spy. They just sent informants to covertly glean information from those who were with the Trump campaign and relaying said information back to the FBI. Sounds like a distinction without a difference, huh? Bloombergās Eli Lake certainly thinks so.
The FBI never tried to place informants inside the Trump campaign. They only ran informants to solicit information from people who worked for the campaign. Is it just me, or does this seem like a distinction without a difference. Russia Inquiry Review Is Expected to Undercut Trump Claim of F.B.I. Spyingā Eli Lake (@EliLake) November 27, 2019
The first slice from this rather large anti-Trump deep state pie was when Stefan Halper, a known CIA operative, tried to establish contacts with three Trump officialsāSam Clovis, George Papadopoulos, and Carter Pageāwhich was further elaborated on when āOperation Crossfireā was revealed. The Times can explain, but talk about burying the lede here [emphasis mine]:
The Justice Departmentās inspector general found no evidence that the F.B.I. attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald J. Trumpās campaign in 2016 as agents investigated whether his associates conspired with Russia's election interference operation, people familiar with a draft of the inspector generalās report said.
The determination by the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is expected to be a key finding in his highly anticipated report due out on Dec. 9 examining aspects of the Russia investigation. The finding also contradicts some of the most inflammatory accusations hurled by Mr. Trump and his supporters, who alleged not only that F.B.I. officials spied on the Trump campaign but also at one point that former President Barack Obama had ordered Mr. Trumpās phones tapped. The startling accusation generated headlines but Mr. Trump never backed it up.
The finding is one of several by Mr. Horowitz that undercuts conservativesā claims that the F.B.I. acted improperly in investigating several Trump associates starting in 2016. He also found that F.B.I. leaders did not take politically motivated actions in pursuing a secret wiretap on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page ā eavesdropping that Mr. Trumpās allies have long decried as politically motivated.
[ā¦]
F.B.I. officials started the investigation, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, in July 2016 after learning that a Russian intermediary had offered information that could damage Hillary Clinton to a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos. The F.B.I. eventually began looking at four Trump campaign advisers who had ties to Russia, including Mr. Papadopoulos, and as law enforcement and intelligence officials were realizing the extent of the Kremlinās ongoing campaign to sabotage the election.
The F.B.I. was cognizant of being seen as interfering with a presidential campaign, and former law enforcement officials are adamant that they did not investigate the Trump campaign organization itself or target it for infiltration. But agents had to investigate the four advisersā ties with Russia, and the people they did scrutinize all played roles in the Trump campaign.
Mr. Trump and his allies have pointed to some of the investigative steps the F.B.I. took as evidence of spying, though they were typical law enforcement activities. For one, agents had an informant, an academic named Stefan A. Halper, meet with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos while they were affiliated with the campaign.The president decried the revelation as an āall time biggest political scandalā when it emerged last year.
The F.B.I. did have an undercover agent who posed as Mr. Halperās assistant during a London meeting with Mr. Papadopoulos in August 2016. And indeed, another Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, reportedly pushed Mr. Halper for an ambassadorship in the Trump administration.
He wasn't a spy.... he was hired by the FBI to secretly engage in conversations under false pretenses and then report back whatever he learned in those conversations.
But he wasn't a spy.
?? Sebastian Gorka DrG on Twitterā Larry O'Connor (@LarryOConnor) May 22, 2018
Yeah, thatās spying, or as WMAL radio host and Washington Times columnist Larry OāConnor put it, āHe wasn't a spy.... he was hired by the FBI to secretly engage in conversations under false pretenses and then report back whatever he learned in those conversations.ā
And this was when the NYT published a piece with the headline: āFBI Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, As Trump Claims.ā Itās a madhouse, everyone. Now, letās circle back to Papadopoulosā rendezvous with some woman named Azra Turk, who he alleges was CIA, not FBI, which was also reported by The Times. Oh, and this woman was sent to oversee the whole infiltration operation, which included the work done by Mr. Halper [emphasis mine]:
The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?
The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaignās links to Russia.
The American governmentās affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it Spygate.
The decision to use Ms. Turk in the operation aimed at a presidential campaign official shows the level of alarm inside the F.B.I. during a frantic period when the bureau was trying to determine the scope of Russiaās attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, but could also give ammunition to Mr. Trump and his allies for their spying claims.
Ms. Turk went to London to help oversee the politically sensitive operation, working alongside a longtime informant, the Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper. The move was a sign that the bureau wanted in place a trained investigator for a layer of oversight, as well as someone who could gather information for or serve as a credible witness in any potential prosecution that emerged from the case.
This isnāt the first time the liberal media took something at face value because āorange man, bad.ā James Clapper, Obamaās former spy czar, even admitted that this activity by the FBI amounts to the dictionary definition ofā¦spying. But once again, we have a āsee no evil, see no biasā issue taking hold at the DOJ.
Sorry, throw the spin in the trash. The FBI appears to have spied on the Trump campaign, and former top-level Obama officials all but confirmed this months ago.
------------
I understand that halper wanted to join the campaign but Clovis turned him down.
Funny how difi can have a chicom spy on the staff for 20 years and nothing happens. But if the same is āsuspectedā for Trump, they launch crossfire hurricane.
Lindsay says the report is close to 1000 pages and they donāt write that much if thereās nothing to find. Any leaks coming out favor the deep state.
The 9th will tell. Then weāll see about Lindsayās hearings.
It's all over, folks. Itās settled. The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not spy on the Trump campaign in 2016ā¦The New York Times said so. Right, the liberal New York Times has declared there was no bias and no spying concerning the upcoming inspector general report into alleged FISA abuses under the Obama administration. If you think this is true, then words have lost all meaning. Weāre debating distinctions without differences hereāand even the Timesā own reporting on this saga seems to suggest that, yes, the FBI tried to spy on the Trump campaign. You canāt polish a turd and the liberal media has been so appallingly bad covering this White House, you simply should just their pages to wipe your backside. It has more utility in that regard. We donāt believe you, folks. I sure as hell donāt, even though I admit that this paper has, at times, written some great stuff. Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut, but this spin is trash. The FBI didnāt spy. They just sent informants to covertly glean information from those who were with the Trump campaign and relaying said information back to the FBI. Sounds like a distinction without a difference, huh? Bloombergās Eli Lake certainly thinks so.
The FBI never tried to place informants inside the Trump campaign. They only ran informants to solicit information from people who worked for the campaign. Is it just me, or does this seem like a distinction without a difference. Russia Inquiry Review Is Expected to Undercut Trump Claim of F.B.I. Spyingā Eli Lake (@EliLake) November 27, 2019
The first slice from this rather large anti-Trump deep state pie was when Stefan Halper, a known CIA operative, tried to establish contacts with three Trump officialsāSam Clovis, George Papadopoulos, and Carter Pageāwhich was further elaborated on when āOperation Crossfireā was revealed. The Times can explain, but talk about burying the lede here [emphasis mine]:
The Justice Departmentās inspector general found no evidence that the F.B.I. attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald J. Trumpās campaign in 2016 as agents investigated whether his associates conspired with Russia's election interference operation, people familiar with a draft of the inspector generalās report said.
The determination by the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is expected to be a key finding in his highly anticipated report due out on Dec. 9 examining aspects of the Russia investigation. The finding also contradicts some of the most inflammatory accusations hurled by Mr. Trump and his supporters, who alleged not only that F.B.I. officials spied on the Trump campaign but also at one point that former President Barack Obama had ordered Mr. Trumpās phones tapped. The startling accusation generated headlines but Mr. Trump never backed it up.
The finding is one of several by Mr. Horowitz that undercuts conservativesā claims that the F.B.I. acted improperly in investigating several Trump associates starting in 2016. He also found that F.B.I. leaders did not take politically motivated actions in pursuing a secret wiretap on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page ā eavesdropping that Mr. Trumpās allies have long decried as politically motivated.
[ā¦]
F.B.I. officials started the investigation, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, in July 2016 after learning that a Russian intermediary had offered information that could damage Hillary Clinton to a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos. The F.B.I. eventually began looking at four Trump campaign advisers who had ties to Russia, including Mr. Papadopoulos, and as law enforcement and intelligence officials were realizing the extent of the Kremlinās ongoing campaign to sabotage the election.
The F.B.I. was cognizant of being seen as interfering with a presidential campaign, and former law enforcement officials are adamant that they did not investigate the Trump campaign organization itself or target it for infiltration. But agents had to investigate the four advisersā ties with Russia, and the people they did scrutinize all played roles in the Trump campaign.
Mr. Trump and his allies have pointed to some of the investigative steps the F.B.I. took as evidence of spying, though they were typical law enforcement activities. For one, agents had an informant, an academic named Stefan A. Halper, meet with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos while they were affiliated with the campaign.The president decried the revelation as an āall time biggest political scandalā when it emerged last year.
The F.B.I. did have an undercover agent who posed as Mr. Halperās assistant during a London meeting with Mr. Papadopoulos in August 2016. And indeed, another Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, reportedly pushed Mr. Halper for an ambassadorship in the Trump administration.
He wasn't a spy.... he was hired by the FBI to secretly engage in conversations under false pretenses and then report back whatever he learned in those conversations.
But he wasn't a spy.
?? Sebastian Gorka DrG on Twitterā Larry O'Connor (@LarryOConnor) May 22, 2018
Yeah, thatās spying, or as WMAL radio host and Washington Times columnist Larry OāConnor put it, āHe wasn't a spy.... he was hired by the FBI to secretly engage in conversations under false pretenses and then report back whatever he learned in those conversations.ā
And this was when the NYT published a piece with the headline: āFBI Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, As Trump Claims.ā Itās a madhouse, everyone. Now, letās circle back to Papadopoulosā rendezvous with some woman named Azra Turk, who he alleges was CIA, not FBI, which was also reported by The Times. Oh, and this woman was sent to oversee the whole infiltration operation, which included the work done by Mr. Halper [emphasis mine]:
The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?
The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaignās links to Russia.
The American governmentās affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it Spygate.
The decision to use Ms. Turk in the operation aimed at a presidential campaign official shows the level of alarm inside the F.B.I. during a frantic period when the bureau was trying to determine the scope of Russiaās attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, but could also give ammunition to Mr. Trump and his allies for their spying claims.
Ms. Turk went to London to help oversee the politically sensitive operation, working alongside a longtime informant, the Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper. The move was a sign that the bureau wanted in place a trained investigator for a layer of oversight, as well as someone who could gather information for or serve as a credible witness in any potential prosecution that emerged from the case.
This isnāt the first time the liberal media took something at face value because āorange man, bad.ā James Clapper, Obamaās former spy czar, even admitted that this activity by the FBI amounts to the dictionary definition ofā¦spying. But once again, we have a āsee no evil, see no biasā issue taking hold at the DOJ.
Sorry, throw the spin in the trash. The FBI appears to have spied on the Trump campaign, and former top-level Obama officials all but confirmed this months ago.
------------
I understand that halper wanted to join the campaign but Clovis turned him down.
Funny how difi can have a chicom spy on the staff for 20 years and nothing happens. But if the same is āsuspectedā for Trump, they launch crossfire hurricane.
Lindsay says the report is close to 1000 pages and they donāt write that much if thereās nothing to find. Any leaks coming out favor the deep state.
The 9th will tell. Then weāll see about Lindsayās hearings.
