The Obama Administration spied on foreign allies, Diplomats, regular Americans, their internet histories, even otherwise friendly press associations. And Dear Leader was okay with all of that. It got so bad that the global community united behind the meme ‘Yes We Scan.’ So the idea that Democrats and the Obama Administration are spying on Republicans and Trump, in particular, is neither startling nor unlikely.
What I’d like to know is how long have Trump and Company known? Have they been sitting on it waiting for the opportune time to drop the news?
I don’t know the answer to that, but we do have a host of stories about FISA warrants and DOJ spying on Trump before he was elected.
On October 9th, the Trump campaign released a large number of documents pointing out what they alleged were Hillary Clinton’s ties to Russia. On October 12th, rumors of a FISA warrant started to surface online.
NRO (Andrew McCarthy)
So, the issue is not whether Obama or some member of his White House staff “ordered” surveillance of Trump and his associates. The issues are (a) whether the Obama Justice Department sought such surveillance authorization from the FISA court, and (b) whether, if the Justice Department did that, the White House was aware of or complicit in the decision to do so. Personally, given the explosive and controversial nature of the surveillance request we are talking about – an application to wiretap the presidential candidate of the opposition party, and some of his associates, during the heat of the presidential campaign, based on the allegation that the candidate and his associates were acting as Russian agents – it seems to me that there is less than zero chance that could have happened without consultation between the Justice Department and the White House.
and..
Nevertheless, whether done inside or outside the FISA process, it would be a scandal of Watergate dimension if a presidential administration sought to conduct, or did conduct, national-security surveillance against the presidential candidate of the opposition party.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Sundaythat he would have been aware of any FISA court-ordered surveillance of Trump Tower and the Trump surrogates within during the campaign by the Obama administration., He says he was not, implying there was none:
And, of course, Breitbart (timeline by Mark Levin at the link)
In summary: the Obama administration sought, and eventually obtained, authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign; continued monitoring the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found; then relaxed the NSA rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government, virtually ensuring that the information, including the conversations of private citizens, would be leaked to the media.
Trumps is savvy. He wasn’t my first choice, but he has proven himself the sort of adversary to the 4th Estate and the 5th column we wanted. Someone who challenges the political class and their media allies in public. So how much more is going on that what we see?
As a deal maker, and making deals is his passion, you keep a lot of cards close to your vest. The ones you play and how you play them is a tactic meant to move the other side into position. I don’t think he’s stopped being that guy.
So while the left is calling him Hitler and a fascist and milking their bureaucrat insiders for leaks (real or fabricated) what game are Trump and Company playing at the same time? And, most importantly, is it a game you can play and win on this board?
Corporate culture can get ugly behind the marketing and PR. Trump is familiar with all of that. He gets how to work with the government from the outside. But on the inside, there is a massive lumbering beast with millions of parts, most of which want to keep or grow their paper-pushing regulatory make-work existence. Their self-interest is more important than good or even fair governance.
Can the deal maker play his game on that field and win?
