We’ve covered most of this more than once but Trump recently tweeted a picture of Obama spying on him. The Left snapped, as usual, blurting out that “there’s no evidence the Obama administration spied on Trump.” Not only is there no evidence there is evidence they lied to do it.
Related: FISA Court – Yeah, Some of Those Warrants to Spy on the Trump Team Were Not Valid
It is well documented that Carter Page’s Russian connections were developed in the employ of Obama’s CIA. These were then used to get a warrant to spy on a Republican presidential campaign by leaving that detail out.
They went after Mike Flynn for Russian Collusion despite his following protocol in the employ of the Obama Administration, for contact with Russians with whom he was likely tasked with surveilling.
Stefan Halper was in the employ of the US Pentagon under the Obama Administration when he was deployed by the FBI into the campaign orbit to spy on Carter Page and others.
The FBI collected extensive intelligence from inside the campaign and the transition team because of their illegal warrants, none of which is in dispute.
And the IG’s FISA report documents how Halper tried to bait Page.
The IG report revealed that in targeting Page, Halper sought specific details from Page related to the Trump campaign, and fed Page unsolicited (and potentially illegal) advice concerning campaign strategy.
For instance, in an August 2016 conversation with Page that Halper secretly recorded, Halper quizzed the foreign policy advisor on an “October Surprise.” Halper then asked Page “if the Trump campaign could access information that might have been obtained by the Russians from the DNC files.” But Halper’s next line shows Halper was doing more than seeking evidence of collusion—he was trying to influence the Trump campaign: Halper told Page “that in past campaigns ‘we would have used [it] in a heartbeat.’”
The spy working for the FBI is prodding the target to search for and cop to the thing they would accuse them of to justify the spying in which he was already engaged. Halper is telling Page to commit a crime so he can record it and then report it to his handlers.
Page had not and did not but like the Flynn case, the idea was to create perception for the purpose of applying political pressure. At the time they had no idea Trump wouldn’t cave like every other Republican.
But for the dopey Democrats who think Vox has it right, Halper was covertly recording these conversations with members of Trump’s campaign for Obama’s FBI. Please explain how this is not spying.
