'No evidence' FBI spied on Trump campaign, Republican says, contrary to president's claims

[Zippyjuan]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rubi...ry?id=55444997

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said he sees "no evidence" to support President Trump's claims that the FBI used an informant to gather information on his campaign, but that instead the federal probe was focused on "individuals with a history of links to Russia that were concerning."

"What I have seen is evidence that they were investigating individuals with a history of links to Russia that were concerning," Rubio, a Florida senator who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee told ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and "This Week" Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.

"As far as what I have seen to date, it appears that there was an investigation not of the campaign, but of certain individuals who have a history that we should be suspicious of, that predate the presidential campaign of 2015, 2016," Rubio said on "This Week." "And when individuals like that are in the orbit of a major political campaign in America, the FBI, who is in charge of counterintelligence investigations, should look at people like that."

The president has claimed repeatedly there was an FBI "spy" in his presidential campaign.

Rubio said he thinks the president and his lawyers are "reacting ... they’re responding to what, what they’re facing and the things that are happening to them."

He added, "If there is an FBI informant or any sort of inappropriate action that’s been taken targeting a political campaign, the president’s or any, we want to know about it and it should be punished."

[nikcers]

They do this all the time with stuff that is classified or not public disclosure, they just lie because its not illegal for them to lie. Its like a bizzaro jedi mind trick.

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...r-donald-trump

Rudy Giuliani admits 'Spygate' is Trump PR tactic against Robert Mueller


Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that his repeated imputations of a supposed scandal at the heart of the Robert Mueller investigation – which Donald Trump calls “Spygate” – amounted to a tactic to sway public opinion and limit the risk of the president being impeached.

“Of course we have to do it to defend the president,” Trump’s lawyer told CNN State of the Union host Dana Bash, who accused him of being part of a campaign to undermine the Mueller investigation. Trump has repeatedly called the special counsel’s work a “witch hunt”, despite its producing five guilty pleas, including by three former Trump aides, and evidence of Russian tampering in US elections.

“It is for public opinion,” Giuliani said of his public campaign of dissimulation. “Because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach or not impeach. Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. And so our jury – and it should be – is the American people.

“So Republicans largely, many independents, even some Democrats now question the legitimacy of [the Mueller investigation],” Giuliani said. “Democrats I would suggest for their own self-interest, this is not a good issue to go into the midterms.”

As Giuliani acknowledged the political nature of his public campaign against Mueller, Trump advanced that campaign on Twitter, lamenting what he said were “young and beautiful lives … devastated and destroyed” by the investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“They went back home in tatters!” Trump wrote. It was unclear who he was talking about.

Trump, Giuliani and other allies claim reports that an FBI informant monitored links between Trump aides and Russia show there was a “spy” on the Trump campaign. Senior figures in the intelligence community have rubbished such claims.

On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, the Democrat Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House intelligence committee, said: “This is part of the propaganda machine. Let’s spread a completely fallacious story and then say it needs to be investigated, and give it a life of its own.”

The Arizona senator Jeff Flake, a rare Republican critic of Trump, told NBC’s Meet the Press the “Spygate” claims were a “diversion tactic, obviously”.

He added: “There is concern that the president is laying the groundwork to [fire] Bob Mueller or [deputy attorney general Rod] Rosenstein. If that were to happen, obviously, that would cause a constitutional crisis.”

According to a CNN poll from 10 May, views of the Mueller investigation have shifted significantly among Republicans since March. The poll found that Republican approval of Mueller had declined to 17%, from 29%. Approval among Democrats had fallen slightly, from 69% to 64%. A majority of respondents from both parties disapproved of Trump’s handling of the Mueller investigation.

Giuliani is a former US attorney for the southern district of New York. In his CNN appearance, he called former CIA director John Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper, both fierce critics of Trump, “two clowns”.

“I have no regard at all for Brennan or Clapper. I think they’re two clowns…” Giuliani said. “They’re not civil servants as far as I know.”

Clapper told the same show: “In the space of a week I’ve progressed from being the dumbest intelligence officer on the planet, from President Trump, to a clown. So it’s progress, I guess.”

More at link.

[timosman]

[Zippyjuan]

....

Thank you for your informative contribution to the discussion.

[nikcers]

Thank you for your informative contribution to the discussion.

I thought it was John Bolton for a neocon trio saying that there was no FBI informant in the Trump campaign and that spy gate was a hoax, but on second look it wasn't, thanks for making me double check.

[dannno]

Well if the deep state says so, it must be true.

[timosman]

FBI "infiltrator" Stefan Halper tried to worm his way into a senior role within the Trump administration, according to a Monday report by Jonathan Swan of Axios.

During the transition following the 2016 election, while still being paid by the Department of Defense for "research" papers, Halper - nicknamed: "the walrus," allegedly approached Trump's top trade advisor, Peter Navarro for a job as an ambassador to an unnamed Asian country.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ate-department

..

[AuH20]

Marco is in line to replace McCain as the chief state fluffer, it seems.

[timosman]

Well if the deep state says so, it must be true.

This is my conclusion as well. The only thing I don't like is them using Zippy as their PR. Can't they afford someone with more reputable credentials?

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.vox.com/2018/5/25/173802...-fbi-explained

If you look at Trump’s rhetoric on the Halper case, you notice a few repeated assertions that aren’t borne out by the facts we currently have. Trump continually insists that Halper was a “spy” informing to the FBI from inside his campaign, and that Halper’s contacts at the bureau were using him to spy on Trump for political purposes.

In fact, Halper is a longtime Republican who never worked for the Trump campaign. The FBI appeared to have asked Halper to make contact with Page and Papadopoulos after it had reason to believe each of these men was in contact with the Russian government (the trip to Moscow in Page’s case, and the conversation with the Australian in Papadopoulos’s).

[Zippyjuan]

Well if the deep state says so, it must be true.

Trump said so too?

[timosman]

Trump said so too?

Why do you continue to give everybody an impression of being overpaid?

[Zippyjuan]

Why do you continue to give everybody an impression of being overpaid?

How much do you get?

[Danke]

Why do you continue to give everybody an impression of being overpaid?

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to timosman again.

[Swordsmyth]

LOL at the OP.

[donnay]

Well if the deep state says so, it must be true.

That's right. All hail the deep state.

[Brian4Liberty]

Does this mean that Hannity will have to dump his lover-boy? They still have Israel...

[timosman]

[timosman]

In memoriam Zippy.

[timosman]

Thank you for your informative contribution to the discussion.

[Stratovarious]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rubi...ry?id=55444997

Who cares what Rubio has to say , and Why is zippy still posting garbage and standing by
it as if it's relevant and true in any way ?

[Stratovarious]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rubi...ry?id=55444997'No evidence' FBI spied on Trump campaign, Republican says, contrary to president's claims

''Deep State Surveillance Program Spied on Trump, Judges, Others''

https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/...-judges-others

--------------------------
https://www.wnd.com/2019/02/judicial...ssier-creator/

--------------------------

[jmdrake]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...r-donald-trump

“It is for public opinion,” Giuliani said of his public campaign of dissimulation. “Because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach or not impeach. Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. And so our jury – and it should be – is the American people.

More at link.

Well duh it's for public opinion. And trials are to sway the opinion of 12 jurors and 1 judge. Impeachment is a political process as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court. What the hell is your point?

[Danke]

This is my conclusion as well. The only thing I don't like is them using Zippy as their PR. Can't they afford someone with more reputable credentials?

Apparently not.

[timosman]

May 4, 2019

Investigative journalist Ben Swann discusses what this means with RT America’s Manila Chan.

[dannno]

New York Times Admits Obama Admin Deployed Multiple Spies Against Trump Campaign In 2016

F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/u....co/oHqt5LAdVs

• May 2, 2019

WASHINGTON — 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 campaign’s links to Russia.

The American government’s 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 Russia’s 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.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Mr. Halper, Robert D. Luskin. Last year, Bill Priestap, then the bureau’s top counterintelligence agent who was deeply involved in the Russia inquiry, told Congress during a closed-door hearing that there was no F.B.I. conspiracy against Mr. Trump or his campaign.

The London operation yielded no fruitful information, but F.B.I. officials have called the bureau’s activities in the months before the election both legal and carefully considered under extraordinary circumstances. They are now under scrutiny as part of an investigation by Michael E. Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general. He could make the results public in May or June, Attorney General William P. Barr has said. Some of the findings are likely to be classified.

It is unclear whether Mr. Horowitz will find fault with the F.B.I.’s decision to have Ms. Turk, whose real name is not publicly known, meet with Mr. Papadopoulos. Mr. Horowitz has focused among other things on the activities of Mr. Halper, who accompanied Ms. Turk in one of her meetings with Mr. Papadopoulos and also met with him and other campaign aides separately. The bureau might also have seen Ms. Turk’s role as essential for protecting Mr. Halper’s identity as an informant if prosecutors ever needed court testimony about their activities.

Mr. Barr reignited the controversy last month when he told Congress, “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal.” He backed off the charged declaration later in the same hearing, saying: “I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated. And I’m not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.”

Mr. Barr again defended his use of the term “spying” at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, saying he wanted to know more about the F.B.I.’s investigative efforts during 2016 and explained that the early inquiry most likely went beyond the use of an informant and a court-authorized wiretap of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, who had interacted with a Russian intelligence officer.

“Many people seem to assume that the only intelligence collection that occurred was a single confidential informant” and the warrant to surveil Mr. Page, Mr. Barr said. “I would like to find out whether that is in fact true. It strikes me as a fairly anemic effort if that was the counterintelligence effort designed to stop the threat as it’s being represented.”

This account was described in interviews with people familiar with the F.B.I. activities of Mr. Halper, Ms. Turk and the inspector general’s investigation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the subjects of a continuing inquiry.

As part of Mr. Horowitz’s investigation, his office has examined Mr. Halper’s past work as an F.B.I. informant and asked witnesses about whether agents had adequate control of Mr. Halper’s activities, people familiar with the inquiry have said.

While in London in 2016, Ms. Turk exchanged emails with Mr. Papadopoulos, saying meeting him had been the “highlight of my trip,” according to messages provided by Mr. Papadopoulos.
“I am excited about what the future holds for us ,” she wrote.

Weeks before Mr. Papadopoulos met with Ms. Turk and Mr. Halper, the F.B.I. had opened its investigation into the Russia effort — based largely on information that Mr. Papadopoulos had relayed to an Australian diplomat about a Russian offer to help the Trump campaign by releasing thousands of hacked Democratic emails.

The F.B.I. received the information from the Australian government on July 26, 2016, the special counsel’s report said, and the bureau code-named its investigation Crossfire Hurricane.

Investigators scrambled to determine whether Mr. Papadopoulos had any Russian contacts while deciding to scrutinize three additional Trump campaign aides who had concerning ties to Russia: Paul Manafort, its chairman; Michael T. Flynn, who went on to be the president’s first national security adviser; and Mr. Page.

Secrecy was paramount for the F.B.I. officials because of the sensitivities of investigating campaign advisers during a presidential race. Had the investigation into Trump advisers’ contacts with Russia become public, it could have devastated the Trump campaign. And top bureau officials were enduring fresh attacks over their handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

One of the agents involved in the Russia inquiry, a seasoned counterintelligence investigator out of New York, turned to Mr. Halper, whom he viewed as a reliable and trusted informant. They had a longstanding relationship; the agent had even spoken at an intelligence seminar that Mr. Halper taught at the University of Cambridge, discussing his work investigating a Russian espionage ring known as the illegals.

Mr. Halper had the right résumé for the task. He was a foreign policy expert who had worked for the Pentagon. He had been gathering information for the F.B.I. for about two decades and had good contacts in Chinese and Russian government circles that he could use to arrange meetings with high-ranking officials, according to a person briefed on Mr. Halper’s relationship with the F.B.I.

The F.B.I. instructed Mr. Halper to set up a meeting in London with Mr. Papadopoulos but gave him few details about the broader investigation, a person familiar with the episode said.
His job was to figure out the extent of any contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russia. Mr. Halper used his position as a respected academic to introduce himself to both Mr. Papadopoulos and Mr. Page, whom he also met with several times. He arranged a meeting with Mr. Papadopoulos in London to discuss a Mediterranean natural gas project, offering $3,000 for his time and a policy paper.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/u....co/oHqt5LAdVs

[timosman]

Zippy will be devastated. I am afraid he might decide to leave the site.

[TheTexan]

Just because there's no evidence for it doesn't mean we can't put together a 200 page Mueller report for it

[timosman]

Just because there's no evidence for it doesn't mean we can't put together a 200 page Mueller report for it