To jog the memory – Berg’s Seventh Law reads “When a Liberal / “Progressive” issues a group defamation or assault on conservatives’ ethics, character, humanity or respect for liberty or the truth, they are at best projecting, and at worst drawing attention away from their own misdeeds.”
So – if the Democrats accuse any Republican, especially Trump, of some sort of miscreancy?
You can count on it being a noise-screen to cover up their own perfidy.
Following months of angry claims by journalists and Democratic operatives that the Obama administration never spied on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, The New York Times admitted Thursday that multiple overseas intelligence assets were deployed against associates of the Republican nominee. It is not the first time the Times has revealed widespread spying operations against the campaign.
In addition to noting that long-time informant Stefan Halper was tasked with collecting intelligence on the Trump campaign, the Times story details how a woman was sent overseas under a fake name and occupation to oversee the spy operation. The woman’s real name is not mentioned in the article, though the Times says she went by “Azra Turk” and has a relationship with an unidentified federal intelligence agency.
This is going to go on a looong time.
Unless the Democrats sweep the White House and Congress in 2020, in which case it’s going to disappear…
How can they, in the same breath, blame the Obama administration for ‘doing nothing’ about the Russian threat, and blame the FBI for investigating it?
If you don’t want to be treated like a criminal, don’t behave like one.
Nothing will come of this.
Hillary Clinton lied to Congress multiple times, under oath, about her bathroom server. She blatantly destroyed evidence and was found to be in illegal possession of 2 top secret files and thousands of lesser classified documents.
And nothing happened.
The status quo “deep state” protects their own and works cooperatively to expel non-players from the machine.
They could have filmed Comey planting bugs in Trumps bedroom, and nothing would have happened.
Because they weren’t investigating the Russians, they were investigating Americans.
If they were investigating “Russian interference in the 2016 election” Christopher Steele and Glenn Simpson would be in jail.
MP, Barry Sotero is rightly criticized for standing idly by as Russia invaded Ukraine; he wasn’t investigating shit in the national interest; he was just doing what he could to defeat Drumpf.
1/4 wit knows this, he’s just putting catchup on his hot dog to cause revulsion.
Last moderation of the decade? Maybe, maybe not.
“in which case it’s going to disappear” – truer words were never spoken. Would love to see Simpson, Halper & Mifsud on the stand under oath with a real prosecutor asking the questions
Woolly: This investigation happpened because over drinks George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat about a Russian offer to help the Trump campaign by releasing thousands of hacked Democratic emails. The Australian government felt duty bound to inform the FBI. The FBI was duty bound to investigate using the tools they had at hand. I really don’t care if the actions taken by the FBI are labelled spying or surveillance but they certainly were justified.
BTW: The NYT article was published 5/19.
IG Horowitz since then — did what the IG was supposed to do. The Russia investigation and Trump’s campaign’s Russian ties are worthy of being investigated. Nothing the IG found alters that fact.
“Woolly: This investigation happpened because over drinks George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat about a Russian offer to help the Trump campaign by releasing thousands of hacked Democratic emails. The Australian government felt duty bound to inform the FBI.”
But how did Papadopolous get the idea that the Russki’s had Hillary’s hacked emails? Mifsud and Halper, US intelligence assets, seem to have introduced Papadopolous to people who claimed to be in Russian intelligence and who claimed to have knowledge of the hacked emails. Downer (the Australian diplomat), also seems to have connections to US intelligence. Papadopolous was never high in the Trump organization (he was not paid by Trump, and never had contact with Trump campaign higher ups). Why was this shaky foundation used to mount what became a major intelligence operation against the Trump campaign? After all, the Russki’s did not (as far as we know), have Hillary’s emails. US intelligence services are given extraordinary powers, Where were the adults in the room?
C’mon guys…
When the FBI heard there was a connection between the Russians and the Trump campaign, even a shaky one, they were justified in opening a file.
I mean, hey, if the jilted lover of a rock-star makes a wild drunken claim, the cops open a file. If you are law enforcement, it’s what you do.
It’s the safe bet.
So when the FBI says opening the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was properly predicated, they were right.
Just as Bonnie and Clyde were right to legally enter every bank they robbed.
With the reputation of Barry’s FBI in the crapper, I wonder, after Trump is re-elected, if there is any chance of an investigation into his IRS and NSA shenanigans.
Trump is a counter puncher, he’s obviously pissed and he’s been pretty enthusiastic about dragging the Light Bringer around by his ears.
The number of Obama-era FBI and JD higher ups who have been forced to resign, fired, or demoted is astounding.
But Trump is still standing.
The inability to learn from mistakes is the mark of an entrenched ruling class. It can never be their mistake because their is no one to make them admit that it was their mistake.
“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?”
Now, the Trump administration is arguing that this FBI agent is a spy. So let’s look at the timeline:
In May 2016, George Papadopoulos bragged to Alexander Downer, Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK, that the Republicans had “dirt” on the Clinton campaign that the Russians had hacked.
In July 2016, that “dirt” was leaked by Wikileaks.
On July 31, 2016, after the Australians advised the FBI about the May Papadopoulos-Downer exchange, the FBI opened an investigation based on Papadopoulos’ comments in May 2016.
Then in September 2016, the female “FBI spy” talked to Papadopoulos, the source that instigated the investigation.
Does the Trump administration suggest for one second that, all FBI personnel will wear a blue baseball cap bearing the letters FBI in white when they interview anyone? (or will it be a red baseball cap?)
Or that each agent will introduce him- or herself to a subject under investigation by saying “Hi. My name is John Jones and I am an FBI agent”?
If not, then according to the Trump administration, all FBI agents are just “spies.”
Cue up “Send in the Clowns,” because the Trump administration, always is the victim (except when they are not), is nothing more than a bizarre form of a circus.
The FBI believed that Trump was coordinating with Russian state actors to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton (including her hacked emails). The FBI began an investigation of the Trump campaign, including FISA warrants, which are supposed to have a very high bar.
The Mueller report shows that the core of the investigation was based on a lie. The Trump campaign was not, in fact, working with Russian state actors to get dirt on Hillary.
The baseless investigation resulted in the political appointees of one administration using the ostensibly non-partisan intelligence agencies of the federal government to investigate the political operation of the presidential candidate of the opposing party.
This is very bad. This is third world junta bad.
Let’s get to the bottom of it.
The only crime committed by the FBI was announcing less than a week before the election that Clinton who was ahead in the polls at that time — was under investigation and not also reporting that the Trump campaign was under investigation.
The officer saw a person driving. The officer claims the vehicle had a tail-light out. The officer stopped the vehicle, searched it and found nothing.
Then the officer lied to obtain a search warrant for driver’s bank account and telephone records. The officer found nothing, so the officer lied to obtain a search warrant for the driver’s home and ransacked it, finding nothing. Then the officer lied to obtain another search warrant for the driver’s office and ransacked that, too, again finding nothing. Then the officer lied about what a witness said, altered an affidavit, lied to the court again, lied when asked about it . . . .
Oh, did I mention that the officer, his boss, the chief of police, the mayor, the local newspaper, all HATE the driver?
The initial stop may have been justified. What happened after . . ..
Aside from deep state bureaucrats acting like Praetorian Guards intervening in the election to choose their next boss, ask yourself this:
When the FBI wiretaps an American citizen suspected of talking to foreign spies, who reads the transcripts? In this case, the answer is “Hillary’s buddies in the White House – Obama, Rice, Powers.”
The question nobody has asked yet – did the information stop with them? Did Hillary’s former colleagues obtain inside information on the Trump campaign from the wiretaps which they intentionally withheld from Hillary, because it would be wrong to pass along the information to her and everyone in the Obama administration are all such noble and righteous do-gooders?
Do we believe that?
Or is the story even worse than we know so far?
Confess to a small crime to cover up a much, much larger one?
“The only crime committed by the FBI was announcing less than a week before the election that Clinton who was ahead in the polls at that time — was under investigation and not also reporting that the Trump campaign was under investigation.”
On the contrary, Emery, there were no crimes committed in Comey’s testimony.
On the other hand, we do know that Hillary was breaking the law by using a private email server, and that McCabe broke laws when he leaked classified info to the press. Whoever “unmasked” the FISA targets. e.g., gave there names to other agencies as potential targets of investigation, also broke the law. That was probably Obama political appointee Susan Rice.
Let’s get to the bottom of this. Very bad things were done, let’s find out who did them & why.
I understand (kinda) why some of you find entertainment in debunking troll stories, misunderstandings, gaffes, and outright lies. I mean, for example, one angle is that countering them requires some expertise in the topic in question and that can be used in real life when dealing with troll-like co-workers and others of that ilk. Or perhaps, it is not meet nor right to discuss, if even mention, politics in the workplace, so a guy might work off that frustration in the comments section of SItD. But, man, addressing these weasels as if they are honorable opponents… you’re better people than I.
I think that whatsisname Durham and Barr and Trump have some surprises planned for the next 11 months. I think they’ve been suppressing things for a while now, but it may be the time to start opening those files. Maybe give a new meaning to the term October Surprise. The discovery stage for the Covington boys’ lawsuit should be starting as well. Man, it will be fun to watch one of those old fascists like Brennan get a jail sentence; or maybe journalist or three. Or ten. I’ll look forward to the new conspiracy theories then.
Of course, by then, maybe the Virginia state government will do something rash and stupid and (try to) start the next civil war by sending out armed personnel to confiscate privately owned weapons. John Brown did not live in vain, if you know what I mean.
From the Horowitz report:
“Several weeks later, on December 9, 2016, Senator John McCain provided Comney with a collection of 16 Steele election reports, 5 of which Steele had not given the FBI. McCain had obtained these reports from a staff member at the McCain Institute. The McCain Institute staff member had met with Steele and later acquired the reports from Simpson.”
This was after the FBI gave Steele the cold shoulder, and after Trump was elected president, so the purpose of McCain pipelining the documents was purely to effect an attack against the elected president of the United States.
We now know that these “Steele Reports” consisted of fabrications and second and third hand rumors, and their claims likely originated with Russian state actors.
Kind of makes it easy to see why so many conservatives hold McCain in contempt.
“Planted spies?” You mean they investigated. If this was a conspiracy to derail Trump, why didn’t they leak to the public before the election? That’s a simple question that none of you conspiracy folks ever answer.
Emery- All the polls showed Mrs Clinton with a sizeable lead and the media were already measuring the White House drapes for her. Sideshow Donald wasn’t supposed to win and they didn’t think he actually would win.
Emery continues to serve as a useful idiot for the DemocRAT party, completely ignoring their crimes and conspiracy theories, i. e. Trump colluded, yada, yada, yada and projecting. We all know that Dems are never to blame for anything.
Emery, go back to my 12-26 at 2:45. There WAS NO TAILLIGHT OUT. The officer CLAIMED it as a pretext for the stop, which lead to all the rest. The chief, mayor, judge were all in on the gag since they all HATED the driver anyway. And they never, never expected it to come out in public; they expected their help would guarantee Hillary’s victory after which everything would be denied and swept under the rug.
The FBI knew the Steele dossier was phony. Nobody believed Trump was a secret agent for the Russians. They needed a pretext to spy on the Trump campaign. Which they did, and gave the inside dope to the White House who leaked it to Clinton.
Why not tell the public during the campaign that the FBI was secretly wiretapping a major party candidate for President? Why not reveal the crime while in progress? Because they had nothing to show for it aside from campaign strategy leaked to Hillary. Telling the public that Obama’s minions were interfering in the election to help Hillary would have outraged voters.
Get this straight: there was no tail light out. The officer made that up and the judge went along with it because they WANTED to put their finger on the scale to tilt the election toward Hillary.
Nice analogy, JD.
“If this was a conspiracy to derail Trump, why didn’t they leak to the public before the election?”
They did. Steele leaked parts of his dossier to the press in September 2016. The FBI than used the leaked reports to justify their FISA antics, in spite of an internal memo that described Steele’s info as tainted. Steele’s leaked info contained the claim that Russian agents were paid out of the Russian consulate in Miami, and there is no Russian consulate in Miami. Steele apparently was not a very good “spy.”
“That’s a simple question that none of you conspiracy folks ever answer.”
Answered. Where do you come up with these odd, counter-factual claims, Emery? Are you beak-deep in Media matters propaganda?
“Trump and 18 of his associates had at least 140 contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, during the 2016 campaign and presidential transition, according to a New York Times analysis.
The report of Robert S. Mueller III, released to the public, revealed at least 30 more contacts beyond those previously known.
Very few, if any, of these interactions were publicly known before Mr. Trump took office”
The FBI would have been derelict not to investigate .
No major party candidate prior to Trump ever ran a campaign extravagantly praising the leader of Russia, or subsequently held meetings with him and covered up the content.
There were innumerable Trump campaign contacts with Russia. As Mike Pence said when falsely denying there were such contacts: why would there be?
The answer, of course, is obvious
Emery, you lying, hypocritical jack weed!
Remember this gem from the 2008 election? “”1984 called and they want their foreign policy back.” Or this open mic moment; “Tell Vlad that I’ll have much more flexibility after the election.”
Yea. No major party candidate other than Trump has ever RUN a campaign extravagantly praising the leader of Russia. Obama just promised them that he would let Putin get away with anything.
You moron!
“The FBI would have been derelict not to investigate .”
As usual, reality disagrees with you.
Horowitz (an Obama appointee) found that opening the investigation met the low bar required. Remember, no crime was ever found to have occurred. There was no Russian collusion, Papadopolous was not scheming with the Russkis to get Hillary’s emails. There is growing evidence that Papadopolous was baited about the Hillary emails by intelligence agents working for the US or friendly powers.(Mifsud & Halper). Durham & Barr seem to looking into this, and this has the Dems in a full on panic.
The investigation was expanded & the FISA warrants renewed by using bad evidence (the Steele Dossier) or fraudulent emails (Clinesmith). So Sayeth Horowitz!
The only real false conspiracy theory has been the one about Trump-Russia collusion that you swallowed whole and regurgitated in the comments at SITD for years.
So many employees and questionable contacts with ties to Russia, and all by chance? Trump is worse than sloppy, and his campaign was run in a deliberate manner that involved Russian influence. The 2016 campaign staff gave voter data to Russian experts so propaganda in key states could be more efficiently administered to unwitting voters. That alone should raise enough questions about Trump’s association with Russia to invite impeachment.
So many employees and questionable contacts with ties to Russia, and all by chance?
So you are talking about Steele?
You haven’t got a leg to stand on, Emery. The MSM, the “elites,” nevertrumper conservatives fell all over themselves believing in the false story of Trump-Russia collusion. If it had been as obvious as you think that it was, I would have believed it (I, wisely, held my fire until after Mueller delivered Andy Weisman’s report).
Makes you wonder what other false narratives the MSM & the elites are dead certain are true that are completely false.
It would appear all the fumes from Trump’s incessant gaslighting have been affecting you Woolly—sad really…
Trump surrounds himself with felons or future felons. Either he is the unluckiest leader ever or the most corrupt.
When in doubt, fall back on guilt by association — no matter how tenuous the association. Papadopolous never met Trump. Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager for a little less than two months; he was fired two days after Trump received his first security briefing as GOP presidential candidate. Neither Papadopolous nor Manafort had been in trouble with the law at the time of Trump’s election.
Manafort’s convictions were for financial crimes committed a decade or more before he (shortly) worked for Trump.
Perhaps you would like to discuss the many felons who surrounded Bill and Hillary Clinton? Let’s start with Jim McDougal and Web Hubble. You voted for Hillary, so you clearly have no problem voting for people with known criminal associations.
I voted for neither Hillary nor Trump.
Lefties are terrible at making reasoned arguments.
jdm observed: “But, man, addressing these weasels as if they are honorable opponents… you’re better people than I.”
Preach it brother.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a substantive discussion with a degenerate leftist. Since I have come to learn they are mentally ill, I do not bother trying anymore.
It used to be that leftist politicians were simple grifters, riding the backs of the weak minded and uneducated in search of cash and power. They were largely no more worthy of respectful dialogue than the rank and file, but at least we didn’t have to suffer the headache inducing psycho babble.
But more recently, they have become just as mentally imbalanced, and morally debauched as their supporters. The left is a turd muffin of degenerates with truly evil persons sprinkled in like raisins.
Liberalism is not only a mental disease, it’s contagious, and dangerous. High time we.start treating them like the hazards to public health they are.
The left is a turd muffin of degenerates with truly evil persons sprinkled in like raisins.
Oh, nice. A guy’d have to work hard to find a more succinct description of the left than this.
Emery’s making a big deal out of the fact that Papadoulos had spoken with an FBI agent in London, but the interesting reality there is that if he was talking with FBI and not CIA, that would mean that the FBI already had reason to send someone to London to investigate a U.S. citizen. In other words, it meant that the original investigation had already started, and Papadoulos was not the pretext.
Nor is the pretext that the Trump campaign had contacts with foreign nationals. If that were sufficient pretext for an investigation, then the 4th Amendment more or less no longer exists–especially for people working in engineering or medicine who can hardly avoid working with foreign nationals, H1B/Green card/etc.. and all. You’d figure Emery, who describes himself as an engineer, would be up on this, but apparently not.
Congratulations, Emery. You’ve just proven that the FBI almost certainly had no justification to investigate the Trump campaign.
A side note is that what Papadoulos discussed really serves better to encourage a vigorous investigation of Hilliary’s server than to investigate Trump. OK, you’ve got people saying they’re negotiating with the Russians for classified data you know was on that server, and so….you drop the investigation into Hilliary without as much as getting that server? Seriously? They didn’t even want to know what kind of secrets might be known by the Russians and Chinese?
Not hard to figure out where the bias is with that crock of fertilizer.