Trump smeared Obama with zero evidence. If you're going to make those charges, don't you have to show some evidence? Otherwise, it's nothing more than a slanderous smear.
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Just 6 weeks in and this fake president is already showing clear signs of unravelling.Originally posted by d2bets
As I've said from the start, he's just not fit for the office.
Only a matter of time.Comment -
Something like this kinda happened to my sister's neighbor. He shot himself in the head in his front yard, old lady across the street found him. Not long after his widowed wife and brother were shacking up a bit in the house.Originally posted by itchypickleComment -
If Obama illegally wiretapped Trump, he should have him arrested and bring forth the evidence. It would be criminal.Comment -
Not true, seems like you don't believe anything they say.. While it is good to be skeptic when it comes to claims from politicians in power, but these things have to pass thru congress also.. I believe our military can use an upgrade.. Not much to it..Originally posted by jtoler
If it doesn't then that's 500 billions pissed away.. I don't think they'd spend this kind of tax payer money if it wasn't needed..Comment -
Dems called for special prosecutor without even an allegation. Maybe both sides will throw false accusations to further numb the public. But it will be interesting to see if Trump/ Trump Tower was targeted. That would sink what little credibility the dems have left and could even land Obama in jail. Be crazy funny to have Sessions prosecute Obama.Originally posted by d2betsComment -
The hell are you talking about? There is reams of evidence put out there about Russian tampering. Obama Admin released an entire report. And as for Flynn, he was fired, so he must have done something wrong.Originally posted by RoyBacon
Trump making an allegation out of thin air without presenting anything at all.Comment -
It started, like so many eruptions these days, with a tweet.
Early Saturday morning, President Trump fired off a series of tweets accusing, without evidence, former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in the month before the election. Trump compared the alleged snooping to “Nixon/Watergate,” and intimated legal action.
What makes the broader allegation so extraordinary isn’t that it is new. Quite the contrary. Various reports that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court granted Justice Department investigators a warrant to probe the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia surfaced in November. What makes Trump’s Twitter tirade so striking is what prompted it, and what it might imply if it’s true.
Anatomy of an Allegation
Baffling as it may be, it appears Trump’s accusation stems from a recent article published on Breitbart, the conservative news outlet formerly run by White House senior adviser Stephen Bannon.
“This is a somewhat stunning, in so far as the president of the United States doesn’t need to get his information about classified activity from Breitbart,” says Cato Institute fellow Julian Sanchez.
That story, “Mark Levin to Congress: Investigate Obama’s ‘Silent Coup’ Vs. Trump,” rehashes comments the titular conservative radio host made Thursday equating the previously reported FISA warrant with a “police state,” and accuses Obama of a politically motivated, covert attempt to undermine Trump and his associates.
It’s unclear just what prompted Levin’s rant, or why Trump glommed onto it. Although no one has confirmed a FISA investigation, or wiretaps in Trump Tower, several news outlets have reported the former’s existence. The most detailed account thus far, from the BBC in January, provided a timeline: The Justice Department sought a FISA warrant in June to intercept communications from two Russian banks suspected of facilitating donations to the Trump campaign. The judge reportedly rejected the warrant, as well as a narrower version sought in July. A new judge granted the order in mid-October, according to the BBC.
However strongly Trump feels that he’s right, he’d better hope he’s wrong.
None of this necessarily makes Trump’s allegations true. Even if a FISA warrant exists, it does not mean Trump Tower is tapped or that Trump specifically is the target. Further complicating things, the existence of a wiretap would not necessarily confirm the existence of a FISA warrant. Almost half of the building’s 58 floors are dedicated to commercial and office space, and any one of them—not to mention the building’s residents—could be the target of an investigation unrelated to international espionage or election tampering.
“If he has evidence that he was wiretapped without a proper FISA order being sought, that would be a huge scandal, and he should produce whatever evidence he’s got,” says Sanchez. “It’s a pretty serious claim, and it’s striking he would make it without anything solid to back it up.”
Republican Senator Ben Sasse called on the president to clarify his claims, stating that “we are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust.” Obama spokesperson Kevin Lewis strongly denied extra-judicial surveillance of any US citizens to Politico in response to the claims.
Look past the president’s conspiracy theories, though, and one fact stands out: However strongly Trump feels that he’s right, he’d better hope he’s wrong.
Tower of FISA
If nothing else, Trump’s tweets show he doesn’t understand how the FISA system works. If he did, he may have limited himself to tweeting about Arnold Schwartzenegger quitting The Apprentice this morning.
“While the order would have been requested by some part of the executive branch, Obama can’t order anything. Nor can Trump,” says former NSA lawyer April Doss, who stresses that her comments are based only on public information. “The order has to come from the court, and the court operates independently.”
FISA court judges serve seven-year appointments, so the court’s composition doesn’t ebb and flow with the political tides. What’s more, specific laws adopted in the wake of Watergate prevent the very activity Trump accuses Obama of.
“You can’t tap the phones of a political candidate for political purposes,” says Doss.
What you could tap them for? Acting as a foreign power, or as an agent of a foreign power. In other words, spying against US interests with both knowledge and intent.
Clearing that bar is difficult, by design. FISA warrants don’t allow for broad wiretaps of, say, every call going in and out of a specific office in a 58-story Manhattan skyscraper. Federal authorities must demonstrate not just probable cause, but that a given phone line serves primarily to undermine US interests. It’s difficult, for instance, to obtain a warrant to wiretap a shared office, for fear of picking up innocent third-party conversations.
“I have high confidence that a FISA court judge would not have authorized any warrant unless it met all the requirements under the statute,” says Doss.
Trump’s wiretap claims, then, carry presumably inadvertent implications. First, based on previous reporting and the nature of FISA courts, any wiretaps within Trump Tower would be legal. And they would stem from overwhelming evidence that the Trump campaign, or someone within it, has unsavory ties to Russia or another foreign power. Otherwise, it’s unlikely those wiretaps would exist at all.
If federal authorities did have cause to listen in on Trump Tower, though, and they provided enough evidence for a FISA court to approve the snooping, Obama is not the one who ought to worry.
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funny guy.Originally posted by JIBBBYComment -
And if the FISA Court did authorize wiretapping Trump, that means he was officially under investigation for espionage And it has zero to do with Obama. Looks like he's trying to divert from something very serious. He seems very very worried. He probably has reason to be.Comment -
By Louise Mensch | 10:18 pm, November 7, 2016
<article class="single-story main-story col-xs-12 col-md-8 col-lg-8 set-max-height"> <header class="single-post-header"></header> Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.
</article>
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Originally posted by DwightShruteComment -
Where did you get that from?Originally posted by JIBBBYI think I'm correct and that link you provided shows the Russians are probably ahead of us in submarine technology.. Trump himself has stated that our military is dated and old... I don't think he'd make that up..
I don't think Trump would request 500 billion to upgrade our military capabilities if it wasn't needed.. I don't think Congress would pass it either if that wasn't true..
Nothing wrong with upgrading our military to better protect our men and women in uniform..
Though Russia continues to develop and build newer and ever more capable nuclear attack submarines such as the Project 885M Yasen-class, the U.S. Navy continues to maintain its technological edge by incrementally improving its Virginia-class attack boats.“I think we have a very focused program called the acoustic superiority program to make sure that we in fact keep our technological lead—our acoustical advantage
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This guy is hanging out with family. Under Trumps plan he wouldn't be able to live here. His father is a Hispanic who was an immigrant. who went to catholic school in dayton, ohio. His brother is an hiv actor.
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^
winningComment -
chico stop
pls stop
khicks you as well.
we are better beating our heads against the wall until this comes to an end.
gl guys.
OUT.Comment -
Mr. President: If there was a wiretap at Trump Tower, that means a fed judge found probable causeComment -
Implication of Trump's #wiretap admission is that there is a serious counterintelligence/criminal investigation on him and/or his associates
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F All of U.
I am by far a better trade negotiator than that fat F3ck Trump. watch.
every puff of that cigar,cig or joint. takes one minute of your life and gives Keith Richards that minute.
FAIR TRADEComment -
Originally posted by chico2663
you'd be fun to watch movies with. For those 2 hours you truly believe everything you see and hear on screen; literally everything.Comment -
Riiiight because we KNOW Obama would never say target right wing groups using the IRS, making up cover stories for Benghazi, fast and furious.Originally posted by brooks85
you'd be fun to watch movies with. For those 2 hours you truly believe everything you see and hear on screen; literally everything.
I'm all for putting everything in the light. A special prosecutor is seriously needed if the allegation has any merit. This is Watergate II.Comment -
Plausible. Yesterday on the news, they said there's a special court that is so far under the radar, no one knows
where they meet or who they are that could authorize a wiretap.Comment -
Originally posted by d2bets
Want some evidence? Check out Obama's tepid non-response to the "slanderous smear". It could double as a Southwest Air 'wanna get away?' commercial.
The fact of the matter is this: if Obama is 10% guilty of what Trump publicly suggests, then he is 100% guilty in the public sphere.
Trump knows exactly what he's doing. Serious LOL at the losers who, at this point, still think he doesn't.Comment -
Name me even a single allegation being made by the democrats regarding Trump and Russia. There are reams of evidence, you say, so there should be at least 1 allegation of unlawful activity. Just asking you to name the allegation.Originally posted by d2betsComment -
Remember when Obama spied on reporters (Rosen) and his mother even?Originally posted by RoyBacon
People need to realize 'wire tapping' doesn't exist anymore to where you have to infiltrate and stick a device inside a phone or tap a phone line on a pole using an Acme uniform and van like the movies portray. Dirtboxes, Stingrays and several other methods and home made methods exist. Federal entities do not need a judge to sign off on listening in at public areas - such as places around Trump tower. Scoop up data from a specific phone of someone in the location for example and it also grabs others around (Trump associate) and instead of filtering it out, you keep and send to use in parallel operation.Comment -
If meetings with Russians were illegal, then charge, stop suggesting it is for news coverage.
If Sessions committed perjury as it reads under the law, why not arrest him? Because he didn't
If Trump is indeed siding with Russia, that isn't illegal anymore than Obama meeting and assisting Hamas or when he himself worked with Medvedev on the hot mic. It's not illegal, just sounds cool to portray it as such for this pandemonium fit that the DC elites are whipped into.Comment -
That's my point. Dems wanting a special prosecutor is so obviously political its painful. Even with leaks and possibly illegal wire taps the Dems still can not articulate even one single allegation of illegal activity.Originally posted by TheSideBetComment -
How about if he stops tweeting like a little girl and do some fukking work?Comment -
Dems were trying to distract and obstruct with special prosecutor call/ Russian ties and it leads to exposing illegal activity by the democrats. Oh the irony.
Don't worry kelly, your President is working hard. Congressional panels and staffers are drafting legislation all weekend. Committee votes will start next week on the new health care.Comment -
you really don't see the irony there? Really?Originally posted by rkelly110Comment -
Because when he's done work you guys yell fascism and nazi.Originally posted by rkelly110
The man outworks everyone...done more witknin a month than most presidents or congressmen do in a year.Comment -
Yep! Watching meet the press today....Clapper was asked so have you the FBI the NSA or the CIA found it know of anything....Clapper said we've doing nothing that reflects collusion with Russia....chuck Todd we'll do you think there will be anything to find...Clapper said I don't think so....Todd says "ugh but does it exist!?" Clapper replied no. Then the panel was asked at what point do we just say it's all smoke and no fire and he hasn't done anything wrong. So after FBI congress, NSA, anonymous sources, senior officials, New York Times and all have spent weeks now saying he's not done anything wrong that we know of but what if he did!? Trump comes out and says Obama tried to sabotage him and CNN and others scream either show us proof or shut up and be impeached ...you can't make accusations without video evidence or confessions Trump! Unreal.Originally posted by RoyBaconComment -
UnrealOriginally posted by itchypickleComment
