Thread by @bansisharma

1. Obama Admin Spied on Trump Campaign

"Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation" -- New York Times

A NY Times story today confirmed that Obama admin spied on Trump campaign affiliates in 2016.

2. "The F.B.I. obtained phone records and other documents using a secret type of subpoena. And at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos."

A "government informant" is an euphemism for a spy.

3. Previously we had been fed the lie that FBI opened an investigation into Trump campaign based on testimony from an Australian diplomat. But NY Times story opens with the stunning admission that FBI opened an investigation BEFORE meeting with the Australian diplomat.

4. So on what basis was the investigation opened, the story doesn't say. And who gave the order to open the investigation? Something is about to be revealed. NY Times story seems rushed and patchy, with a palpable purpose to soft-pedal FBI's shady shenanigans.

5. All roads lead to the Steele dossier -- a work of fantasy, produced for and paid for by Hillary Clinton and DNC. Obama's FBI had wittingly or unwittingly been conscripted by Hillary campaign to spy on her opponent's campaign. This did not happen without Obama's blessing.

6. No fair accounting of the history of our government circa 2016 will leave Obama unscathed. He deployed the full apparatus of the federal government to take down a presidential candidate of the opposition party. It's a miracle he failed.

The END

"Wiretapping" (NY Times calls it "obtained phone records")

"The F.B.I. obtained phone records and other documents using a secret type of subpoena. And at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos."

Do you think FBI got printouts?

NY Times story should be used in classrooms as a textbook example of consummate use of euphemisms to misrepresent horrendous behavior as not-so-bad and maybe even commendable. NY Times willfully volunteers to provide transcription services to deep state operatives they support.

Obama's Disgraceful Abuse of Power

For the most insightful take on what NY Times story and all the media and Democratic hoopla about "Russia Collusion!" for the last 2 years have been trying to cover up, read this piece by Andrew McCarthy.

nationalreview.com/2018/05/crossf…

FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation against Trump in the absence of any:
(a) incriminating evidence, or
(b) evidence implicating the Trump campaign in Russian espionage.

At the height of the 2016 presidential race, the FBI collaborated with the CIA to probe an American political campaign. They used foreign-intelligence surveillance and informants.

That’s your crossfire hurricane.

John Brennan instigated and orchestrated this whole counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign, enlisting Harry Reid to pressure the FBI to conduct this treasonous surveillance operation against Trump's campaign. Is it hard to guess on whose behest Brennan did this?

I hope the upcoming IG report has enough hard evidence to enable a thorough investigation of this dark chapter in our nation's history. I hope examples are made of those found guilty, so as to ensure this never ever happens again.

Was Trump’s Campaign ‘Set Up’?

Another insightful column by Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) from the Wall St. Journal.
wsj.com/articles/was-t…

Wapo Headline: "Trump joins push by allies to expose role of an FBI source"

WaPo refers to the FBI informant (i.e. an FBI planted mole/spy) as a "source" to imbue FBI with some sort of a Constitutional right not to reveal a source. Sorry, FBI is not a news agency.

How Partisan Is New York Times?

Back when George Bush was president, NY Times took pride in exposing and denigrating our military, intelligence and law enforcement services.

In case of Abu Ghraib, enhanced interrogation, search and seizure: NY Times fought hard to thwart the work of our services when they were fighting against and spying on our enemies.

But now that it turns out under Obama, FBI and CIA leadership may have committed treason by taking active measures to thwart Donald Trump, NY Times has become a sort of megaphone for the excuses and spin of the Deep State wrong-doers. That's how dyed-in-the-wool partisan NYT is.

The Hill Commits Journalism

An excellent piece by Mark Penn in The Hill. So good I must serialize the key parts which answer the questions the NY Times pitiful whitewash went out of its way to suppress, deflect, and misdirect.

See tweet#3 in this thread above to put things in context.

The “deep state” is in a deep state of desperation. At this point, there is little doubt that the highest echelons of the FBI and the Justice Department broke their own rules to end the Hillary Clinton “matter.”

It is hard to see how a year-long investigation by the IG won’t come down hard on FBI Director James Comey and former AG Loretta Lynch, who definitely wasn’t playing mahjong in a secret “no aides allowed” meeting with former President Clinton on a Phoenix airport tarmac.

With the IG report on the way and congressional investigators zeroing in on the lack of any hard evidence for starting the Trump investigation, current and former intelligence and Justice Department officials are dumping everything they can think of to save their reputations.

The Crux

If true, it is far bigger and far worse than Watergate -- a political party's presidential candidate (Hillary) colluding with the President (Obama) from the same party to deploy CIA & FBI against the opposition party's candidate (Trump).

In no way would a fourth-hand report from a Maltese professor justify wholesale targeting of four or five members of the Trump campaign.

It took Christopher Steele, with his funding concealed through false filings, to create an echo chamber around his unverified, fanciful dossier, bouncing it back and forth between the press and the FBI so it appeared there were multiple sources all coming to the same conclusion.

Time and time again, investigators came up empty. Even several sting operations with an FBI spy we just learned about failed to produce a Delorean-like video with cash on the table. Rather than close the probe, however, the deep state just expanded it.

All they had were a few isolated contacts with Russians and absolutely nothing related to Trump himself, yet they pressed forward. Egged on by Steele, they simply believed Trump and his team must be dirty. They just needed to dig deep enough to find it.

Perhaps the murkiest event in the timeline is Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of a special counsel after he personally recommended Comey’s firing in blistering terms.

With Attorney General Jeff Sessions shoved out of the way, Rosenstein and Mueller then ignored their own conflicts and took charge anyway. Rosenstein is a fact witness, and Mueller is a friend of Comey, disqualifying them both.

Flush with 16 prosecutors, including a former lawyer for the Clinton Foundation, and an undisclosed budget, the Mueller investigation has been a scorched-earth effort to investigate the entirety of the Trump campaign, the president’s business dealings, the entire administration.

And now that they didn't find anything on Russia, Mueller team is saying maybe it’s some other country.

The president’s earlier legal team was patient enough to believe that, when Mueller found nothing, he would just end it.

Instead, the less investigators found, the more determined and expansive they became. The president and his team now are on a better road to put appropriate limits on all this.

Rather than a fair, limited and impartial investigation, the Mueller investigation became a partisan, open-ended inquisition that, by its precedent, is a threat to all those who ever want to participate in a national campaign or an administration again.

Mueller's prosecutions have all been principally to pressure witnesses with unrelated charges and threats to family, or just for a public relations effect, like the indictment of Russian internet trolls.

Just like the Doomsday Machine in “Dr. Strangelove” that was supposed to save the world but instead destroys it, the Mueller investigation comes with no “off” switch: You can’t fire Mueller.

Step one here is for the Justice Department IG report to knock Comey out of the witness box. Next, the full origins of the investigation and its lack of any real intelligence needs to come out in the open. The attorney general needs to take back his Justice Department.

Sessions needs to act quickly, along with U.S. Attorney John Huber, appointed to conduct an internal review of the FBI, on the Comey and McCabe matters following the inspector general report, and then announce an expanded probe into other abuses of power.

Stopping Mueller isn’t about one president or one party. It’s about all presidents and all parties. It’s about cleaning out and reforming the deep state so that our intelligence operations are never used against opposing campaigns without the firmest of evidence.

It’s about letting people work for campaigns and administrations without needing legal defense funds. It’s about relying on our elections to decide our differences.

The END

[Mark Penn served as pollster and adviser to President Clinton from 1995 to 2000]
thehill.com/opinion/judici…

Mueller's Last Stand: Roger Stone

The Hill Continues To Commit Journalism

Another excellent piece detailing the questions that need to be answered by the recently launched IG investigation. There is a lot to investigate here, and the potential wrongdoing by Obama admin is ginormous.
thehill.com/opinion/judici…

1. Media Heads Are Firmly In The Sand On The Real Russia Story

IBD: As Evidence Piles Up, The Media Ignore The 'Other' Trump-Russia Scandal

2. You might think that reporters are chasing facts wherever they might lead, and "speaking truth to power," especially when that power involves the CIA, FBI, and the Justice Department.

3. You would be wrong. When it comes to the Russia story, the only narrative the press will consider is that Trump somehow colluded with Russia to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. Or if not that, he did something illegal that Special Counsel Mueller will ferret out.

4. Anything that doesn't fit this narrative gets dismissed as conspiracy talk, fueled by conservatives and Trump supporters, to distract attention from the "real" story.

5. Here's how Vox put it:

"Trump and his allies, most notably House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes as well as major conservative media outlets, have long sought to create a counternarrative to the Russia scandal."

6. But look at this evidence to see which narrative is actually real.

7. In other words, while the Mueller investigation sputters along, the evidence of political abuse at the FBI and Justice is piling up.

This "counternarrative" also has uncovered the fact that the FBI had a spy in the Trump campaign.

8. It's also worth pointing out that while Trump officials have been reasonably forthcoming with the Mueller investigation, congressional inquiries into the FBI's handling of the Clinton email and Russia probes have been met with stonewalling by government officials.

9. Yet the press still shows little interest in any of this because it doesn't fit their anti-Trump narrative.

IBD hits it on the nose.

10. Any reporter who isn't hopelessly biased, would be able to see that the real story isn't the go-nowhere Mueller investigation, but the more troubling story of abuse of power by Obama admin officials to protect Hillary Clinton and then derail the Trump presidency.

The END.