President Trump on Saturday angrily accused former president Barack Obama of orchestrating a “Nixon/Watergate” plot to tap the phones at his Trump Tower headquarters last fall in the run-up to the election.
While citing no evidence to support his explosive allegation, Trump said in a series of four tweets sent Saturday morning that Obama was “wire tapping” his New York offices before the election in a move he compared to McCarthyism. “Bad (or sick) guy!” he said of his predecessor, adding that the surveillance resulted in “nothing found.”
Trump offered no citations nor did he point to any credible news report to back up his accusation, but he may have been referring to commentary on Breitbart and conservative talk radio suggesting that Obama and his administration used “police state” tactics last fall to monitor the Trump team. The Breitbart story, published Friday, has been circulating among Trump's senior staff, according to a White House official who described it as a useful catalogue of the Obama administration's activities.
Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Obama, said in a statement early Saturday afternoon: “A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
Officials at the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment.[...]
Yet another example of how Trump verifies the statement of Chazal: Kol haposeil, b'mump poseil.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-accuses-obama-of-wire-tapping-in-october-1488637355
ReplyDeletePacer 2/8/20177:
MR. GROSS: Well, Your Honor, I don’t want to belabor this, but there’s private security cameras all over the place now, and in some urban areas, a person walks out of their house and is walking on the public streets, a lot of their conduct is captured by private security video, and we can just subpoena that. But Congress has said, with respect to this information, this historic cell site location information, we’re going to weigh the competing interests – a person’s interest in whatever privacy they have in this information against legitimate law enforcement needs for this information – and we’re striking the balance. And we’re requiring the Government to make this particularized showing. And if you can do that, this Court said in its 2010 decision, then you’re entitled, if the magistrate agrees with you. The magistrate could say “hold on, I think I want a warrant here.”
Obviously, Obama had all of Trump’s cell phone conversations without getting a warrant from a magistrate. The Epstein defense claims that the FBI should’ve gotten warrants. Good luck with that defense. The Snowden movie shows that the government has all cell phone conversations.
no it is not obvious that Obama had all of Trump’s cell phone conversations without getting a warrant from a magistrate
ReplyDeleteA well-grounded, legal analysis of the Trump claim:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lawfareblog.com/ten-questions-president-trump
Does that mean that there are people in the FBI and DOJ that think Trump or some his associates are compromised and potential Russian moles?
ReplyDeleteThe Mendel Epstein et al defense is that the FBI operated without warrants. True, the WSJ article: A spokesman for Mr. Obama said “neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
ReplyDeleteAlso true, the WSJ article, that it’s difficult to get a warrant: “Under the law, presidents can’t legally order wiretaps. In a national security probe, investigators seeking a wiretap must convince a judge there is probable cause that a target for surveillance is an agent of foreign intelligence, and that the main purpose of the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information. Investigators sometimes face a higher bar if the target is an American citizen. In a criminal probe, investigators must show probable cause that a crime has been committed for electronic surveillance to be approved.”
Let’s see how the court rules on the FBI acting without a warrant. Let’s see how the American public will react to Obama listening to all of Trump’s cell-phone conversations. The Snowden movie made it clear that phone conversations are like “…a person walks out of their house and is walking on the public streets, a lot of their conduct is captured…” Technology captures phone conversations.
and therefore what?
ReplyDeleteThe shmatteh Times from the last day of Obama's reign:
ReplyDelete"The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but
have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One
official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped
communications had been provided to the White House."
(https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html?_r=0)
Two phrases stand out here:
"have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing", in other words they investigated and found NOTHING!
"wiretapped
communications had been provided to the White House"
Now why should such communications that show no evidence of wrongdoing be provided to the White House?
WSJ article: “Mr. Trump’s latest tweetstorm comes after a rough week for the administration, as positive reviews for his address to a joint session of Congress—in which the president avoided ad hominem attacks and some of his harshest rhetoric—faded in the face of revelations that Mr. Sessions hadn’t testified accurately about his communications with the Russian ambassador during his Senate confirmation hearing…Mr. Sessions has said that his contact with Mr. Kislyak was in the context of his position as a senator from Alabama, and not in his capacity as an adviser to the Trump campaign, but he acknowledged that the two discussed Ukraine. In a later tweet, Mr. Trump said that the Russian ambassador had visited the Obama White House 22 times, and four times last year.”
ReplyDeleteObama is so full of crap, as Trump has shown, no real checking on who can vote, professing to protect human rights while taking Hamas’ side etc. Reminds me of the K-G heter, as revealed in this blog is so full of crap, professing to protect women’s rights in a marriage. Mendel Epstein et al are so full of crap, showing no remorse.
“Keep far from a false charge; do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right, for I will not acquit the wrongdoer.” (Exodus 23:7). God will not acquit wrongdoers.
are you serious?
ReplyDeleteDid Obama order that Trump's phones be tapped? Yes or No
Did Obama try to undermine Trump's campaign in an illegal manner such as Nixon/Watergate?
Sure seems like he did. And even if done by underlings without specific instructions from Obama, the buck stops with him.
ReplyDeleteno - if the FBI or CIA or Homeland Security persuaded a judge about the necessity to tap Trump's phone - this has nothing to do with Trump's accusations that Obama is a bad or sick person acting like Nixon. The process is in place because of Watergate to protect the citizens.
ReplyDeleteNext you will tell me that if Trump is convicted of fraud by a Federal judge that shows that Obama ordered the court to convict him! Trump is quite capable of violating major laws without an illegal move by Obama
Jeez, rabbi, when did you start worshipping Obama? This is pathetic. You are practically part of his team of operatives working to "undermine" Trump. That strategy will fail and die off eventually.
ReplyDeleteAlbert - if you call being concerned for elementary truth worshiping Obama - the situation is much worse than I thought.
ReplyDeleteTrump is doing a great job of undermining himself - he really doesn't need any help
I realize you think that Trump is some comic super hero and nothing can undermine him. However there is Krytonite (i.e. Truth) - which is even more powerful than Trump. In addition there is gravity. Trump has jumped out of the top floor of Trump Tower and thinks he can fly based on his own ego - but he will eventually hit the ground.
It wouldn't be the first time a judge was lied to in order to obtain a fraudulent warrant. The one I expect to be led out in handcuffs from his Kalorama will be Obama, not President Trump.
ReplyDeleteobviously you are expecting something contrary to the facts because you think like Trump and fantasy and conspiracy theories count more than reality
ReplyDelete