Obama Performed Espionage on Trump prior to election

[B-Man]

The story is at several sources (including the MSNBC video), but I picked the Fox areticle to post so that the Gator's of the board can dismiss it out of hand without opening it.

 

You're welcome..........

 

 

Former Obama official discloses rush to get intelligence on Trump team
Fox News ^ | 3/29/17 | Fox News

 

A former top Obama administration official has acknowledged efforts by her colleagues to gather intelligence on Trump team ties to Russia before Donald Trump took office and to conceal the sources of that intelligence from the incoming administration.

 

Evelyn Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Obama, made the disclosure while on the air with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.

“I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill, it was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people, get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration,”

 

“Because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior [Obama] people who left, so it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy ... that the Trump folks – if they found out how we knew what we knew about their ... the Trump staff dealing with Russians – that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence.”

 

Aside from questions over whether communications were improperly gathered during the transition and before, there is speculation over how widely such information was disseminated. Farkas described a rush to spread the material before Trump took office.

[Azalin]

A former top Obama administration official has acknowledged efforts by her colleagues to gather intelligence on Trump team ties to Russia before Donald Trump took office and to conceal the sources of that intelligence from the incoming administration.

 

Evelyn Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Obama, made the disclosure while on the air with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.

“I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill, it was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people, get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration,”

 

“Because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior [Obama] people who left, so it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy ... that the Trump folks – if they found out how we knew what we knew about their ... the Trump staff dealing with Russians – that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence.”

 

Aside from questions over whether communications were improperly gathered during the transition and before, there is speculation over how widely such information was disseminated. Farkas described a rush to spread the material before Trump took office.

 

I saw that video as well, and all I could think of were all the people who immediately started screaming "shut up!" at their television sets as Farkas just kept on talking.

[Magox]

The story is at several sources (including the MSNBC video), but I picked the Fox areticle to post so that the Gator's of the board can dismiss it out of hand without opening it.

 

You're welcome..........

 

 

Former Obama official discloses rush to get intelligence on Trump team

Fox News ^ | 3/29/17 | Fox News

 

 

A former top Obama administration official has acknowledged efforts by her colleagues to gather intelligence on Trump team ties to Russia before Donald Trump took office and to conceal the sources of that intelligence from the incoming administration.

 

Evelyn Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Obama, made the disclosure while on the air with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.

“I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill, it was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people, get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration,”

 

“Because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior [Obama] people who left, so it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy ... that the Trump folks – if they found out how we knew what we knew about their ... the Trump staff dealing with Russians – that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence.”

 

Aside from questions over whether communications were improperly gathered during the transition and before, there is speculation over how widely such information was disseminated. Farkas described a rush to spread the material before Trump took office.

 

I'm not a legal or ethics expert, but does this seem right, unethical or possibly somewhere along the way on this effort to gather this information, possibly illegal?

 

I saw that video as well, and all I could think of were all the people who immediately started screaming "shut up!" at their television sets as Farkas just kept on talking.

 

Sounds contrived, right?

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

Trump and his cohorts are buddy buddy with Russians so they "Wag the Dog" and blame Obama for spying on them.

 

This is treasonous!

[Azalin]

 

Sounds contrived, right?

 

I don't see how this is good for the Obama team either way. Farkas just issued what sounded a lot like a mea culpa to me. All I have is speculation, but If she tossed that out as a cover story, then things can't be good.

[richstadiumowner]

Trump and his cohorts are buddy buddy with Russians so they "Wag the Dog" and blame Obama for spying on them.

 

This is treasonous!

 

So why doesn't anybody show the links to the Russians?

[Nanker]

 

"That's why you have the leaking. People are worried."

Edited March 30, 2017 by Nanker

[Nanker]

Former AG weighs in:

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

 

So why doesn't anybody show the links to the Russians?

its under investigation isn't it?

The Senate Intelligence Committee won't rule out collusion between Trump team and Russia

Not that I trust politicians, I'd accept a bipartisan committee decision over believing anything Trump says or tweets as facts.

 

 

Winning!

[richstadiumowner]

its under investigation isn't it?

The Senate Intelligence Committee won't rule out collusion between Trump team and Russia

Not that I trust politicians, I'd accept a bipartisan committee decision over believing anything Trump says or tweets as facts.

 

 

Winning!

 

So why doesn't anybody show the links to the Russians?

[Deranged Rhino]

its under investigation isn't it?

The Senate Intelligence Committee won't rule out collusion between Trump team and Russia

 

They won't rule anything out because the investigation is incomplete. That doesn't mean anything, and to date no one on either committee -- not even a political hack like Schiff -- has pushed collusion seriously.

[DC Tom]

its under investigation isn't it?

The Senate Intelligence Committee won't rule out collusion between Trump team and Russia

Not that I trust politicians, I'd accept a bipartisan committee decision over believing anything Trump says or tweets as facts.

 

I won't rule out that you're a wife-beating crack head either.

[Nanker]

 

So why doesn't anybody show the links to the Russians?

Ask, and ye shall receive.

I simply Googled Russian Links and this popped right up!

[richstadiumowner]

Ask, and ye shall receive.

I simply Googled Russian Links and this popped right up!

That and Velveeta and you're as diverse and inclusive as all get out!

[B-Man]

NOW BLOOMBERG’S REPORTING IT: Top Obama Adviser Sought Names of Trump Associates in Intel.

 

 

White House lawyers last month discovered that the former national security adviser

Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The pattern of Rice’s requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government’s policy on “unmasking” the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like “U.S. Person One.” . . . Indeed, much about this is highly unusual: if not how the surveillance was collected, then certainly how and why it was disseminated.

The National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, was conducting the review, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with Bloomberg View on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. In February Cohen-Watnick discovered Rice’s multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition activities. He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel’s office, who reviewed more of Rice’s requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy.

The intelligence reports were summaries of monitored conversations — primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials.

One U.S. official familiar with the reports said they contained valuable political information on the Trump transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration.

 

 

 

 

Those “incidental” recordings are looking less incidental all the time.

[grinreaper]

 

NOW BLOOMBERG’S REPORTING IT: Top Obama Adviser Sought Names of Trump Associates in Intel.

 

 

White House lawyers last month discovered that the former national security adviser

Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The pattern of Rice’s requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government’s policy on “unmasking” the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like “U.S. Person One.” . . . Indeed, much about this is highly unusual: if not how the surveillance was collected, then certainly how and why it was disseminated.

The National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, was conducting the review, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with Bloomberg View on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. In February Cohen-Watnick discovered Rice’s multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition activities. He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel’s office, who reviewed more of Rice’s requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy.

The intelligence reports were summaries of monitored conversations — primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials.

One U.S. official familiar with the reports said they contained valuable political information on the Trump transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration.

 

 

 

 

Those “incidental” recordings are looking less incidental all the time.

 

Also from your link:

 

Rice herself has not spoken directly on the issue of unmasking. Last month when she was asked on the "PBS NewsHour" about reports that Trump transition officials, including Trump himself, were swept up in incidental intelligence collection, Rice said: "I know nothing about this," adding, "I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that account today."

 

Once a liar, always a liar.

[B-Man]

“Hypothesis:

 

The spying-on-Trump thing is worse than we even imagine, and once it was clear Hillary had lost and it would inevitably come out, the Trump/Russia collusion talking point was created as a distraction.

 

Now it’s being rowed back because the talk of ‘transcripts’ supports the spying-on-Trump storyline.

 

Will we ever know? Maybe, if there’s a proper investigation into Obama Administration political spying.”

 

 

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/261593/

 

 

 

 

Trump Supporter Called ‘Fake News’ By ’60 Minutes’ Beats Everyone To Susan Rice Scoop.

Edited April 3, 2017 by B-Man

[Doc Brown]

 

NOW BLOOMBERG’S REPORTING IT: Top Obama Adviser Sought Names of Trump Associates in Intel.

 

 

White House lawyers last month discovered that the former national security adviser

Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The pattern of Rice’s requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government’s policy on “unmasking” the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like “U.S. Person One.” . . . Indeed, much about this is highly unusual: if not how the surveillance was collected, then certainly how and why it was disseminated.

The National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, was conducting the review, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with Bloomberg View on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. In February Cohen-Watnick discovered Rice’s multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition activities. He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel’s office, who reviewed more of Rice’s requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy.

The intelligence reports were summaries of monitored conversations — primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials.

One U.S. official familiar with the reports said they contained valuable political information on the Trump transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration.

 

 

 

 

Those “incidental” recordings are looking less incidental all the time.

 

Why didn't you include this from the article? Kind of shows how lenient the law is to spy on people.

 

The standard for senior officials to learn the names of U.S. persons incidentally collected is that it must have some foreign intelligence value, a standard that can apply to almost anything. This suggests Rice's unmasking requests were likely within the law.

[snafu]

Is that the same Susan Rice I think it is?

[Nanker]

Also from your link:

 

Rice herself has not spoken directly on the issue of unmasking. Last month when she was asked on the "PBS NewsHour" about reports that Trump transition officials, including Trump himself, were swept up in incidental intelligence collection, Rice said: "I know nothing about this," adding, "I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that account today."

 

Once a liar, always a liar.

 

Why didn't you include this from the article? Kind of shows how lenient the law is to spy on people.

 

The standard for senior officials to learn the names of U.S. persons incidentally collected is that it must have some foreign intelligence value, a standard that can apply to almost anything. This suggests Rice's unmasking requests were likely within the law.

The unmasking isn't that unusual, but having those names spread all over Washington like mayonnaise on a turkey sandwich is. It's also very illegal. Someone will go to jail for that. Scooter Libby did.