FourFreedomsBlog - Tapp This: Pt 2

It's that time of year again - our ISP is asking for money. If you have some spare change, please click the Donate link... Thanks!

Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me

Register

Latest Entries

Actions Menu

Blog Roll

Tapp This: Pt 2
Author: Raine Date: 03/06/2017 19:28:56

This morning I pondered the fresh pile of dog poop we have we to look forward to this week. Please take a look at the post, it might make what I am about to pontificate more sensible.

I keep going back to the Clapper interview on Sunday Meet the Press. I quoted part of it earlier. Trump kept talking about wiretapping (didn't happen) and the media keeps looking for an answer to his claims. James Clapper is denying it as well. Trump was never wiretapped (period, full stop) when Obama was President.

The Clapper interview on "Meet The Press" still piques my curiosity. He denied a lot and yet - as a former CIA director and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) - what he didn't say is something that made me want to research. Clapper was behind the report that was released in January that concluded that Russians hacked the Democrat National Committee e-mails and interfered with the 2016 election.

This was something else I found VERY telling from that interview:

CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you one other final question on the infamous dossier that was put together by this former British operative named Christopher Steele. Why did you feel the need to brief the president on that at the time?

JAMES CLAPPER: We felt that it was important that he know about it, that it was out there. And that, without respect to the veracity of the contents of the dossier, that's why it was not included as a part of our report. Because much of it could not be corroborated. And importantly, some of the sources that Mr. Steele drew on, second and third order assets, we could not validate or corroborate.

So for that reason, at least in my view, the important thing was to warn the president that this thing was out there. The Russians have a term, an acronym, called Kompromat, which they will either generate, if it's truthful or if it's contrived. And it's important, we felt, that he knew of the existence of this dossier.

CHUCK TODD: Have you done this with other presidents? Have you had to brief them about unverified intelligence?

JAMES CLAPPER: Yes, I've had occasion in the six and a half years I was DNI to tell President Obama certain things that we could not corroborate or validate, but that we just thought he ought to know it was out there

The outgoing DNI was trying to warn the PEOTUS. Trump was informed. Shit was out there.

So, it leads me to this. One thing we know is that there WAS indeed a FISA warrant issued last year. No one is denying this. NO ONE - not even Clapper. He denied that there was a "FISA Court order to monitor Trump Tower". He also went on to say this:

JAMES CLAPPER: We did not include any evidence in our report, and I say, "our," that's N.S.A., F.B.I. and C.I.A., with my office, the Director of National Intelligence, that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that included in our report.

CHUCK TODD: I understand that. But does it exist?

JAMES CLAPPER: Not to my knowledge.

CHUCK TODD: If it existed, it would have been in this report?

JAMES CLAPPER: This could have unfolded or become available in the time since I left the government.

CHUCK TODD: At some--

JAMES CLAPPER: But at the time, we had no evidence of such collusion.

This led me to question, What happened after tRump was elected? This happened:

Clapper resignation was effective Jan. 20. Loretta Lynch left her position the same day as well. That left the nation with an Acting Attorney General who was quickly sacked for allegedly not supporting the Administration's travel ban. Ms. Yates was fired January 30th.

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates has been fired by President Trump for her decision to order DOJ to not defend the current Administrationâ€™s executive order on immigration in court. The New York Times report** includes the somewhat alarming paragraph:

Mr. Trump has the authority to fire Ms. Yates, but as the top Senate-confirmed official at the Justice Department, she is the only one authorized to sign foreign surveillance warrants, an essential function of the department.

But those concerned that a critical national security program will now come to a screeching halt can probably rest easy. The New York Times is wrong on this one. Yatesâ€™s replacement, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Dana Boente does have the power to issue FISA applications.

Sessions was sworn in officially on Feb 9th.

That means there was a 19-day window for FISA warrants. I can't stress this enough: Clapper left his position on January 20th -- He is correct in saying he would have known if there was a FISA warrant. The caveat: if he were still in government.

There was a FISA warrant last year. It wasn't about the Trump. personally or his tower, as he claimed over the weekend. There is no reason to believe that there is not a new FISA warrant. Conversely, There is no reason to believe that there IS a new FISA .

What ex-spies don't say is as important as what the do say. Clapper said a lot, IMO.

So, to get back to the timeline: Clapper's last day was January 20, 2017. Dan Coats was nominated for the DNI position. He's not yet been approved by the Senate. Here is our acting Director of National intelligence.

To put it bluntly, we have no Director of National Intelligence. We do, however, Have a president tweeting bullshit and asking for a Congress to investigate his bullshit tweets based on no evidence.

All that said, there is a real possibility that in the 19-day interim there was plenty of time to get a FISA warrant based on new information that may have happened after #45 began his occupation of the White House. Trump was never wiretapped Someone else was. it is my opinion that the WH occupier knows (or suspects) he got caught up in the sweep.