Now comes word the Justice Department went to a FISA court to get permission to tap the phone lines in Trump Tower before the election. The Daily Mail (U.K.) reports as follows:
During the summer last year, the Obama administration filed a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Trump and several advisers but the request was denied, according to Heat Street former editor, Louise Mensch.Recently came the following statement:
Just a day before the 2016 election, Mensch reported that 'sources with links to the counter-intelligence community' confirmed that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) had granted a FISA court warrant in October to monitor activities in Trump tower.
On Wednesday, a New York Times report said White House officials took efforts in the closing days of the Obama administration to analyze and spread information about Russian election interference, driven by a concern that the material might get buried by Trump.
Obama's spokesman Kevin Lewis released a statement Saturday afternoon refuting Trump's wire-tapping claims.You need to read his statement like a lawyer; "interfered with" isn't the same as collaborated with or consulted with. His statement about no one in the White House "ordering" surveillance is likely correct. How about "suggesting" or "hinting at" or "acquiescing in"? He did not deny foreknowledge thereof.
'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,' Lewis wrote.
'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.'
I hope you remember that bootleg wiretaps were a part of the Watergate scandal. Those at Trump Tower weren't bootleg, they were placed by government spooks who do this routinely. Trump has every right to be P.O.'ed.
