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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Probe Began With Russian Messages Intercepted By NSA - by Joe Conason
May 28, 2018 11:31 pm
As Trump and his minions poured out mesmerizing disinformation last weekend about the origins of the Russia probe, a bracing slap of reality was delivered by Observer.com, a news website owned by the Kushner family (and once known as the New York Observer, a weekly newspaper where I formerly worked.)
Observer columnist John Schindler, a former National Security Agency analyst and professor at the Naval War College, is a controversial figure who worked for years in U.S. counterintelligence. He is a #NeverTrump conservative with deep ties in the intelligence community, whose devotion to official secrecy he shares.
In his latest column, Schindler not only debunks Trumps Spygate charges against the FBI, but reminds us of a crucial clue about how the Russia probe began. The FBI counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump and his campaigns troubling connections to the Kremlin actually was initiated when alarms were set off by signals intelligence, or what spooks call SIGINT meaning messages and conversations intercepted by the NSA and its allies in foreign intelligence agencies.
Schindler reminds us that multiple SIGINT reports gathered by NSA and allied agencies as early as 2015, involving interactions between Trump and his circle and known or suspected Russian agents, set off suspicions in U.S. intelligence agencies. Amplifying NSAs own data collection, such reports came from agencies in Australia, Germany, Estonia, Poland, France, and the Netherlands. Some of the most incriminating information first came from NSAs most trusted partner, the United Kingdoms innocuously named Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.
Concerning those British contributions, Schindler quotes the Guardian, which reported on the Trump-related intercepts last year. GCHQ was at no point carrying out a targeted operation against Trump or his team or proactively seeking information. The alleged conversations were picked up by chance as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets. Over several months, different agencies targeting the same people began to see a pattern of connections that were flagged to intelligence officials in the U.S.
But the Western intelligence agencies werent wiretapping Trump, as he has ludicrously claimed. They were instead listening to the Kremlin and its spies, as usual, and finding repeated conversations and connections implicating Trump.
According to Schindler, a senior NSA official recently told him that when the Republican convention ratified Trumps nomination in July 2016, We knew we had a Russian agent on our hands. Classified above top secret and available only to a handful of officials, the damning reports on the Republican nominee clearly indicated that the Russians felt they controlled Trump, that they were seeking to turn the election in his favor and that Trump and his children were well aware of these nefarious machinations.
Whether and how Robert Mueller will be able to use such highly classified data in a criminal investigation remains to be determined. But there is little doubt that if those reports exist, the former FBI director has seen them.
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-probe-began-russian-messages-intercepted-nsa/
Full article posted with the permission of the author -- Don
cilla4progress
(24,776 posts)He should have been STOPPED then!
kairos12
(12,875 posts)Why was he not "asked" to step aside prior to the convention?
bigbrother05
(5,995 posts)With the wall of separation that was traditional and practiced by the Obama WH, ongoing investigations weren't discussed. With Trump's residence in NYC, FBI in the Southern District would have had the local lead in the investigation of a US citizen.
If there is any Deep State, it worked against the Dem candidate and covered for Trump. Is Rudy's connection to the DOJ/FBI in NYC a coincidence? He always seemed to know in advance of anything related to HRC, so why wouldn't he out the guys he was working with on the campaign?
Hope they all rot in prison. Maybe not Leavenworth, but possibly Sing Sing.
YessirAtsaFact
(2,064 posts)Water boarding is optional
global1
(25,272 posts)a lie as well. Wow!!! Good actors!!!! I guess Trump's fake TV show prepared them all for this.
dajoki
(10,678 posts)and it is very disturbing that they knew for so long and just let it happen. The time is well past that this criminal enterprise be imprisoned.
https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100210665769
bucolic_frolic
(43,311 posts)or it's one long gigantic sting to flush out the traitors. A lot was going on in plain sight, barely at the consciousness level.
bucolic_frolic
(43,311 posts)When Trump appointed Manafort, and the news media was giving his bio of service to eastern European countries, you had to think "What's will all the Russians? Don't we have any American political consultants?"
July 27, 2016: "Russia, if you're listening ...." "WHY is he appealing to Russia?"
These two events cued me in. They were in full public view. And you had to be mentally deficient not to suspect something untoward was going on.
Cosmocat
(14,574 posts)Manafort was just an absurd pick for a POTUS campaign, I knew Flynn was a flake even before he latched on to the campaign, his Turkey thing was noted at the time, there were the other oddjobs associated with the campaign, I was using the "you can't swing a dead cat around him without hitting a family or campaign member who is Russia dirty battling republicans months before the election - not to mention the Ms Universe and other Russia deals he had going on ...
I NEVER fathomed this country could elect someone that compromised by another country, much less Russia.
That isn't even getting into his not releasing his taxes, the Access Hollywood tape ...
Quemado
(1,262 posts)Clearly, laws were broken - mainly, conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
Impeachment won't resolve this. Only Trump's indictment and trial in a federal courtroom will.
Impeachment will only kick him out of office. Pence will pardon him the next day, just like what Ford did for Nixon.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)And Mueller standing by while Barr whitewashed his report is alarming.
When will we see justice?
Ever?