UPDATED - Graham: Carter Page wiretap 'not at all' justified

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico


By ELI OKUN 07/22/2018 12:22 PM EDT

Sen. Lindsey Graham called government surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page “not at all” justified Sunday, backing up President Donald Trump in his criticism of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court-approved wiretaps.

Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the South Carolina Republican said, “The whole FISA warrant process needs to be looked at.” He called the Christopher Steele dossier that the FBI cited in its FISA warrant applications “a bunch of garbage,” and criticized the government for not being clear that the dossier’s research had been partially funded by Democrats.

Page, who worked Trump’s presidential campaign on foreign policy, was under government suspicion for his ties to Russia. Documents released Saturday showed the FBI worried that Russia wanted to recruit him.

Trump has slammed the wiretap approval process, alongside his criticism of the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian electoral meddling and possible Trump campaign collusion.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/22/graham-carter-page-wiretap-russia-trump-735562

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UPDATE:

Lindsey Graham Says Trump ‘Confused’ About Russian Meddling: ‘He’s Changed His Mind Four Times This Week’

by Aidan McLaughlin | 11:17 am, July 22nd, 2018

-snip-

Appearing on Face the Nation for an interview with Margaret Brennan, Graham declared the Russians clearly interfered in the 2016 election.

“I think the president gets this confused,” Graham said. “If you suggest that Russians meddled in 2016, he goes to the idea that, well, I didn’t collude with them.” Graham addressed Trump directly: “You didn’t collude with the Russians — or at least I haven’t seen any evidence — but Mr. President: they meddled in the elections, they stole [John] Podesta’s e-mails, they hacked into the DNC.”

“Mr President: Dan Coats is right, the red lights are blinking,” he added, calling on Trump to “lead this nation to hardening the 2018 election process before it’s too late.”

Brennan noted that “it sounds like” Graham still isn’t sure “the president is fully believing what his intelligence community is telling him.”

“He’s changed his mind four times this week,” Graham said. “I’m glad that he’s willing to walk things back, and say he misspoke if it makes us stronger.”

Full article + video:
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/lindsey-graham-says-trump-confused-by-russian-meddling-hes-changed-his-mind-four-times-this-week/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Time for Little Lindsey to STFU.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Did Lindsay read the redacted FISA application? Did anyone ask? The application says the Steele

dossier was funded by a political group, but is irrelevant because the dossier was true!

Read the fucking application, or stop lying, your choice!

[Wellstone ruled]

15. And the Origanial Dossier

was bought and paid for by a Rethug Money Guy. But,the real truth never sees the light of day.

Again,it boils down to lazy ass Media who is only worried about who is hosting the Cocktail Party.

[matt819]

27. Agreed

A judge thought it was justified. End of whining.

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. Calling John Mccain..your buddy is frothing at the mouth....bought off...Of course!!!

[Zorro]

3. Lindsey Graham is a disgrace to the Senate

and a traitor to the USA.

He was a leading cheerleader in Clinton's impeachment in the House, but chooses to be willfully ignorant of the massive evidence of Trump's impeachable offenses. A hypocrite of the first order.

[dalton99a]

4. Worthless little piece of shit is so predictable

[handmade34]

5. who paid for it...

https://themoscowproject.org/collusion/sources-steele-dossier-funding-revealed/


As The New York Times reported in October 2017, the dossier originated from an investigation started during the Republican primary campaigns by the conservative news outlet The Washington Free Beacon and its backer, Republican donor Paul Singer. The publication hired the private research firm Fusion GPS in October 2015, but stopped funding the project once Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee. In April 2016, Mark Elias, the lawyer for both the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, picked up the contract; after news of the DNC hack emerged in June 2016, Fusion GPS hired Steele’s firm Orbis Business Intelligence....


Steele, a former MI6 agent, filed his first report to the private-investigation firm Fusion GPS on June 20, 2016. The first dispatch mainly concerned the Russian Federal Security Service, commonly known as the FSB, and its cyber operations, and makes no mention of the Trump campaign. The first allegation of an “extensive conspiracy between Trump’s campaign team and the Kremlin” came in Steele’s second report, in which Steele wrote that there is an “agreed exchange of information established in both directions” that “was managed on the TRUMP side by the Republican candidate’s campaign manager, Paul MANAFORT, who was using foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE, and others as intermediaries.” Steele also wrote that a “TRUMP associate admits Kremlin behind recent appearance of DNC e-mails on WikiLeaks, as means of maintaining plausible deniability,” information that did not become public until the next day.....

[mpcamb]

8. "Republican donor Paul Singer" made his fortune bankrupting financially strapped countries.

Mostly 3rd world countries.
Buy up their debt then demand hard currency.
He kept the world unstable for decades.
Applauded by Forbes as a 'philanthropist'.
Anything he touches is dirty.

[Solly Mack]

7. Graham being his usual self.

A piece of shit.

[turbinetree]

9. That's the ticket....................the media has a asshole come on to further the treason

this asshole knows that if a wiretap is approved there has to be cause and there is a due process, the government just doesn't hand out wiretaps there is the fourth amendment, this asshole wants to take down the judicial process and this apart of the Constitution ................this POS well is a POS, and to top it all off he's confirming the traitor's judges ...................what could possibly go wrong.....................give him more air time to send out the word and face time of an enabling traitor ............


Did "face the nation" have someone to rebut this jerks remarks, that wasn't a fucking republican..................


https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/election?p0=263&iso=20181106T12&msg=2018%20Midterm%20Elections

[Texin]

10. It's the old "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" legal argument.

In this case, impugning the process by which the evidence was gathered - regardless of any and all facts that were wrapped up in the investigation - the evidence is then declared tainted.

Graham's argument seems to be the road the treasonously complicit rethugs are going to argue their case with the population. The evidence gathered and continuing to be gathered is wrapping them (all) up as collaborators with Putin-Trump to seize permanent power of US government. Condemn the investigation as bogus, the evidence then must therefore be ignored.

[sandensea]

13. Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

Is it ever!

[LXY123]

11. Fuck Graham--POS

[SamKnause]

12. Fuck off and die Lindsey Graham.

[Racerdog1]

18. Soon

POS is and always has been a useless waste of oxygen.

[thegoose]

14. List the biggest Puke traitors

Lindsay Graham
Liddle Marco
Lyin' Ryan
Mitch McLipless
Darrell (Hitman) Issa

Anybody in Dump's White House...

[watoos]

16. What's the purpose of a thread like this on DU?

Nonsense gets posted and then we talk about how wrong the nonsense is.

I'd just as soon not have to debunk Republican talking points.

[Botany]

17. 4 of the judges who signed off on the FISA warrants were appointed by republicans

BTW Lindsey it wasn't just the one word that Trump "walked back" but
everything that he said at the presser.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

19. The FISA court was working okay since 1978, until Trump came along.

The Repugs are willing to tear down every long-standing government enforcement agency -- FBI, DOJ, CIA, FISA, DIA, etc. -- in order to protect Donnie Two Scoops. The overarching question is, why?

Thought experiment: Assume the facts are all the same, except Obama is president. How would the GOP react? Would they attack the nation's intelligence, enforcement and judicial agencies? NO! Those agencies are sacrosanct when it comes to finding dirt on Democrats.

It's a cult, and Shitler is the Dear Leader.

[atreides1]

28. Why you ask??

They got paid off, likely with laundered foreign money(Russian)...and all of those agencies can put those traitorous bastards either in prison or under it!!!


Tear those agencies down and they protect themselves from being put behind bars for a very, very long time!!!

[bluestarone]

20. This piece of shit must need air time

FUCK HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bluestarone]

21. When McCain passes on

Graham will be RUMPS little warrior you watch!!!

[Midnight Writer]

22. As a former JAG, Lindsey surely knows how to read a warrant request. So I guess he is simply lying.

[SkatmanRoth]

23. Lindsey Graham drew the short straw among Senators and had to go out and defend Trump

Graham is not up for reelection this year. The Republican Senators all got together and picked one to go out and tow the party line for Trump. Graham was selected to take the hit meaning he is set to retire before the 2020 election or he is in a 'safe' seat.

[briv1016]

24. Don't forget, Russia hacked the RNC first.

[PSPS]

25. Tell it to the judges. They've read the full affidavit and seem to think otherwise.

Federal courts and their judges aren't the same as spouting off political talking points on a TV blab show.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Hey, Lindsey, you mean the FISA warrant that was approved and renewed

by four different Republican-appointed federal judges? Funny how the FISA court was just the bee's knees when it was used to authorize surveillance of foreign terrorists.

[DoctorJoJo]

29. Lindsay Compromised, Too, and Not Hard to Figure How!

[htuttle]

30. If the question is, 'Did the President conspire with the Russians during the election'?

...Then who the hell cares about how the information was discovered? It's a counterintelligence issue first, and a legal one second.

What would Graham's solution be, if the decided that the spy was caught 'unfairly'? Should he be left in place to continue to work for Russian interests?

I'm calling BS on this whole 'fruit of the poison tree' argument.

[kimbutgar]

31. They showed Graham his grinder account to get him back in line with the Twitler narrative

[BaronChocula]

32. Eleven judges appointed by John Roberts

disagree with your sycophantic drawlin' ass.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

33. Using his own logic, Graham should be investigated because....

Democrats are paying part of his salary. Therefore, he is tainted......

[sakabatou]

34. Just how much money did Graham get from Russia?