The major source for Trump's UK wiretap claims was Larry Johnson!

[Denzil_DC]

10. More from Media Matters:

... Larry C. Johnson, floated the conspiracy theory on the Russian state-sponsored news network RT on March 6, the week after Trump’s original accusation that Obama was responsible for an illegal wiretap.

It seems so long ago now, but that original accusation came from Breitbart.

On March 13, Napolitano told hosts of Fox News’ Fox & Friends that Obama circumvented the American intelligence community to ask “the British spying agency” for “transcripts of conversations involving candidate Trump” without “American fingerprints.” Napolitano’s claims were cited by White House press secretary Sean Spicer while defending Trump’s baseless claims that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential election.

On March 14, Media Matters uncovered the link between Napolitano's claims and an interview Johnson gave to RT. The New York Times confirmed Media Matters' reporting that Napolitano used Johnson as "one of the sources" for his "claim about British intelligence."

https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/03/17/report-confirms-fox-news-napolitano-repeated-russian-media-his-british-intelligence-conspiracy/215751

And Larry Johnson is now having an extended whine on his blog (amazed it's still going, let alone has a readership) about mean old NYT reporter Michael Grynbaum, who covered the Napolitano-Johnson link.

No one involved with the Trump campaign reached out to me and asked me to get involved with this. I spoke three months ago with a source that, if the source’s name was revealed, would be known and recognized as a reliable source of information. Based on that contact I reached out to friends in the intel community and asked them about the possibility that a back channel was used to get the Brits to collect on Trump associates. My sources said, “absolutely.” I later confirmed this via a cut out with a person who is a Senior Intelligence Service executive in the CIA.

This information was passed to Judge Andrew Napolitano. I did not speak with the Judge before his appearance on Fox and Friends earlier this week. He said he had three sources. I only count as one. The key point is that I have been told that there was a back channel used to pass info on electronic surveillance of Trump associates to senior officials in the Obama Administration. I stand by that and will be happy to take a polygraph.

But that is not the story that this disgrace of a reporter, Michael Grynbaum, chose to tell. It may not be his fault. Very possible that editors cut his story to spin it in a particular way. I will never trust these guys to do the right thing. My bad. I still am naive enough to believe that reporters, when given specific information, will report it accurately. Michael Gyrnbaum did not.

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/79653/dishonest-ny-times-hit-piece/

He takes up most of the earlier part of this post raking over and defending his "Whitey Tape" allegations - for which he claimed the same sort of "independent sources" as he's now saying there are for the wiretap allegations.

His reliability can be judged by the fact he's still quoting one of his posts about it at the time (all caps in the original):

THEN THERE IS THE MATTER OF THE EMAIL/DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN THE OBAMA FOLKS ARE TRYING. FIRST THEY SENT SOME OF THEIR BLOGGERS AN EMAIL CLAIMING THAT MICHELLE SAID “WHY DID HE” RATHER THAN USE THE PEJORATIVE, “WHITEY.” AND NOW THE EXCUSE IS BEING CIRCULATED THAT SOMEHOW I, OR SOMEONE ELSE, IS CRIBBING FROM SOME SILLY BOOK I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF UNTIL NOW. A CAMPAIGN DOES NOT REACT THIS WAY TO A FABRICATION.

As a matter of fact, "they" didn't send some of their bloggers any such email. It was a post at Booman Tribune:

My old friend, Larry Johnson, knows about manipulating elections from his training with the Central Intelligence Agency. He doesn't want Obama to win the nomination for whatever reason, and he's in full propaganda mode to do everything he can to frighten the superdelegates. He claims to have a shocking tape of Michelle Obama ranting in some anti-white diatribe. He promises to produce this tape tomorrow at 9am.

From what I understand, it is a tape of Michelle Obama criticizing the Bush administration.

How you'd write it:

Why did Bush cut folks off medicaid?
Why did Bush let New Orleans drown?
Why did Bush do nothing about Jena?
Why did Bush put us in Iraq for no reason?

How you'd say it:

Why'd he cut folks off medicaid?
Why'd he let New Orleans drown?
Why'd he do nothing about Jena?
Why'd he put us in Iraq for no reason?

How Larry Johnson wants you to hear it:

Whitie cut folks off medicaid?
Whitie let New Orleans drown?
Whitie do nothing about Jena?
Whitie put us in Iraq for no reason?

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/6/1/235757/2325

It's believed by some folks who know Booman that he planted this misinformation in his blog post in the hope Johnson (with whom he'd seriously fallen out, having once been a campaign colleague) would lap it up, run with it, and make an even bigger fool of himself. And he did. And he apparently still doesn't realize how he was set up to this day. Some former intelligence officer!