FBI Monitored Former Trump Campaign Adviser Carter Page on Russia

FBI MONITORED FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISOR …

Via CNN.

The revelation confirms for the first time that a federal surveillance warrant, known as a FISA warrant, was issued for a member of the Trump campaign as part of a federal investigation of potential ties between the Republican’s associates and the Russian government. Hmm, so now we do know that the Obama admin did in fact call for surveillance on Trump campaign team members, contrary to the denials.

The FBI obtained a warrant to monitor President Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser, Carter Page, last summer on suspicions he knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of Moscow, The Washington Post is reporting.

The FBI and Justice Department obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to monitor the communications of Page, who has called himself a junior member of Trump’s foreign policy advisory team, as part of their investigation into possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia, the newspaper says, citing unnamed law enforcement and other US officials.

The FBI and Justice Department obtained the warrant after convincing a FISA judge there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign government (Russia), the report says. The warrant presents the strongest information to date that the FBI had reason to believe a Trump adviser was in touch with Moscow and met with foreign operatives during Trump’s presidential campaign.

FBI Director James Comey has acknowledged that an investigation was opened last year into Russia’s efforts to influence the election and the question of whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin. But Comey stopped short of naming anyone working for the campaign who may have been involved.

CNN is working to confirm The Washington Post’s story.

Page, however, called the FISA warrant “unjustified” in a statement to CNN’s Manu Raju.

So what was this really? I tend to go along with Hot Air’s premise that this was a back door method of surveiling Trump’s campaign team. If there had been anything, and I mean anything, wouldn’t we know at this point and a crime would have been charged? What we now know is that the Obana administration did surveil Trump’s campaign.

Actually, that’s not quite true. It’s evidence that the Department of Justice sought to surveil Trump campaign figures using intel resources, but not necessarily that they had real evidence and/or a legitimate “reason to believe” that Trump campaign officials were in touch with Russian agents. It’s extremely easy for the government to get approvals for FISA warrants, as we have discovered in the debates over renewals of Section 702 of the PATRIOT Act. That’s actually the crux of the issue: did certain Trump campaign officials knowingly collude with Russian intelligence — or did the Obama administration spy on political rivals in order to impact the election outcome? Both? Neither?