Following the wave of leaks and protests orchestrated by US President Donald Trump’s political opponents, the White House has apparently decided to strike back. Trump raised questions with regard to whether the Obama administration had been involved in what appears to be politically motivated investigations into the opposition candidate’s campaign.
It appears that US President Donald Trump is striking back following a series of leaks in the US left-wing mainstream media.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump tweeted on March 4.
“How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” he added.
Earlier last week, Mark Reed Levin, an American lawyer and the host of The Mark Levin Show, shed light on what could be regarded as the Obama administration’s efforts to undermine Donald Trump’s presidential campaign ahead of the November election.
President Donald Trump talks with former President Barack Obama on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, after Trump took the presidential oath
‘This is McCarthyism’: Trump Says Obama Had His ‘Wires Tapped’ Before Election Win
Referring to mainstream media sources, Levin pointed out that last year the request to monitor the communications of Donald Trump and several advisers had been filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) by the outgoing administration in June and then in October 2016.
While the first request was turned down, the second one was approved and, according to the Guardian, in October the FBI was granted a FISA court warrant giving the agency permission to examine the Trump campaign’s alleged ties with Russia.
Quoted by the Guardian, former British politician Louise Mensch revealed two days before the November election that the second request was focused on a computer server in Trump Tower.
Meanwhile, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the New York Times disclosed that the FBI, along with a number of other government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Treasury Department, were monitoring Trump’s associates “suspected” of ties with Russia.
US President Donald Trump celebrates after his speech during the Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, January 20, 2017.
US President Donald Trump celebrates after his speech during the Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, January 20, 2017.
In February, the scandal over Mike Flynn’s alleged conversations with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak erupted.
“Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election,” the New York Times claimed on February 14, citing “four current and former” unnamed American officials.
However, nothing tangible besides the mere fact that some of Trump’s associates were allegedly spotted talking to the Russians emerged.
Amid yet another media fuss, this time targeting Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the newspaper revealed that in its last days the Obama administration “scrambled” to disseminate intelligence related to the Trump campaign’s alleged ties with Moscow among US officials.
According to Levin, it looked like a “silent coup” arranged by former White House occupants, who allegedly administered surveillance against the opposition candidate, Trump, and his associates during the presidential campaign.
US President Barack Obama speaks to reporters following a National Security Council meeting on the counter-ISIL at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, December 14, 2015
Obama Denies Ordering Surveillance on Trump
Both Levin’s story and Trump’s Saturday tweet have prompted a firestorm of criticism from the Democratic camp and the US left-leaning mainstream media.
CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote Monday that “there is no evidence to back up” Levin’s story and dubbed it a “conspiracy theory.”
For his part, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denied that there was any wiretap of Trump’s communications and added that former President Barack Obama “could not” and “did not” order such surveillance.
“There was no wiretap against Trump Tower during the campaign conducted by any part of the National Intelligence Community,” Clapper told ABC News Monday, “Not President Obama, he did not, could not, that’s not how it’s done. It has to be done through a court, and he would not.”
Clapper echoed Obama’s spokesman Kevin Lewis who said in his official statement Saturday that “a cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official would ever interfere with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice.”
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about worldwide threats, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Washington.
In response, Andrew McCarthy of the National Review noted that in fact the issue is not whether Obama or some member of his White House staff “ordered” surveillance of Trump and his associates.
“The issues are (a) whether the Obama Justice Department sought such surveillance authorization from the FISA court, and (b) whether, if the Justice Department did that, the White House was aware of or complicit in the decision to do so,” he stressed.
“Personally, given the explosive and controversial nature of the surveillance request we are talking about — an application to wiretap the presidential candidate of the opposition party, and some of his associates, during the heat of the presidential campaign, based on the allegation that the candidate and his associates were acting as Russian agents — it seems to me that there is less than zero chance that could have happened without consultation between the Justice Department and the White House,” he emphasized.
US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton arrives at Burke Lakefront airport in Cleveland, Ohio US, October 21, 2016.
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Speaking to Sputnik, Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist shared his views on the issue.
“My understanding is that the FBI and/or the Department of Justice would make the request to FISA,” he told Sputnik Sunday.
According to Ortel, it was possible that the White House’s alleged decision to crack down on Trump could have been rooted in Trump’s vow to appoint a special prosecutor “to investigate Hillary Clinton.”
“It is well past time for nations worldwide to investigate the tentacles of the Clinton Foundation that seem well beyond the reach of any one nation, likely by design,” the Wall Street analyst noted.
In addition to the simmering controversy over the reported wiretap of Trump and his aides, it has been well-documented that the President’s political opponents from the Democratic camp, as well as their influential sponsors, have organized a series of protests against Trump’s policies.
What’s behind the ongoing “war” between the supporters of Obama and Clinton and Donald Trump? Why do they consider Trump and his policies “dangerous” for them?
“George Soros and others on the Left illegally fund numerous ‘charities,’ claiming valuable tax deductions. These clearly partisan activities normally must be paid for using after-tax dollars and run through ‘action organizations’ (501 (c)4) entities whose activities should not mingle with charities (501 (c)3),” Ortel assumed.
George Soros
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“Rumors abound that Obama, Jarrett, Clinton, [John] Podesta, Soros and others (Media Matters, Tom Steyer, Michael Moore, Code Pink, etc.) intend to provoke a resistance and maybe an American Spring,” he said.
“In 2017, unlike other periods, a new group in America across the political spectrum is against the establishment in both parties, believing that experts favoring external adventures and entrenched interests are failing most private sector workers,” Ortel emphasized.
According to the Wall Street analyst, the US’s Left underestimates both Trump and his supporters.
“I think the agitators here are overestimating their leverage and underestimating Trump and the heartland of America, falsely assuming that wealthy elites in DC, NY, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Boston have the right to rule,” Ortel emphasized.
Meanwhile, Levin responded to Stelter’s accusations in an open letter published on Facebook.
“Do you deny there were two FISA applications? Do you deny the first was turned down? Do you deny the second was approved? It’s called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. It is about surveillance,” Levin wrote, stressing that it was hard to believe that neither Obama, nor Clapper were aware of the ongoing surveillance operation.
“The Daily Intel Briefing might provide useful information in that regard as well,” he said.
“We are talking about police state tactics,” Levin noted in his recent interview with Fox News.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tweeted Sunday that “reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.”
“President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016,” he wrote.
“Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted,” Spicer stressed.
Ekaterina Blinova, SputnikNews
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201703071051350045-obama-trump-wiretapping-controversy/