A Twitter observer on why the news that the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation of Trump is such big news:
Holy cow. This NY Times story is just littered with seismic earth-shakers sure to rattle the windows at the White House.
Yowza. My very quick first-blush take on the meaty nuggets…
First, here’s the link:
Let’s dive in!
1/
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 12, 2019
That’s where to start at the beginning. I’ll summarize some of it. This wasn’t just about what Trump did in 2016, i.e. historical, it was surveillance in 2017 and onward. Surveillance of a president isn’t something they do casually.
The DOJ had to approve the counterintel investigation.
If Sessions didn’t know about it, that means Rosenstein kept it from him. If Trump explodes at Rosenstein…
Maybe Rosenstein parlayed Sessions’ recusal into keeping all this a secret.
If that’s the case, expect Trump to be looking for Rosenstein’s head on a platter any minute now.
If he goes off on Rosenstein, Rod knew. Jefferson Beauregard didn’t.
9/
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 12, 2019
The FBI probably knows all about Trump’s face to face with Putin in Helsinki.
Why? The CI work was essentially spying or tracking from Comey’s firing foreward.
At minimum, it would have provided intel on the obstruction effort as it unfolded… and, at minimum, that would have guided Mueller’s interviews.
16/
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 12, 2019
Okay, I’m spinning like a top here so let me bring this in for a landing:
Trump has spent the last two years trying to obstruct an investigation into 2016 events…
…and little did he know, his biggest problem would prove to be what he was doing in 2017-2018.
18/
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 12, 2019
Mueller never called in Kushner or Junior because questioning them would have given away the counterintel operation.
He ends with a wallop.
On his way out the door, we all were wallowing in our winter of discontent, Obama signed an executive order…
It went largely uncovered but I noted it at the time. It was like when you’re watching Law & Order and they zoom in on a paperweight in Minute 5 of the show…
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 12, 2019
The order revised the rules around intelligence sharing among our intel community.
Specifically, it made the firehose of raw intelligence collected by the NSA directly accessible to the FBI and CIA.
Instead of having to ask for intel and getting what they filtered down…
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 12, 2019
The NSA can sit on virtually every communication into and out of the U.S. that takes place over networks.
Obama made it possible for the FBI to directly access everything they had on Trump, et al
Obama supercharged the FBI’s ability to investigate Trump.https://t.co/jsNpSh6Qbx
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 12, 2019
Great punchline.
H/t Erik Tarloff
Comments
4 responses to “Under surveillance all along”
Benjamin Wittes considers the implications too:
What if the Obstruction Was the Collusion?
The Wittes piece by implication underlines the fact that Trump had no idea what he was messing with. He couldn’t cozy up to I don’t know Brazil or India or Malaysia no it had to be RUSSIA. He might as well have sent the FBI briefings on his every move.
The NYT story says it’s not clear if the investigation has concluded or is ongoing.
So…could already be done and a nonissue or could be as gigantic a story as Hoarse Whisperer thinks.
I really hope Mueller releases his report soon. If he waits another year, then it had better be damn good, or the Republicans will run on the investigation being a fraud and we might be saddled with this idiot for another 4 years,
Oooh, you should be supervising Mueller and making sure he colors inside the lines.