By Andrew C. McCarthy Jan. 11, 2017 The idea that FISA could be used against political enemies always seemed far-fetched. Now it might not be. Remember the great debate over “the Wall” following the 9/11 attacks? “The Wall” was a set of internal guidelines that had been issued by the Clinton Justice Department in the mid 1990s. In a nutshell, the Wall made it legally difficult and practically impossible for agents in the FBI’s Foreign Counter-Intelligence Division (essentially, our domestic-security service, now known as the National Security Division) to share intelligence with the criminal-investigation side of the FBI’s house. Those of us who were critics of the Wall — and I was a strenuous one, beginning in my days as a terrorism prosecutor who personally experienced its suicidal applications — made several arguments against it. My favorite argument, which I have repeated countless times, centered on how preposterous were the underlying assumptions of the Wall. This was far easier for prosecutors than journalists, academics, and the public to grasp, because we dealt with the Justice Department’s different chains of command for criminal and national-security investigations. Alas, after 20 years, I may have to revise my thinking. The theory of the Clinton DOJ brass in imposing the Wall was the potential that a rogue criminal investigator, lacking sufficient evidence to obtain a traditional wiretap, would manufacture a national-security angle in order to get a wiretap under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). A traditional wiretap requires evidence amounting to probable cause of commission of a crime. A FISA wiretap requires no showing of a crime, just evidence amounting to probable cause that the target of the wiretap is an agent of a foreign power. (A foreign power can be another country or a foreign terrorist organization.) The reason the Wall theory was absurd was that a rogue agent would surely manufacture evidence of a crime before he’d manufacture a national-security angle. (Excerpt) Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443768/obama-fisa-trump-wiretap The Shadow Government Timeline… https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/03/03/the-shadow-government-timeline/#more-129451 “4. October: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found — but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes. The Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.” ~~~~~~~~~~~ Odd isn't it, Lame Stream Media is telling us there is no proof of Obama ordering a wiretap so he’s out of line.....But the dimwits have no proof of Russian interference in the election yet they keep up the BS. Shouldn’t the PSM Left be called out of line as well? This is the same Just Us Department that has not prosecuted anyone associated with the IRS after the IRS was used to attack Obama's political enemies. Does anyone think the Justice Department under President Obama was above misusing its investigatory powers to try to harm Donald Trump? We also have seen that there was plenty of evidence that Clinton violated the law by handling classified emails on a home brewed private server, a fact that even Comey made clear when he declined to prosecute. If there was evidence that Trump, or his associates, violated some law related to the Trump Tower server, then the FBI was right to investigate. If there wasn't, and they were just on a fishing expedition targeting an enemy of the Obama administration, then heads need to roll. But hey, Obama decided that Trump was dangerous enough to wiretap and surveil closely. If Hillary had won there would be no need for further investigation. Now it's become ObamaGate. I'd love to see an investigation and people frog marched before the LSM-TV's.
There you go again, Wolfie! When will you learn that posting common sense factual information calling out lefties' hypocrisy gets you nowhere on here! What you need is more liberal vitriol-driven posts with no evidence backing them up. THAT'S how to engage libs and get their attention. Facts are useless to them!
I have to hand it to Trump, to be able to take news and make it into a hurricane of news, like today. I also found the original story written Nov 7th, 2016, and it kinda fell flat without much notice. A little more has been piggy-backed on the original story concerning dems' attempt to railroad Jeff Sessions about the so-called "Russian connections." When we look back and put all the stories together, then it clearly shows democrats and Obama admin attempting to break the laws of the land. Quoting the article,"Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of U.S. persons in Donald Trumps campaign with ties to Russia." . . . https://heatst.com/world/exclusive-fbi-granted-fisa-warrant-covering-trump-camps-ties-to-russia/ NOW it's time for Intel to put up or shut up, or face a flurry of legal charges from the Trump administration. My bets are on Trump winning this EASILY, while the dems lose once again in the 2018 election. Steve
At the very least, by extending the scope of the limited probe, it violated the 1978 laws. I'd like to summon both Clapper and Comey to Congress on this issue, to get nothing short of a full brief on the entire scope of the operations and WHY they did that. There's definitely something real rotten in our "intelligence" agencies.
Who within the Obama administration is willing to fall on their swords to protect Obama from this criminal act?
if a FISA court issued a warrant for a wiretap, that means there was evidence of criminal activity in Trump Tower.
You haven't been paying attention to the complaints about the FISA court. It seems I recall they gave near 100-percent okays whenever requested, indicating that it didn't take much to get permission. There is also the fact that citizens are excluded from the tap recordings. May the democrat party rest in peace, SOON! Steve
I was recalling Nixon's Watergate scandal and the FBI turned down a similar request by Nixon, I think. They all still feared what could happen to them either way they went. Then "Deep Throat" appeared. Steve
They'd do anything short hiring a hit man to take out Trump. I know it, you know it, and now the American people know it.
No...what that means is that the Obama Admin submitted SUSPICION of criminal activity. I'm pretty sure that if they had "evidence of criminal activity in Trump Tower", as you contend - we certainly would have heard about that by now.
