Was Trump Wiretapped? Just the facts.

[yiostheoy]

Trump got his news from Breitbart.

Dumb stupid inept old man.

Somebody needs to take away his cell phone so he can't tweet anymore.

 

[OldLady]

No spin. No smoke and mirrors. No conjecture. Was he wire tapped? If that can't be answered everything else is Conspiracy Theory material of attempting to create links between unrelated incidents.

At this point, it see - the whole wire-tap claim is unsubstantiated and taking on the guise of a conspiracy theory.

From: Analysis | Donald Trump was a conspiracy-theory candidate. Now he’s on the edge of being a conspiracy-theory president.

The problem here, of course, is that what Levin — and Breitbart — use as evidence for these claims are a series of seemingly unconnected events — from FISA court requests to Trump joking about the Russia email hack, to the release of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails in the fall. The proof that all — or any — of these events are tied together by actual facts as opposed to supposition is not offered.


The idea that Obama’s administration authorized — and was able to get approval for — the wiretapping of the opposition party’s candidate for president is, frankly, far-fetched. And, if someone is making that claim — as Trump is now doing — the burden of proof is on them. If you are going to say there is a grand conspiracy that only you and a handful of others see, you need to offer a step-by-step explanation to the broader public to show why you’re right.


It seems unlikely — given Trump’s past pattern of making baseless claims without proof and then simply insisting he is right and no evidence is needed to prove the point — that any meaningful effort will be made by the Trump administration to connect the dots on this alleged wiretapping conspiracy.​

From the LA Times: Citing no evidence, Trump accuses Obama of tapping his phones during the election

It would be highly unusual for a sitting president to be aware of such [surveillance] requests. By blaming Obama directly, Trump accused the former president of reaching into a federal investigation and signing off on an illegal wiretap, which is a felony.


If federal investigators did monitor Trump’s phones or computers lawfully, a court would have demanded information about potential criminal misconduct or unlawful foreign contacts. Such investigations are closely held and rarely, if ever, shared with the White House.


It is possible Trump has no evidence his phones were tapped and is repeating unfounded reports circulating in conservative media circles. ​

There is a lot of smoke, mirrors and redirection going on here, an attempt I'm sure, to distract from the demands for an investigation into Russian ties with the Trump campaign.

Rather than blowing this up into a full blown conspiracy theory, how about looking at actual evidence?

First question to answer is: is there any hard evidence that Trump Tower was indeed wire tapped? If we can't answer that, the rest is meaningless distraction.

From the Washington Post: Analysis | Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Brietbart article on FISA Requests: June & October. Breitbart based it's article entirely on one source: and article written by Louise Mensch, a former Tory member of the British Parliament and an independent journalist for Heat Street. But no one seems to be able to independently confirm the claim.

The Washington Post for months has sought to confirm this report of a FISA warrant related to the Trump campaign but has been unable to do so. Presumably other U.S. news organizations have tried to do so as well. So one has to take this claim with a huge dose of skepticism. Indeed, the New York Times reported before the election that the FBI “ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts” with the Russian banks.​

According to the WP article:

The White House provided three other sources. Two, a National Review article and a Fox News interview, are simply derivative of the Heat Street article, with no independent confirmation. The third is a New York Times report that intelligence agencies “are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions” as part of a probe of possible links between Russian officials and Trump campaign aides. (We recall the president has previously deemed Times reporting on this matter as “fake news.”)​

The article goes on to conclude:

Only two articles, both with British roots, have reported that a FISA court order was granted in October to examine possible activity between two Russian banks and a computer server in the Trump Tower. This claim has not been confirmed by a U.S. news organizations. Moreover, neither article says President Obama requested the order or that it resulted in the tapping of Trump’s phone lines.​

And lastly:

Moreover, the articles do not support the White House’s claim that these were “potentially politically motivated investigations” led by President Obama. The articles all suggest the FISA requests — if they happened — were done by the intelligence agencies and the FBI.​

So, before we have this huge political uproar, and immediate comparisons to Watergate, lets' get at the facts first. Can anyone answer these questions?

1. Was Trump wiretapped? If yes - what evidence? Were bugs found in Trump Tower?

2. Were FISA requests issued? If yes - can the claims be confirmed by more then one source and for what specifically were they for?

Until those are answered - there's nothing but smoke.

_________

You should be so circumspect in demanding proof that people like Jeff Sessions...and other honorable people like Jeff Session...not from you party or your part of America...but an honorable man nevertheless...you should also be demanding proof tof how he came to be conspiring with the Russians to undermine an American election.

That is what the whole damn Democratic Party is alleging or inferring--lying Bolsheviks like you. Any person, Pelosi, Schumer, Pocahontas...any Democratic leader who has been a party to this witch hunt of claiming Trump people were conspiring with Russians....has been made without any evidence whatsoever.

It is pure unadulterated hypocrisy. You are a hypocrite.

_______

Coyote's no Bolshevik. You didn't even read her OP, apparently. Go to OP. Go directly to OP. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200.

 

[OldLady]

Trump got his news from Breitbart.

Dumb stupid inept old man.

Somebody needs to take away his cell phone so he can't tweet anymore.

Okay, I'm going to say it: Somebody needs to take the White House away from him.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

It Trump and his team job to offer the evidence to show his tower was wiretapped, and until they do it is just nonsense just like the Trump and Russian story...

 

[Ame®icano]

James Clapper answered it all this morning on Meet The Press --

... there was NO wiretapping of Trump Towers at any time by anyone anywhere on Clapper's watch.

Trump pulled this all out of his azz.

James Clapper says that, in the national intelligence activity he oversaw, “there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign.”

Clapper says as intelligence director he would have known about a “FISA court order on something like this. Absolutely, I can deny it.”

Basically, Clapper who lied to Congress under oath, just went full retard denying everything. A bunch of possibilities if we consider the FISA orders do exist:

1. Clapper is legitimately insane, has no idea what he's doing anymore and just blatantly lied to the press about records Trump could declassify and release any time
2. Obama's DoJ ordered this without Clapper's knowledge, which makes it seem even more suspicious
3. Clapper knew but covering his own ass and trying to throw Obama and Lynch under the bus by pointing to option 2

This is getting more and more interesting.

The Latest: House intel panel to probe Trump wiretap claims

First, don't we need to determine IF it took place at all? Have they found any wiretaps?

There is only one way to find out, right?

By the way, did investigation provided any proof of Russians "hacking our elections" as left claim?

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

So far there is no evidence indicating any such thing.

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates

"intercepted communications"

Newspaper articles are not "evidence".

Evidence is hard proof (Like a video recording or a voice recording of a phone conversation), not speculation based upon unsubstantiated opinion.

I suppose you would ask for the evidence, (like a video recording or a voice recording) about Trump's Russian connection. Oh, no evidence needed in that case...

The anti-Trump crowd, including those in the MSM don't care that no concrete evidence has been publicly presented, they just want Trump Out because Hillary didn't get to become the first woman President.

This same anti-Trump crowd were screaming for Trump to be Impeached BEFORE he was EVEN Inaugurated, they are anti-Democracy, they need no evidence of anything, just Trump being President is all they need and babbling 24/7 that Trump is an Agent of Putin and hoping that enough people are so incredibly mindless and stupid that they just accept what the Paid For MSM vipers babble.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

No spin. No smoke and mirrors. No conjecture. Was he wire tapped? If that can't be answered everything else is Conspiracy Theory material of attempting to create links between unrelated incidents.

At this point, it see - the whole wire-tap claim is unsubstantiated and taking on the guise of a conspiracy theory.

From: Analysis | Donald Trump was a conspiracy-theory candidate. Now he’s on the edge of being a conspiracy-theory president.

The problem here, of course, is that what Levin — and Breitbart — use as evidence for these claims are a series of seemingly unconnected events — from FISA court requests to Trump joking about the Russia email hack, to the release of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails in the fall. The proof that all — or any — of these events are tied together by actual facts as opposed to supposition is not offered.


The idea that Obama’s administration authorized — and was able to get approval for — the wiretapping of the opposition party’s candidate for president is, frankly, far-fetched. And, if someone is making that claim — as Trump is now doing — the burden of proof is on them. If you are going to say there is a grand conspiracy that only you and a handful of others see, you need to offer a step-by-step explanation to the broader public to show why you’re right.


It seems unlikely — given Trump’s past pattern of making baseless claims without proof and then simply insisting he is right and no evidence is needed to prove the point — that any meaningful effort will be made by the Trump administration to connect the dots on this alleged wiretapping conspiracy.​

From the LA Times: Citing no evidence, Trump accuses Obama of tapping his phones during the election

It would be highly unusual for a sitting president to be aware of such [surveillance] requests. By blaming Obama directly, Trump accused the former president of reaching into a federal investigation and signing off on an illegal wiretap, which is a felony.


If federal investigators did monitor Trump’s phones or computers lawfully, a court would have demanded information about potential criminal misconduct or unlawful foreign contacts. Such investigations are closely held and rarely, if ever, shared with the White House.


It is possible Trump has no evidence his phones were tapped and is repeating unfounded reports circulating in conservative media circles. ​

There is a lot of smoke, mirrors and redirection going on here, an attempt I'm sure, to distract from the demands for an investigation into Russian ties with the Trump campaign.

Rather than blowing this up into a full blown conspiracy theory, how about looking at actual evidence?

First question to answer is: is there any hard evidence that Trump Tower was indeed wire tapped? If we can't answer that, the rest is meaningless distraction.

From the Washington Post: Analysis | Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Brietbart article on FISA Requests: June & October. Breitbart based it's article entirely on one source: and article written by Louise Mensch, a former Tory member of the British Parliament and an independent journalist for Heat Street. But no one seems to be able to independently confirm the claim.

The Washington Post for months has sought to confirm this report of a FISA warrant related to the Trump campaign but has been unable to do so. Presumably other U.S. news organizations have tried to do so as well. So one has to take this claim with a huge dose of skepticism. Indeed, the New York Times reported before the election that the FBI “ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts” with the Russian banks.​

According to the WP article:

The White House provided three other sources. Two, a National Review article and a Fox News interview, are simply derivative of the Heat Street article, with no independent confirmation. The third is a New York Times report that intelligence agencies “are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions” as part of a probe of possible links between Russian officials and Trump campaign aides. (We recall the president has previously deemed Times reporting on this matter as “fake news.”)​

The article goes on to conclude:

Only two articles, both with British roots, have reported that a FISA court order was granted in October to examine possible activity between two Russian banks and a computer server in the Trump Tower. This claim has not been confirmed by a U.S. news organizations. Moreover, neither article says President Obama requested the order or that it resulted in the tapping of Trump’s phone lines.​

And lastly:

Moreover, the articles do not support the White House’s claim that these were “potentially politically motivated investigations” led by President Obama. The articles all suggest the FISA requests — if they happened — were done by the intelligence agencies and the FBI.​

So, before we have this huge political uproar, and immediate comparisons to Watergate, lets' get at the facts first. Can anyone answer these questions?

1. Was Trump wiretapped? If yes - what evidence? Were bugs found in Trump Tower?

2. Were FISA requests issued? If yes - can the claims be confirmed by more then one source and for what specifically were they for?

Until those are answered - there's nothing but smoke.

Right in your OP it states, "New York Times report that intelligence agencies “are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions” as part of a probe of possible links between Russian officials and Trump campaign aides..." But he wasn't wiretapped?

Please resign as Moderator

 

[ZZ PUPPS]

So far there is no evidence indicating any such thing.

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates

"intercepted communications"

Newspaper articles are not "evidence".

Evidence is hard proof (Like a video recording or a voice recording of a phone conversation), not speculation based upon unsubstantiated opinion.

Newspaper articles can be evidence - when they can be independently confirmed through more then just one source. The more reliable sources attempt to do that.

Such constitutes no evidence. Hearsay statutes apply. That only means that there could be 2 liars.

By that logic there is no possible evidence - even a video can be manipulated.

I think it's reasonable to conclude when something can be independently verified by more then a single source, chances are greater that it is accurate.

That only means that 2 sources are saying the same thing. They could be running a smear campaign, etc. Using your standard of logic, then Benghazi WAS all about a video.

Videos introduced into evidence are often verified by experts for exactly the reason you mention.

 

[yiostheoy]

James Clapper answered it all this morning on Meet The Press --

... there was NO wiretapping of Trump Towers at any time by anyone anywhere on Clapper's watch.

Trump pulled this all out of his azz.

James Clapper says that, in the national intelligence activity he oversaw, “there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign.”

Clapper says as intelligence director he would have known about a “FISA court order on something like this. Absolutely, I can deny it.”

Basically, Clapper who lied to Congress under oath, just went full retard denying everything. A bunch of possibilities if we consider the FISA orders do exist:

1. Clapper is legitimately insane, has no idea what he's doing anymore and just blatantly lied to the press about records Trump could declassify and release any time
2. Obama's DoJ ordered this without Clapper's knowledge, which makes it seem even more suspicious
3. Clapper knew but covering his own ass and trying to throw Obama and Lynch under the bus by pointing to option 2

This is getting more and more interesting.

The Latest: House intel panel to probe Trump wiretap claims

First, don't we need to determine IF it took place at all? Have they found any wiretaps?

There is only one way to find out, right?

By the way, did investigation provided any proof of Russians "hacking our elections" as left claim?

Clapper spoke to that as well and said yes, the Russians clearly hacked the DNC and tried but failed to hack the RNC as well.

 

[whitehall]

Why is the left so quick to dismiss FISA court requests as credible evidence?

 

[Slade3200]

Kind of what I thought but there is so much smoke, everyone is running around screaming and having hysterics. Like to know if there is any actual evidence yet.

Note: claims of a massive Obama administration and news media conspiracy to dethrone Trump do not constitute evidence...

The Trump Administration needs to declassify the evidence and release it, if they have seen the evidence that Obama ordered Trump Tower to be wiretapped, then they need to publicly release the evidence of this.

Again I'll ask... if there is classified evidence then wouldn't trump tweeting about it be a crime? If not then please explain how

No....the President gets to make the decision as to what is or isn't classified.....

Really? Is that true

He is the top guy...it is his call....

Wow, your right, I thought there would some kind of a process but I guess it's at the discretion of POTUS. So next step would be for him to show the wire tap evidence and put this thing to bed. From listening to the WH surrogates this morning trying to spin his tweet into an "if" situation based on a news report, I'm guessing we aren't going to see any evidence. It's all bait to distract the puppets. Very transparent

 

[Ame®icano]

So far there is no evidence indicating any such thing.

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates

"intercepted communications"

Newspaper articles are not "evidence".

Evidence is hard proof (Like a video recording or a voice recording of a phone conversation), not speculation based upon unsubstantiated opinion.

I suppose you would ask for the evidence, (like a video recording or a voice recording) about Trump's Russian connection. Oh, no evidence needed in that case...

Why would I do that? I don't think there is a "connection" between Trump and Russia. However, if there were, I in fact, WOULD demand evidence.

Do we agree that just because something is published it's not necessary a truth?

And I would add, based on their track record, most that comes from MSM cannot be taken for granted and most likely is mislead and often a lie.

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

Trump got his news from Breitbart.

Dumb stupid inept old man.

Somebody needs to take away his cell phone so he can't tweet anymore.

Okay, I'm going to say it: Somebody needs to take the White House away from him.

President Trump needs to be told to stop Tweeting about certain things.

The way to have done this, if they have evidence that The Obama Administration had Trump Tower wiretapped, they should have organised a press conference and at the press conference dropped the bomb in the form of the declassified information showing that The Obama Administration had Trump Tower wiretapped.

The way not to do this was for President Trump to just Tweet this without ordering the declassified information to be publicly released within the next few days.

 

[OldLady]

No spin. No smoke and mirrors. No conjecture. Was he wire tapped? If that can't be answered everything else is Conspiracy Theory material of attempting to create links between unrelated incidents.

At this point, it see - the whole wire-tap claim is unsubstantiated and taking on the guise of a conspiracy theory.

From: Analysis | Donald Trump was a conspiracy-theory candidate. Now he’s on the edge of being a conspiracy-theory president.

The problem here, of course, is that what Levin — and Breitbart — use as evidence for these claims are a series of seemingly unconnected events — from FISA court requests to Trump joking about the Russia email hack, to the release of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails in the fall. The proof that all — or any — of these events are tied together by actual facts as opposed to supposition is not offered.


The idea that Obama’s administration authorized — and was able to get approval for — the wiretapping of the opposition party’s candidate for president is, frankly, far-fetched. And, if someone is making that claim — as Trump is now doing — the burden of proof is on them. If you are going to say there is a grand conspiracy that only you and a handful of others see, you need to offer a step-by-step explanation to the broader public to show why you’re right.


It seems unlikely — given Trump’s past pattern of making baseless claims without proof and then simply insisting he is right and no evidence is needed to prove the point — that any meaningful effort will be made by the Trump administration to connect the dots on this alleged wiretapping conspiracy.​

From the LA Times: Citing no evidence, Trump accuses Obama of tapping his phones during the election

It would be highly unusual for a sitting president to be aware of such [surveillance] requests. By blaming Obama directly, Trump accused the former president of reaching into a federal investigation and signing off on an illegal wiretap, which is a felony.


If federal investigators did monitor Trump’s phones or computers lawfully, a court would have demanded information about potential criminal misconduct or unlawful foreign contacts. Such investigations are closely held and rarely, if ever, shared with the White House.


It is possible Trump has no evidence his phones were tapped and is repeating unfounded reports circulating in conservative media circles. ​

There is a lot of smoke, mirrors and redirection going on here, an attempt I'm sure, to distract from the demands for an investigation into Russian ties with the Trump campaign.

Rather than blowing this up into a full blown conspiracy theory, how about looking at actual evidence?

First question to answer is: is there any hard evidence that Trump Tower was indeed wire tapped? If we can't answer that, the rest is meaningless distraction.

From the Washington Post: Analysis | Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Brietbart article on FISA Requests: June & October. Breitbart based it's article entirely on one source: and article written by Louise Mensch, a former Tory member of the British Parliament and an independent journalist for Heat Street. But no one seems to be able to independently confirm the claim.

The Washington Post for months has sought to confirm this report of a FISA warrant related to the Trump campaign but has been unable to do so. Presumably other U.S. news organizations have tried to do so as well. So one has to take this claim with a huge dose of skepticism. Indeed, the New York Times reported before the election that the FBI “ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts” with the Russian banks.​

According to the WP article:

The White House provided three other sources. Two, a National Review article and a Fox News interview, are simply derivative of the Heat Street article, with no independent confirmation. The third is a New York Times report that intelligence agencies “are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions” as part of a probe of possible links between Russian officials and Trump campaign aides. (We recall the president has previously deemed Times reporting on this matter as “fake news.”)​

The article goes on to conclude:

Only two articles, both with British roots, have reported that a FISA court order was granted in October to examine possible activity between two Russian banks and a computer server in the Trump Tower. This claim has not been confirmed by a U.S. news organizations. Moreover, neither article says President Obama requested the order or that it resulted in the tapping of Trump’s phone lines.​

And lastly:

Moreover, the articles do not support the White House’s claim that these were “potentially politically motivated investigations” led by President Obama. The articles all suggest the FISA requests — if they happened — were done by the intelligence agencies and the FBI.​

So, before we have this huge political uproar, and immediate comparisons to Watergate, lets' get at the facts first. Can anyone answer these questions?

1. Was Trump wiretapped? If yes - what evidence? Were bugs found in Trump Tower?

2. Were FISA requests issued? If yes - can the claims be confirmed by more then one source and for what specifically were they for?

Until those are answered - there's nothing but smoke.

The same could be said for all these people saying that Trump is an Agent of Putin, they have produced no evidence, yet the MSM has no problem accusing Trump of this 24/7.

How about actual concrete evidence is publicly presented to show that Trump is an Agent of Putin?

Now that the table is turned on Obama and The Obama Administration the media whores are outraged at the suggestion that Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped during an Election.

Not one of these media whores has written or stated that if Obama did have Trump Tower wiretapped that would be a very disturbing development and would be on par with the wiretapping of The Watergate Building.

The problem is the cheerleading and hysterically anti-Trump media think that Obama can do no wrong, and if it is shown that Obama did have Trump Tower wiretapped, they will spin it so they can attempt to help him all they can.

Could Obama who ordered American citizens to be Droned also order the illegal wiretapping for political purposes of Trump Tower? Yes many think he could.

It is amazing that when the accusations against Trump about the Russians are talked about in the democrat controlled press...they never say there is no evidence supporting the accusation...

But in every freaking story about Trump saying he was wire tapped...the first thing they lead with is that Trump has put out no evidence...

The double standard is mind blowing.......

I have heard over and over that there has been absolutely no evidence of any wrong doing by Trump's campaign staff or administration so far. I hear that all the time on CNN, in the paper, etc. I agree there's a lot of Dems blowing smoke right now, but if you haven't heard the truth, it's because your ears are mysteriously not hearing what is actually being said.

That's why we need a bipartisan investigation, and then either there will be something to merit further action or we can put it to rest.

Except for the conspiracy theorists of course.

Senator Rubio was interviewed this a.m. and said the Senate Intelligence Committee IS bipartisan and IS committed to doing an investigation that takes them wherever it goes, Repubs and Dems alike. Rubio says he will be the first to call for an Independent Prosecutor if the committee in anyway veers from it's objective to investigate in a nonpartisan way. I believe him, too.
What kind of bipartisan investigation do you mean?

 

[Slade3200]

So far there is no evidence indicating any such thing.

Kind of what I thought but there is so much smoke, everyone is running around screaming and having hysterics. Like to know if there is any actual evidence yet.

Note: claims of a massive Obama administration and news media conspiracy to dethrone Trump do not constitute evidence...

The Trump Administration needs to declassify the evidence and release it, if they have seen the evidence that Obama ordered Trump Tower to be wiretapped, then they need to publicly release the evidence of this.

Again I'll ask... if there is classified evidence then wouldn't trump tweeting about it be a crime? If not then please explain how

What evidence did he tweet? He made an unsubstantiated accusation. That is not a violation of classified information.

The wire taps would be classified and he tweeted about them

 

[Coyote]

No spin. No smoke and mirrors. No conjecture. Was he wire tapped? If that can't be answered everything else is Conspiracy Theory material of attempting to create links between unrelated incidents.

At this point, it see - the whole wire-tap claim is unsubstantiated and taking on the guise of a conspiracy theory.

From: Analysis | Donald Trump was a conspiracy-theory candidate. Now he’s on the edge of being a conspiracy-theory president.

The problem here, of course, is that what Levin — and Breitbart — use as evidence for these claims are a series of seemingly unconnected events — from FISA court requests to Trump joking about the Russia email hack, to the release of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails in the fall. The proof that all — or any — of these events are tied together by actual facts as opposed to supposition is not offered.


The idea that Obama’s administration authorized — and was able to get approval for — the wiretapping of the opposition party’s candidate for president is, frankly, far-fetched. And, if someone is making that claim — as Trump is now doing — the burden of proof is on them. If you are going to say there is a grand conspiracy that only you and a handful of others see, you need to offer a step-by-step explanation to the broader public to show why you’re right.


It seems unlikely — given Trump’s past pattern of making baseless claims without proof and then simply insisting he is right and no evidence is needed to prove the point — that any meaningful effort will be made by the Trump administration to connect the dots on this alleged wiretapping conspiracy.​

From the LA Times: Citing no evidence, Trump accuses Obama of tapping his phones during the election

It would be highly unusual for a sitting president to be aware of such [surveillance] requests. By blaming Obama directly, Trump accused the former president of reaching into a federal investigation and signing off on an illegal wiretap, which is a felony.


If federal investigators did monitor Trump’s phones or computers lawfully, a court would have demanded information about potential criminal misconduct or unlawful foreign contacts. Such investigations are closely held and rarely, if ever, shared with the White House.


It is possible Trump has no evidence his phones were tapped and is repeating unfounded reports circulating in conservative media circles. ​

There is a lot of smoke, mirrors and redirection going on here, an attempt I'm sure, to distract from the demands for an investigation into Russian ties with the Trump campaign.

Rather than blowing this up into a full blown conspiracy theory, how about looking at actual evidence?

First question to answer is: is there any hard evidence that Trump Tower was indeed wire tapped? If we can't answer that, the rest is meaningless distraction.

From the Washington Post: Analysis | Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports

Brietbart article on FISA Requests: June & October. Breitbart based it's article entirely on one source: and article written by Louise Mensch, a former Tory member of the British Parliament and an independent journalist for Heat Street. But no one seems to be able to independently confirm the claim.

The Washington Post for months has sought to confirm this report of a FISA warrant related to the Trump campaign but has been unable to do so. Presumably other U.S. news organizations have tried to do so as well. So one has to take this claim with a huge dose of skepticism. Indeed, the New York Times reported before the election that the FBI “ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts” with the Russian banks.​

According to the WP article:

The White House provided three other sources. Two, a National Review article and a Fox News interview, are simply derivative of the Heat Street article, with no independent confirmation. The third is a New York Times report that intelligence agencies “are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions” as part of a probe of possible links between Russian officials and Trump campaign aides. (We recall the president has previously deemed Times reporting on this matter as “fake news.”)​

The article goes on to conclude:

Only two articles, both with British roots, have reported that a FISA court order was granted in October to examine possible activity between two Russian banks and a computer server in the Trump Tower. This claim has not been confirmed by a U.S. news organizations. Moreover, neither article says President Obama requested the order or that it resulted in the tapping of Trump’s phone lines.​

And lastly:

Moreover, the articles do not support the White House’s claim that these were “potentially politically motivated investigations” led by President Obama. The articles all suggest the FISA requests — if they happened — were done by the intelligence agencies and the FBI.​

So, before we have this huge political uproar, and immediate comparisons to Watergate, lets' get at the facts first. Can anyone answer these questions?

1. Was Trump wiretapped? If yes - what evidence? Were bugs found in Trump Tower?

2. Were FISA requests issued? If yes - can the claims be confirmed by more then one source and for what specifically were they for?

Until those are answered - there's nothing but smoke.

The same could be said for all these people saying that Trump is an Agent of Putin, they have produced no evidence, yet the MSM has no problem accusing Trump of this 24/7.

How about actual concrete evidence is publicly presented to show that Trump is an Agent of Putin?

Now that the table is turned on Obama and The Obama Administration the media whores are outraged at the suggestion that Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped during an Election.

Not one of these media whores has written or stated that if Obama did have Trump Tower wiretapped that would be a very disturbing development and would be on par with the wiretapping of The Watergate Building.

The problem is the cheerleading and hysterically anti-Trump media think that Obama can do no wrong, and if it is shown that Obama did have Trump Tower wiretapped, they will spin it so they can attempt to help him all they can.

Could Obama who ordered American citizens to be Droned also order the illegal wiretapping for political purposes of Trump Tower? Yes many think he could.

It is amazing that when the accusations against Trump about the Russians are talked about in the democrat controlled press...they never say there is no evidence supporting the accusation...

But in every freaking story about Trump saying he was wire tapped...the first thing they lead with is that Trump has put out no evidence...

The double standard is mind blowing.......

I have heard over and over that there has been absolutely no evidence of any wrong doing by Trump's campaign staff or administration so far. I hear that all the time on CNN, in the paper, etc. I agree there's a lot of Dems blowing smoke right now, but if you haven't heard the truth, it's because your ears are mysteriously not hearing what is actually being said.

That's why we need a bipartisan investigation, and then either there will be something to merit further action or we can put it to rest.

Except for the conspiracy theorists of course.

Senator Rubio was interviewed this a.m. and said the Senate Intelligence Committee IS bipartisan and IS committed to doing an investigation that takes them wherever it goes, Repubs and Dems alike. Rubio says he will be the first to call for an Independent Prosecutor if the committee in anyway veers from it's objective to investigate in a nonpartisan way. I believe him, too.
What kind of bipartisan investigation do you mean?

Exactly that.

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

Why is the left so quick to dismiss FISA court requests as credible evidence?

Because it affects Obama and Obama is their God and as such he can never do any wrong.

 

[Coyote]

Trump got his news from Breitbart.

Dumb stupid inept old man.

Somebody needs to take away his cell phone so he can't tweet anymore.

Okay, I'm going to say it: Somebody needs to take the White House away from him.

President Trump needs to be told to stop Tweeting about certain things.

The way to have done this, if they have evidence that The Obama Administration had Trump Tower wiretapped, they should have organised a press conference and at the press conference dropped the bomb in the form of the declassified information showing that The Obama Administration had Trump Tower wiretapped.

The way not to do this was for President Trump to just Tweet this without ordering the declassified information to be publicly released within the next few days.

Actually, the way it should have been done is - if there was merit to it, get it investigated by the appropriate agencies first. You don't handle these things through the media other than a brief statement by the investigating officials.

 

[Ame®icano]

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates

"intercepted communications"

Newspaper articles are not "evidence".

Evidence is hard proof (Like a video recording or a voice recording of a phone conversation), not speculation based upon unsubstantiated opinion.

Newspaper articles can be evidence - when they can be independently confirmed through more then just one source. The more reliable sources attempt to do that.

Such constitutes no evidence. Hearsay statutes apply. That only means that there could be 2 liars.

By that logic there is no possible evidence - even a video can be manipulated.

I think it's reasonable to conclude when something can be independently verified by more then a single source, chances are greater that it is accurate.

That only means that 2 sources are saying the same thing. They could be running a smear campaign, etc. Using your standard of logic, then Benghazi WAS all about a video.

Videos introduced into evidence are often verified by experts for exactly the reason you mention.

They're not the different sources. Check HERE

 

[Slade3200]

The same could be said for all these people saying that Trump is an Agent of Putin, they have produced no evidence, yet the MSM has no problem accusing Trump of this 24/7.

How about actual concrete evidence is publicly presented to show that Trump is an Agent of Putin?

Now that the table is turned on Obama and The Obama Administration the media whores are outraged at the suggestion that Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped during an Election.

Not one of these media whores has written or stated that if Obama did have Trump Tower wiretapped that would be a very disturbing development and would be on par with the wiretapping of The Watergate Building.

The problem is the cheerleading and hysterically anti-Trump media think that Obama can do no wrong, and if it is shown that Obama did have Trump Tower wiretapped, they will spin it so they can attempt to help him all they can.

Could Obama who ordered American citizens to be Droned also order the illegal wiretapping for political purposes of Trump Tower? Yes many think he could.

It is amazing that when the accusations against Trump about the Russians are talked about in the democrat controlled press...they never say there is no evidence supporting the accusation...

But in every freaking story about Trump saying he was wire tapped...the first thing they lead with is that Trump has put out no evidence...

The double standard is mind blowing.......

Flynn got fired, that's enough hard evidence to justify the questions. How can you deny that?

Yeah.....I don't have to deny it...he did nothing wrong...there was nothing he did that was illegal......or in question. There is, however, the fact that his name was released which is a violation of his rights under our laws........

If he didn't do anything wrong then why did Trump fire him?

Issues with how he reported to Pence....but he didn't break the law.

Haha, issues with how he reported to pence? Do you hear yourself? He lied, plain and simple. It's ok puppet you can speak the truth, Trumps not gonna fire you too