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elleng

(130,147 posts)
Fri May 3, 2019, 01:51 PM May 2019

The Truth About 'Spying' on the Trump Campaign

'The counterintelligence methods used by the F.B.I. are common — and were a legitimate response to reports of Russian interference.

By Liam Brennan
Mr. Brennan is a former federal prosecutor and head of the Public Corruption Task Force in Connecticut.

President Trump has repeatedly said that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was “a coup.” Setting in motion the so-called coup, for the president and his supporters, rogue “spying” by the F.B.I. on the campaign formed the heart of a nefarious conspiracy by individuals in the agency to take down Mr. Trump.

New details from reporting on the counterintelligence inquiry in summer 2016 lays out how a government investigator posing as a research assistant met with George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, to better understand any potential Trump campaign “links to Russia.” Brad Pascale, the 2020 campaign manager for the president, said it’s further proof that the “real scandal was the Obama administration using the Justice Department to spy on a political adversary’s campaign.”

Talk of a “coup” has also been a staple of Fox News commentary: the “the biggest scandal of our time,” Maria Bartiromo said, “the coup that failed.”

Attorney General William Barr said that spying on any political campaign was a “big deal.” On Wednesday, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri coaxed the attorney general to go even further, persuading him to agree that the surveillance of the Trump campaign was “unprecedented.”

The president’s spying complaint focuses on two investigative techniques — the contact undercover investigators made with the Trump campaign and the use of electronic surveillance on certain Trump campaign officials.

But the fact is, while these tactics may never have been used in the investigation of a presidential candidate before, they are hardly unusual. Indeed, they are common procedures when undertaking any covert public corruption investigation.

Undercover investigators usually take one of two possible forms — a confidential human source or an undercover agent.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/opinion/trump-campaign-spying-fbi-russia-.html

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