Apparently, before and after the election, President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort was being wiretapped by the U.S. government. This means when he talked to Trump, the Obama Admin was listening. When he talked about campaign strategy, the Obama Admin was listening.
According to reports from CNN, investigators were looking into Manafort and his alleged connection to Russia. And after all of this time, where are the charges? What has the FBI found? Nothing.
Also note that Comey at one point said he had “no information” to back Trump’s claim that Obama was wiretapping him. Complete crap.
According to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, “This is a radically bigger scandal than anything about Russia … Here you have an administration which deliberately was going after political figures, which on the other hand was deliberately defending its own political figures.”
CNN has implied that the Trump camp has yet another “link” to Russia, but the surveillance into Manafort ended last year due to lack of evidence. However, the news outlet, known for its liberal bias, reported the surveillance on Manafort was extended into this year.
“Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive,” writes CNN.
The original surveillance was for an FBI investigation, but the second FISA warrant is related to the Russian probe and was extended into early 2017.
“A secret order authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation that began in 2014. It centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine’s former ruling party, the sources told CNN,” writes CNN. “The surveillance was discontinued at some point last year for lack of evidence, according to one of the sources. The FBI then restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA warrant that extended at least into early this year.”
The New York Times also reported that federal agents received a warrant and searched Manafort’s home in Virginia last July. Manafort has repeatedly denied having a connection to Russian intelligence operatives.
The only thing this CNN report does prove is that the Trump camp was, in fact, being spied on in some manner, even though the Justice Department said there was no evidence that the former administration did wiretap Trump.
James Comey, the former FBI director also said that he “has no information that supports” that surveillance was ordered on Trump during his campaign.
Trump continued to have conversations with Manafort prior to his election and after, which several are saying is suspicious.
“Were they listening to Paul Manafort during the campaign in order to find out what Donald Trump was going to do next in the campaign and help Hillary? Were they listening to Paul Manafort because they thought he had committed a crime? Were they listening to Paul Manafort because they were looking for something with which to tarnish the future president?” said Andrew Napolitano on Fox & Friends. “I think there’s more to be heard.”
Author’s note: Napolitano has a point– was the Clinton camp privy to the conversations between Manafort and Trump? Nonetheless, the Obama administration apparently was spying on Trump in some way.