Comey confirms FBI investigating Russia, Trump ties

[iguanaman]

No. It means that no prosecutor would bother with it.

Because of no chance of conviction. That is the only reason not to prosecute.

 

[Fishking]

So far the details of that investigation are closed shut. They're classified to hell and back.

Just leak it. That's the SOP these days.

 

[cabse5]

This then is a confirmation that the Justice Department under the o bomb was serveilling team Trump.

So Trump is/was correct.

What has also now been established is somebody or somebodies, in an unauthrized manner, leaked, a felony crime, information related a US citizen which, by law, must remained "masked". Flynn is a US citizen whose information was illegally divulged.

Turns out Flynn was an agent of a foreign country, Turkey. He lobbied for Turkey. Maybe the FBI knew about Flynn's previous role as lobbyist of Turkey and this commenced the tapping of Flynn by US Intel?

 

[apdst]

Comey is a POS, for sure, but it's not likely that the FBI is really going to find anything on Trump-Russia connections. Trump may be incompetent enough to leave breadcrumbs, but Putin isn't. If there was direct collusion, I'm guessing that it was a wink-and-nod rather than anything that was spelled out or written on paper.

Or, no one broke any laws, hence, no breadcrumbs.

 

[Cardinal]

Just leak it. That's the SOP these days.

Write to the FBI and ask them to leak it.

 

[Fenton]

There is nothing alleged about Russian interference in the 2016 election. It is a fact. The only thing alleged is collusion by the Trump campaign and the investigation is not over.

So the Obama DOJ DID order the surveillance of Trump and his associates all predicated on a made up bull **** narrative that there was collusion.

Hate to burst your bubble, but had there been ANY evidence whatsover it would have been leaked by now. Right along with the names of Trump associates and Flynn

 

[Unitedwestand13]

Just leak it. That's the SOP these days.

What do you think the FBI are, the trump administration l?

 

[apdst]

Turns out Flynn was an agent of a foreign country, Turkey. He lobbied for Turkey. Maybe the FBI knew about Flynn's previous role as lobbyist of Turkey and this commenced the tapping of Flynn by US Intel?

General Flynn is still an American citizen.

 

[JANFU]

Are you now making an allegation that the FBI is a rogue agency?

Nope- Did the FBI have information and brought it to the AG?
Can you confirm or deny that?
Or did the AG with no evidence order an investigation into the Trump campaign and his advisers/inner circle. Can you confirm or deny that?

 

[iguanaman]

Russian interference in the election consisted of releasing files from John Podesta's computer. Files which Podesta never denied the accuracy of.

That was only one of the actions. The hack of the DNC and coordinated leaks of the material along with Russian trolls disseminating fake news on social media were some of the others.

 

[Athanasius68]

Because of no chance of conviction. That is the only reason not to prosecute.

Not so. Other times, It might not be worth a prosecutors while.
But In a presidential campaign? Are you serious?

 

[jmotivator]

Comey confirms FBI investigating Russia, Trump ties

FBI Chief James Comey said publicly for the first time Monday that his agency is investigating alleged links between Russia and the Trump campaign and whether any crimes may have been committed during last year's election campaign.

"That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts," Comey said in his opening statement to a dramatic hearing before the House Intelligence Committee.​

But I'm sure this is less important than if he found Hillary emailed anyone else on the planet.

That is some strange wording by Comey. I would assume that an investigation into the Russians would involve anyone who had contact with the Russians. Saying that their investigation includes "any links between individuals in the Trump campaign" only means if the links are their they will be investigated. Well, duh, is my response. Are there CURRENT lines of investigation into specific ties between Russians and Trump campaign? Sounds like the answer to that is "no".

I mean, what is the alternative? That the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign without the use of surveillance?

And finally, Comey's statement that wiretaps require a judge to sign off is plainly false. The warrantless wiretapping provision allows surveillance to happen before a judge signs off, the warrant is only required to make the finding admissible in court, but can be done after the fact in FISA court. If the warrant is denied then that means the information can't be used in court but then that only matters if the surveillance was ever really intended to be presented in court...

 

[JANFU]

Wow.....In that WaPo article it states that Comey confirmed the existence of a counter intillegence investigation into Russia's alledged interference that extended to Trump, his associates and his campaign.

Who would have ordered that investigation ? The Obama DOJ, not the FBI or the NSA.


The NYTs article on the 19th of January talked about this very investigaion

The Obama DOJ would be the one to request a FBI investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...83e627dc120_story.html?utm_term=.383d036dbe57

You are implying that the AG did this without evidence. That it was a political attack to undermine the Trump campaign.

 

[cabse5]

General Flynn is still an American citizen.

Quite probably a target of tapping by US Intel, as well, since he previously lobbied for Turkey.

 

[Verax]

Did he even provide a proper citation of the paper?

No, the last thing he wants is anybody to actually track down the sequence of the neurons firing in his brain that produced this nonsense.

 

[iguanaman]

So the Obama DOJ DID order the surveillance of Trump and his associates all predicated on a made up bull **** narrative that there was collusion.

Hate to burst your bubble, but had there been ANY evidence whatsover it would have been leaked by now. Right along with the names of Trump associates and Flynn

Comey testified that the reason for the investigation into the Trump Campaign is classified and that there is NO conclusion about collusion. The bubble just keeps getting bigger...

 

[Verax]

Read the link, unless you dont have the integrity to admit you were wrong.

Comey admitted the existence of a counter intel investigation into Russian collusion that extend to Trump and his asaociates.

Who would have called for that inestigation ? Obama's DOJ

 

[Unitedwestand13]

No, the last thing he wants is anybody to actually track down the sequence of the neurons firing in his brain that produced this nonsense.

No proper citation?

He really needs to read the Chicago manual of style

 

[Cardinal]

Wallace on Comey Testimony: 'A Bad Day for the Trump White House' | Fox News Insider



And Yes- Trump is a tweeting
From Twitter
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/843865267008655360
Is this an Alt Fact???

Comey just responded to that tweet and contradicted it, practically in real time.

 

[Athanasius68]

Nope- Did the FBI have information and brought it to the AG?
Can you confirm or deny that?
Or did the AG with no evidence order an investigation into the Trump campaign and his advisers/inner circle. Can you confirm or deny that?

Neither for both.
This is kind of a unique political situation developing. As Obama was investigating the Trump campaign, it clearly puts paid to all that hysteria over Trump's tweet to bed. But if there is no evidence of anything, then the nature of the Obama Admin initial decision needs to be examined as well.

 

[JANFU]

Comey testified that the reason for the investigation into the Trump Campaign is classified and that there is NO conclusion about collusion. The bubble just keeps getting bigger...

Collusion was a term the Comey refused to use, I cannot recall his answer but his refusal was clear as to why he would not.

 

[CanadaJohn]

...or, we can only repeat what Comey has said.

• The FBI has no evidence to back up Trump's claims about Obama ordering illegal wiretaps.
• The FBI is investigating Trump campaign ties to Russian election interference.
• The investigation is serious.



We don't know, and he probably won't answer that.



Weren't you just criticizing people who draw definite conclusions based on partial information?



We already know it was a phone call, and that Kislyak was the target of the surveillance.



True, but we know it happens because... they get caught at it.

With the FBI, DoJ, House and Senate intelligence committees, and White House all investigating? If Obama ordered illegal wiretaps, we'd know by now. Not to mention that the surveillance would be useless, since illegally obtained evidence can't be used in the courts of law, and just saying "oh the CIA spied on Trump without a warrant" in any court would get a bunch of people arrested.



Hello? We're not the President. We're not influential public figures. We're not even op-ed columnists. The standards are different.

I appreciate your contributions and they don't change my basic points - one, we don't have all the facts and while the FBI may say they didn't do any "wiretapping" you're surely not suggesting that the FBI are the only ones capable of wiretapping, legally or otherwise - two, it is possible that while President Trump accused President Obama of the wiretapping, it's likely that President Obama knew nothing of the details but his administration, which he is responsible for, conducted such wiretapping. And by your own admission above, Flynn was wiretapped while on the phone - do we know that he wasn't in Trump Tower at the time? If he was, wouldn't that constitute, at least tangentially, in wiretapping involving Trump Tower, where Trump's campaign was headquartered, the same campaign that Comey acknowledged the FBI was investigating for potential illegal connections with the Russians?

I'd simply close by saying if you feel you currently have all the answers, why bother with the various investigations?

 

[apdst]

The accusation is that Obama ordered it, and that he did so to work around FISA. That's what's relevant. Anything else that might have happened that's within the bounds of the law wouldn't be scandalous.

Allowing a party's pick to run for President to be surveilled, during the campaign, with no more evidence than they had is quite scandalous.

 

[Visbek]

That is some strange wording by Comey. I would assume that an investigation into the Russians would involve anyone who had contact with the Russians. Saying that their investigation includes "any links between individuals in the Trump campaign" only means if the links are their they will be investigated. Well, duh, is my response. Are there CURRENT lines of investigation into specific ties between Russians and Trump campaign? Sounds like the answer to that is "no".

Then you're not reading it correctly.

Comey confirmed that there is an ongoing investigation into possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russian interference with the elections. No amount of spin or twisting his words changes that.

We don't know when it started, we don't know who they are looking at, we don't know the methods, we don't know how strong the evidence was to start the investigation. But it's on.

I mean, what is the alternative? That the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign without the use of surveillance?

We already know they're doing surveillance on Russian intelligence agents. They don't need to target any American citizens in order to find out what they need to know. Thus, it is entirely plausible that they haven't targeted Trump campaign staffers.

If they needed to see other communications, they could get a warrant for them. E.g. if they want to see Manafort's emails to Trump, to see if he communicated something specific, they can get a warrant. No surveillance is required.

And finally, Comey's statement that wiretaps require a judge to sign off is plainly false. The warrantless wiretapping provision allows surveillance to happen before a judge signs off, the warrant is only required to make the finding admissible in court, but can be done after the fact in FISA court.

Yes, but they have a limited time frame to do so -- 2 weeks tops, iirc.

Plus, Comey explicitly said he had no information to support Trump's Tweeted claims. So unless Comey lied to Congress, or someone in his agency ran surveillance on the Trump campaign without his knowledge and he was unable to find out in the past 2 weeks, then the FBI didn't do it.


Edit: FBI Investigation started in July

 

[JANFU]

Neither for both.
This is kind of a unique political situation developing. As Obama was investigating the Trump campaign, it clearly puts paid to all that hysteria over Trump's tweet to bed. But if there is no evidence of anything, then the nature of the Obama Admin initial decision needs to be examined as well.

It is going to go downhill for quite some time. Now if charges are laid, then it gets really nasty.