FBI got secret court order in mid-2016 to monitor Carter Page as part of Russia-Trump probe

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/11/carter-page-russia.html

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“Page then compared his predicament to when the FBI and Justice Department spied on the black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.”

Page’s race card?

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“I have nothing to hide.”

Let’s see if he says that when he’s on trial for treason.

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I feel like the only person Putin hasn’t conspired with. :disappointed:

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“The Federal Bureau of Investigations asked for and received a secret court order last summer to eavesdrop on communications between Carter Page, then a campaign adviser to candidate Donald Trump, as part of the FBI’s investigation into connections between Team Trump and Russia.”

Between Carter Page and…?

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The thing is, the FBI is supposedly “Team Trump”, and yet the fact they were investigating a Trump associate is being played up as a political hit job by Trump and his cronies.

The bottom line here is that either Trump and/or his campaign staff had contact with the Russians or not. There is more than enough compelling evidence that they did. Hell, Trump’s entire empire was rebuilt on Russian money after his various bankruptcies, and this is all verifiable. But because of extreme partisanship there isn’t much the FBI can do-- would the GOP cooperate in removing Trump from office if the FBI produced irrefutable evidence. Probably not.

Does the FBI leak evidence to the press or wikileaks? Would that make any difference?

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Charges can be brought for Trump’s staffers at least, and we still have an independent judiciary. So thankful for that.

We’ll just have to see. It’s my opinion that the FBI and other agencies are continuing a classic investigation model: from the lower ranks upward.

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So I guess I must be missing something.

Because if it was in the public interest for the FBI to comment publicly on an ongoing investigation into a presidential candidate the week before the election, I would have thought ties to Russian interference in the election would have beat a somewhat problematic use of an email server every time.

Help me out here, someone?

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Yeah, you’d think right? I got nothing but an empty tumbler.

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snort

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Page then compared his predicament to when the FBI and Justice Department spied on the black civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s like he has forgotten which party in power ordered that, or which party he works for.

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What, we are still worrying about Senate pages from the Carter administration?

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Dammit, don’t be making me like FISA!!

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The current working theory is that Giuliani and his buddies at the FBI and NYPD were going to leak it – recall that he was on Fox cackling to himself and saying they had a surprise coming.

So Comey sent the letter in an attempt to maintain some control over the situation instead of letting people be lead to the wrong conclusion. In less contentious elections he might have had more success.

Something vaguely similar happened in 2012, when an FBI agent contacted Eric Cantor in late October and claimed that the Department of Justice was covering up a scandal to protect Obama.

That particular scandal was the affair between David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell, and while the investigation had already been completed, it was kept hidden – even from Obama – until after the election.

It was somewhat different this time round since the candidates were involved directly, but it still shouldn’t have been disclosed. In Trump’s case it wasn’t. Jason Chaffetz had other ideas when it came to Hillary.

There appear to be tons of other facets to this whole thing, and I personally believe Comey’s letter will eventually be seen as a fairly inconsequential twist in the story.

Hopefully everyone lives long enough to see it all come to light.

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Is he a tool of Moscow, or just a tool, you decide.

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“Between” usually takes two or more objects, as in “between Alice and Bob.” If there is only one, the preferred term is “inside,” thus:

The Federal Bureau of Investigations asked for and received a secret court order last summer to eavesdrop on communications inside Carter Page…

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Wonder who hooked Donald up with all these Russian tools?

Anyway.

The FBI spew about Clinton’s emails had as much substance – i.e. demonstrated harm – as all of the Trumpets’ Russian connections. So the former gets played in the press big time while the latter’s ignored. And this is justified how?
But wait, it gets worse: By the time the email story was playing, it was known that no harm came from the emails. Can’t say that about the Trumpets. And that Trump paid off the NYC FBI office to pressure Comey on the emails – because he is a man of great principle and demonstrated loved for Donald – is not an acceptable explanation.

Inquiring minds want to know…

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You and me both comrade, I mean friend, I mean buddy, I uh… Look over there!

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog its too dark to read.

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And isn’t it interesting how it always seem to be these lily-white right-wingers who try to play the race card?

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