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The Terrible Twitters 03-07-17
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POSTED ON MARCH 6, 2017 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN DONALD TRUMP, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SCANDALS
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON FISAGATE [WITH COMMENT BY PAUL]
Earlier this morning, Scott linked to an article by Steve Hayes in the Weekly Standard that does a good job of summing up what we know and don’t know about the claim President Trump made via Twitter on Saturday morning, to the effect that the Obama administration wiretapped his offices in Trump Tower. Steve’s view is that we are in a state of utter uncertainty as to whether FISA applications relating to Trump or his associates were ever made.
Meanwhile, some are hailing Mark Levin’s “proof” that the Obama administration did indeed target Trump’s campaign for surveillance. But Levin appears to be relying on the same press reports that we have already discussed here.
I find one statement in Steve Hayes’s piece hard to believe:
White House sources acknowledge that Trump had no idea whether the claims he was making were true when he made them.
It’s possible that is true. If so, Trump was grotesquely irresponsible, and the consequences could be devastating to his presidency.
But there is another possibility. Trump has had his people (some of them, anyway) in place at the Department of Justice for a month now. Attorney General Sessions, or someone working for him, certainly could find out what FISA warrants have been applied for and obtained. Sessions was with Trump over the weekend.
Trump tweeted that he had “Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found.” Maybe on Friday evening, Sessions (or someone) confirmed to the president that press reports about the Obama administration seeking and ultimately obtaining a FISA warrant were true. Then Trump stewed about itconsidered his strategic options overnight, and let loose his tweets early on Saturday morning.
Is that what happened? I don’t know. But, given that he now has people in place in the Justice Department who can find out what FISA warrants have been applied for and issued, it would have been incredibly stupid to make the accusation without first verifying that it is true. And, unless Trump was flat-out lying, his “just found out” suggests that this is what occurred. Read the rest here