Quote (Goomshill @ May 26 2018 06:49pm)
we don't know the motivation yet. All we know is;
- Carter Page had been spied on years earlier, but his wiretap warrant had since expired
- Stefan Halper had previously been involved in multiple instances of the CIA spying on a political campaign
- Halper spied on Carter Page prior to the DNC emails leaking and Russia investigation officially starting
- The Russia investigation officially started after Downer spoke to the FBI about Papadopoulos after the DNC emails leaked
- Halper continued to spy on Papadopoulos and Sam Clovis after the investigation officially started
Nobody can prove either that the spying was counterintelligence against Russia nor can they prove it was politically motivated. And when the FBI held its briefing with congressional republicans and democrats, they apparently didn't reveal anything conclusive one way or the other. Which I can figure because the democrats produced the same kind of statement devoid of specific language or evidence denying the spying charge, and Trump and other republicans continue to make the same accusation.
From outside the black box, I don't think we know anything right now that would justify the intrusion into the political sphere at the time. Even if they had some
general desire to conduct counterintelligence on Page, they had spied on the guy for years and apparently decided he was clean, and now they resumed targeting him at the same time it is incredibly politically toxic- but before they had any legitimate reason to do so.
The fact they chose Stefan Halper of all people makes it stink to high heavens, its like choosing Bill Cosby to watch your drinks at a party.
We need more information one way or another, and the longer the FBI/CIA stays stonewalls and the more democrats push inane deflections like arguing over the connotation of terms- the worse it looks
The interesting things to me about this are Halper's ties to the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations (and by extension the Bushes), his assistance in the political assassination of Jimmy Carter, his connections to Ollie North, and involvement with the right-wing Center for the National Interest.
He's a right-wing hit man. A Republican insider. The time this was happening was around the same time the GOP was paying for the Steele Dossier? Throughout 2015 and 2016, both of these things were happening. And they were a GOP/RNC-led
spy effort into Trump.
Comey, Mueller, Rosenstein... all of these guys at the center of the current investigation are life-long Republicans.
My speculation is that the "Deep" Republican Party i.e. the most powerful insiders of the establishment wing of that party, are behind this whole thing. No way was Obama involved in some sort of politicizing of the right-leaning federal law enforcement agencies and DoD. If anything, they were working on behalf of the interests of the conservative establishment. That would be the "politicization" everyone is looking for in all the wrong places.
This post was edited by inkanddagger on May 26 2018 08:23pm