Connecting The Dots

The surveillance of people working for the Trump Campaign has not exactly been a secret and has actually been reported by several reputable news outlets beginning in November of last year. The most explosive report however may have been the commentary of talk show host mark Levin on Thursday March 2, 2017 when he pulled many of the reports together and say it is perfectly clear that the Obama Administration was spying on Donald Trump and his operation.

I decided to assemble a timeline with as many resources and outlets I could find so you could better understand how it apparently came together.

Summer 2016- The Obama Administration sought a warrant to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign and the request included the candidate himself. A FISA Court Judge rejected the application at the time.

October 2016- Though it has not been confirmed by the US Government so far, several news outlets have reported that a second request was placed with a FISA Court in late October or 2016 and because the scope was narrowed it was approved. Reports appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and online sites like Slate. The best and most detailed account of the requests however came from the BBC in January and that report included a timeline as well. The BBC reported the Justice Department sought FISA warrants at least three separate times; the first in June to intercept communications from two Russian banks allegedly sending donations to the Trump Campaign was rejected, a narrower request in July was also rejected but the BBC says the third attempt with a different Judge was successful in Mid-October.

January 19, 2017- The day before Donald Trump was inaugurated to the be the nations 45th President the New York Times reported the following as part of a larger story targeting then President-Elect Trump: ‘The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.’

The paper concluded it’s article with this paragraph; ‘Representatives of the agencies involved declined to comment. Of the half-dozen current and former officials who confirmed the existence of the investigations, some said they were providing information because they feared the new administration would obstruct their efforts. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases.’

Now strangely however the New York Times ran a front page story in it’s Sunday editions that read; Trump; offering no evidence, says Obama tapped his phones.

Well wouldn’t the New York Times consider it’s own reporting of at least ‘a half-dozen current and former officials’ that confirmed the ‘existence of investigations’ as being evidence? Or is the paper denying the stories on this very subject that have been on the front page previously this year?

It appears that the nations major news publications are all on the same page when it comes to it’s talking points. It further appears that those papers are relying on the ignorance of the general public to keep people from making the obvious connections from their own pages.

It seems the blizzard of BS coming from the left and their friends in the media is rooted in two places. First they all seem focused on whether or not then President Barack Obama could have ‘ordered’ surveillance of Donald Trump. By law he couldn’t do that but he could certainly request such an inquiry. That is not only legal but is a normal course of business. The second place they are all hung up is the term ‘wiretapping’. Frankly lets just use the term spying, ok? Whether it was so called wiretapping really doesn’t matter. It is a typical way for guilty parties to create a blizzard of unrelated items to keep people’s focus off the real issue.

The real issue is whether or not the Obama Administration was involved in spying on the campaign of Donald Trump and then later spying on President Elect Trump in any capacity. It is a yes or no question. The answer will have implications far into the future. If the accusations are accurate then people will go to jail, of that I am certain. If it is not true and President Trump went off without actually having the necessary proof to make that determination it will permanently damage his reputation.

Barack Obama and his Administration had a long history of spying on people they were not authorized to watch and listen to including world leaders like Germany’s Angela Merkel and journalists like James Rosen of Fox and Sheryl Atkinson of CBS.

And then there is the left leaning journalist Cathy Areu who contributes to several different networks and is reporting she has a former high end official of the Obama Administration confirming the spying did in fact happen.

There are simply too many sources, from too many well-placed organizations to dismiss this scandal. Unless The New York Times, BBC, WaPo, Slate and everyone else just got it wrong then there are a whole lot of people from the last administration that have a whole lot to anwer for.

The only question left is will that happen and when?