Posted on 03/21/2017 1:00:40 PM PDT by drewh
The Feds were monitoring Russian activity at Trump Tower — but it was years before President Trump ever ran for office.
The FBI had a court-sanctioned warrant from 2011 to 2013 to monitor a Russian crime organization working out of a unit three floors below President Trump’s penthouse, according to an ABC News report.
Listening in on the Russians’ happenings resulted in more than 30 people being indicted in April 2013, with federal agents raiding the Trump Tower apartment. But the mastermind, Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov, got away and has since fled the United States justice system.
Emergence of the Russian gambling wiretap comes as President Trump claims his own residence at Trump Tower was bugged at the direction of President Obama, but the intelligence community says there's no evidence to back that up.
Laptop with Trump Tower floor plans stolen from Secret Service
NYC PAPERS OUT. Social media use restricted to low res file max 184 x 128 pixels and 72 dpi Federal agents monitored a unit at Trump Tower for two years, resulting in an April 2013 raid. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)
Months after the 2013 raid, ABC News notes, Tokhtakhunov was in the VIP section of Miss Universe Moscow not far from President Trump. The President had previously sold the rights to the Russian incarnation of the show to a billionaire developer based in the country.
“He is a major player,” Mike Gaeta, lead agent on the FBI investigation, said of Tokhtakhunov in 2014. “He is prominent, he has extremely good connections in the business world as well as the criminal world, overseas, in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, other countries.”
Tokhtakhunov is accused of having run a major gambling ring — headquartered out of unit 63A of Trump Tower — that saw $50 million of illegal money come into the U.S., according to ABC News.
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 28: U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress on February 28, 2017 in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Trump's first address to Congress focused on national security, tax and regulatory reform, the economy, and healthcare. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
43 photos view gallery Donald Trump in the White House
He’s no stranger to the law’s radar, either. Tokhtakhunov was previously indicted for trying to fix figure-skating competitions at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Britain says White House apologized for Trump wiretap claims
The President wasn’t named in the investigation, but his flagship skyscraper was under heavy surveillance.
Just a few floors below Trump’s home, ABC reported, prosecutors said there was an “international money laundering, sports gambling and extortion ring.”
Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, seen here in 2000 picture, evaded the raid on Trump Tower. Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, seen here in 2000 picture, evaded the raid on Trump Tower. (STR/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Vadim Trincher, a Russian businessman and power player, lived in the 63rd-floor unit, and was sentenced to five years in jail for his illegal happenings at the tower.
“He would have people come in and meet with them,” said ABC News consultant and ex-FBI agent Rich Frankel. “He would use the phones ... His base of operations was in the Trump Tower.”
Trump’s claim earlier this month that President Obama tapped his own residence in the months before the 2016 elections has proved to not be as successful.
National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and FBI Director James Comey both testified before the House Intelligence Committee that there was no evidence the President’s home was secretly monitored in the lead up to last year’s election.
Last week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer cited a Fox News commentator's claim that British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters carried out the surveillance of Trump's home before the election, causing Great Britain to take offense. Despite reports in British media that the White House apologized for the statment, officials dismissed that notion, saying they merely spoke to British authorities about it.
How convenient.
So Comey lied yesterday, point blank lied...to the panel, to the American People...
He KNEW there was an investigation going on, and so did everyone in government and they lied...
They did this knowing that it might hurt Candidate Trump’s chances of becoming POTUS...and they lied...
And you think you have a great government, from the government offices, to the House, Senate, White House (excluded now is Oval Office and V.P. Office) they lied...
Bami, Hillary, everyone BUT the American People knew...
Comments? Don’t you just feel like you’ve been raped???
Comey should have been fired a LONG time ago.
A LONG,LONG, time ago...
“Trump’s claim earlier this month that President Obama tapped his own residence in the months before the 2016 elections has proved to not be as successful.”
That is not what Trump said.
How did Comey lie? I don’t see that in what you posted.
I have been looking into what could be so interesting in Trump Tower...
I knew at one time Paul Manafort lived there, has a business and runs it out of his place, was in the Ukraine, ok maybe that was what they were listening to...
Then I thought maybe it was Roger Stone, he does know a lot about a lot of people and he is well known in the mob area, and I thought no, that can’t be it...
Then I thought Clintons, and that is what I have connected a lot of dots to concerning all this stuff, the mediacrats what been connected with the Clintons for years doing their dirty work, hiding things, misrepresenting their stuff, so that is where I left it, but this???
What a bunch of trash!!!
Of course there is no evidence..any decent spying operation would leave no direct evidence. That is the point!
Can’t use ‘no evidence’ as evidence.
ALL claims demand evidence or should be ridiculed.
So basically, DJT may be involved in a criminal conspiracy with any tenant he ever rented to.
And if he, or anyone who works for him, ever talked to a Russian about anything, DJT may have colluded with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election from Hillary, the obviously rightful victor.
For example the Daily News reports, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and FBI Director James Comey both testified before the House Intelligence Committee that there was no evidence the President’s home was secretly monitored in the lead up to last year’s election.
Not true. Comey said about the Trump wire tap tweets, “I have no information that supports those tweets,” ...... He went on to explain that he had surveyed his entire department and was told that the answer was “the same for the Department of Justice and all its components: The department has no information that supports those tweets.
Comey did not say there is no evidence, only that he has nothing to support the tweets and those he has talked to within the DOJ do not have information that support the tweets. It may be found in some other agency that was shared with the White House and leaked to the press, but Comey.
What Trump tweeted was:
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
Is it legal for a sitting President to be “wire tapping” a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
Since Comey is parsing words would he by lying if he had information that the FBI and not Obama personally had tapped electronic communications with Trump Tower, including the Presidential candidates communications? No, he would have been misleading, but testifying in a technically truthful way.
What if he knew that the NSA had wire tapped Trump but none of the “hard factual information” of the wire tap that would prove that Trump was wire tapped resided within the Justice Department?
These career “political don't blame me” types are very good at saying enough to mislead, seem helpful, but not outright perjure themselves.
The shame is that the public can't follow the detailed parsing of words and yet this is something the Clinton's perfected to an art form.
Suspect got away, just compounding the fact that the FBI is incompetent.
Just because they say the investigation ended in 2013, how sure are we that the warrant had expired by 2016?
PING!!!
Article and comments, esp #12
Thanks, drewh
Sean Spicer cited a Fox News commentator’s claim that British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters carried out the surveillance of Trump’s home before the election, causing Great Britain to take offense. Despite reports in British media that the White House apologized for the staetment, officials dismissed that notion, saying they merely spoke to British authorities about it.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This only deepens the controversy.
Britain unofficially did Obama’s bidding, a few favors were called in, there is no official record, but Trump was surveiled by British Intel, GCHQ. You can see the markers here:
************************************
Marker #1
23 January 2017*
Robert Hannigan, who has held the post of GCHQ director since 2014, said he was stepping down for family reasons.
He said he was proud of his work but that 20 years in public service roles had “demanded a great deal of my ever patient and understanding family”.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Mr Hannigan had “led the renewal” of national security capabilities to fight terrorism during his time at GCHQ.
Mr Hannigan was director general of defence and intelligence at the Foreign Office before taking over the leadership of GCHQ in 2014.
In a letter to the foreign secretary, he said he was proud of the work he had done and “how many lives have been saved in this country and overseas by the work of GCHQ” but added “now is the right time for a change in direction”.
Mr Hannigan said it was “right” that a new director be in place ready for GCHQ’s 100th anniversary in 2019, but he would stay in the post until a replacement was appointed.
‘Cyber defences’
Sources have told BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera that the resignation was not the result of any concerns over policy in the UK or in the US.
Mr Johnson thanked him for his service, saying he had “set the groundwork for a major transformation of our cyber defences” during his tenure.
There will now be an internal competition within government to identify candidates for the job. Recommendations will then be sent to Mr Johnson and Prime Minister Theresa May for a final decision.
Mr Hannigan was born in Gloucestershire and is a married father-of-two.
********************************************
Marker #2
While the House Intelligence Committee hearings are now underway in the House,our leaker in Chief, Obama is all alone for a month without family or wookie, on Bounty Island near Bora Bora, a private island, where it would be impossible for him to be subpoenaed by the House Committee on Intelligence.
Duly noted.
*******************************
bkmk
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.