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Was there really a spy inside the Trump campaign, as the president says?
NBC "News" ^ | May 18, 2018 | by Ken Dilanian

Posted on 05/18/2018 2:13:19 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

President Donald Trump's allegation that the Department of Justice put a "spy" inside his presidential campaign to frame him is being widely dismissed as absurd by current and former law enforcement officials.

But it would not be absurd to think the FBI might have sent informants to speak to suspects in their counterintelligence investigation into whether anyone in the Trump orbit was working with Russia to interfere in the presidential election. In fact, it would have been accepted procedure for the FBI.

"The notion of fully embedded government operatives inside a campaign is hard to imagine under these circumstances," said Frank Figliuzzi, a former head of FBI counterintelligence and an NBC News national security analyst. "What is easier to imagine is the FBI trying to flesh out information on Russian intelligence operatives by making approaches to campaign staffers if the reasonable suspicion was there and the approvals were in place."

The goal, Figliuzzi said, "would be to try to determine the degree to which Russian intelligence services were targeting the campaign, and whether any campaign officials were receptive to that targeting."

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: carterpage; cia; fakenews; fbi; frankfigliuzzi; georgepapadopoulos; kendilanian; samclovis; stefanhalper; trump2016; trumpwiretaps; witchhunt
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1 posted on 05/18/2018 2:13:19 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

No doubt there were all kinds of FBI spies in the Hillary Campaign, given the Uranium deal, the mishandling of classified information, campaign money from Saudi Arabia, among other things...


2 posted on 05/18/2018 2:16:36 PM PDT by fhayek
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To: fhayek

In other words, they did it, but it was ok, and we will tell you the way it should be spun.


3 posted on 05/18/2018 2:18:37 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

They tried to entrap low level people.
They were using numbers of illegal tactics to try and entrap members of the campaign. John Kerry and John Mccain also aided the coup attempt.


4 posted on 05/18/2018 2:22:32 PM PDT by DOGHEAD
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

reprobates attempting dissimulation.


5 posted on 05/18/2018 2:23:31 PM PDT by chief lee runamok
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I thought the WaPoo said it.


6 posted on 05/18/2018 2:25:00 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative ( An Armed Society is a Polite Society. An Unarmed Society is North Korea.)
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To: DOGHEAD

“The notion of fully embedded government operatives inside a campaign is hard to imagine under these circumstances,” said Frank Figliuzzi, a former head of FBI counterintelligence and an NBC News national security analyst. “What is easier to imagine is the FBI trying to flesh out information on Russian intelligence operatives by making approaches to campaign staffers if the reasonable suspicion was there and the approvals were in place.”

This is what Stefan Halper was trying to do with Carter Page when Halper approached Page at a conference in the UK. Halper, in this role, would have been an “informant” rather than an embedded “spy,” a technical distinction that has no practical importance in this context.


7 posted on 05/18/2018 2:30:12 PM PDT by riverdawg
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
From the NYT piece fed to them by the DOJ/FBI: "And at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos, current and former officials said."

They seem to be preparing the ground for the country to learn that there were multiple government spies working the Trump campaign.

My money is on the mysterious Maltese Professor who fed Papadop the rumor that the Russians had Hillary's emails.

And Agent 13 in the Trump campaign trash can.


8 posted on 05/18/2018 2:32:12 PM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Our agencies penetrated a presidential campaign to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Those involved in this should be executed or face life in prison.

This is absolutely the act of a police state.


9 posted on 05/18/2018 2:32:29 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: riverdawg

^ What “Halper was *allegedly* trying to do ...”

I have to be careful to use weasel words here or the Deep State may come knocking at my IP address.


10 posted on 05/18/2018 2:32:44 PM PDT by riverdawg
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Was there “really” a spy?

Well, there is former Director of Intelligence James Clapper, who said Thursday night on CNN that it was “a good thing” there was an FBI informant spying on the Trump campaign.

So yeah, NBC “spews,” it’s kinda looking that way...

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-18/clapper-its-good-thing-fbi-was-spying-trump-campaign

.


11 posted on 05/18/2018 2:33:54 PM PDT by TLI ( ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“Sure Obama spied on Trump’s campaign, but it was for the good of the country”


12 posted on 05/18/2018 2:34:25 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: riverdawg

“The notion of fully embedded government operatives inside a campaign is hard to imagine under these circumstances,” said Frank Figliuzzi, a former head of FBI counterintelligence and an NBC News national security analyst. “What is easier to imagine is the FBI trying to flesh out information on Russian intelligence operatives by making approaches to campaign staffers if the reasonable suspicion was there and the approvals were in place.”

A distinction without a difference


13 posted on 05/18/2018 2:34:47 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
What is easier to imagine is the FBI trying to flesh out information on Russian intelligence operatives by making approaches to campaign staffers if the reasonable suspicion was there

It wasn't

and the approvals were in place."

They weren't.

14 posted on 05/18/2018 2:36:05 PM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: DesertRhino

Here is a notion “Journalists”.

Stop trying to spin the story as “Trumps theory” and simply report the facts that are being brought out about the spying on Trump’s campaign.

How about you report the facts and let your viewers/readers decide instead of trying to falsely represent this as “just Trump’s theory”?

This is a prime example Fake News of WHY you are failing.


15 posted on 05/18/2018 2:36:08 PM PDT by MNJohnnie ("The political class is a bureaucracy designed to perpetuate itself" Rush Limbaugh)
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To: riverdawg
Yep, Halper tried to get hired into the Trump campaign. From a Daily Caller article:
As TheDCNF reported exclusively in March, Halper and George Papadopoulos met several times over a period of a few days in Sept. 2016. Several days earlier, Halper contacted and met with a third Trump campaign official. That official, who has requested anonymity, told TheDCNF that Halper expressed interest in helping the campaign.

Maybe Bannon was the anonymous official who turned him down? Manafort was gone by then.

16 posted on 05/18/2018 2:37:52 PM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

NBC “News” still digging in the poop searching for a ray of sunshit.


17 posted on 05/18/2018 2:42:08 PM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

No comments at this site either. Figures.


18 posted on 05/18/2018 2:45:16 PM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: DesertRhino

Just CYA for being caught red handed.


19 posted on 05/18/2018 2:51:29 PM PDT by Rock N Jones (1935)
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To: DesertRhino

“A distinction without a difference”

Yes, that’s what I wrote, above:

” ..a technical distinction that has no practical importance in this context.”


20 posted on 05/18/2018 2:53:34 PM PDT by riverdawg
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