Free Republic

Washington (CNN)US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe. The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump. Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence...

If this is locked down, does the ensuing crapstorm roll uphill? And if so, how far? Assuming Nunes has determined that those many, many requests, all of which supplied only “boilerplate” as an explanation for why the identity of the people was required, came from Power, then somebody at NSA/FBI approved them all. Maybe they’re not in trouble because she was well placed with the White House, but still… The last point to make here is that Power’s attorney already flatly stated that Power “never leaked” any of that information to the press. Of course everyone says that these days,...

The Russian attorney whose campaign-season meeting with Donald Trump Jr. has caused headaches for the White House was cleared to enter the U.S. at the time of the visit by the Obama State Department, officials confirmed to Fox News late Thursday. A brief timeline released overnight helps to resolve questions over how Natalia Veselnitskaya even had legal permission to be in the U.S. And it also shows multiple Obama agencies were involved on multiple occasions in granting access to the lawyer after she was initially denied a visa. According to the timeline released by the Department of Homeland Security, the...

Evidence shows that John Roberts, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, was “hacked” by a Deep State surveillance operation overseen by Obama administration CIA director John Brennan and Obama director of national intelligence James Clapper. Roberts, the Bush appointee who made the decisive vote to uphold the constitutionality of Obamacare before the 2012 election, was allegedly the victim of the same Deep State surveillance program that spied on President Donald Trump. Tapes released by Federal Judge G. Murray Snow — preserved on a Whistleblower Soundcloud page — show real estate billionaire Timothy Blixseth explaining Brennan and Clapper’s surveillance...

Saboteurs in the U.S. intelligence community posing as patriots have been working hard to drive President Donald Trump from the White House. Former National Security Agency intelligence analyst and former War College professor John R. Schindler bragged on Twitter last week about the spy-led plot his friends are conducting against the president. “Now we go nuclear,” he tweeted. “IC [intelligence community] war [is] going to new levels. Just got an [email from] senior IC friend, it began: ‘He will die in jail.'” “US intelligence is not the problem here,” Schindler added. “The President’s collusion with Russian intelligence is. Many details,...

Carter Page sent a request to Deputy AG Rosenstein Monday seeking the release of info used to allegedly obtain a FISA warrant to monitor his communications. Page sent the inquiry to Rosenstein via email and shared that email with Breitbart News. The FISA information release request comes just before AG Jeff Sessions is to appear in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday. Page’s email via Breitbart News: Whereas this will be an open hearing (with Sessions), I would kindly request the immediate prior release of my illegitimate 2016 FISA warrants which were allegedly concocted by the...

Or someone even higher up? The quote is from the film National Treasure. It is a terrific film about the theft of the Declaration of Independence from the National Archives. The film is chock full of real American history mixed with actual patriotism, the bête noire of the left. But we Americans find ourselves at a tipping point. It appears that the Obama administration, with the willing submission of our intelligence agencies, surveilled Donald Trump, his campaign and his transition team beginning as early as October 2015 and escalated the activity after he won the election. Why? No one thought...

The Russian warning to the United States government in 2011 about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, was based on two intercepted telephone calls discussing jihad, both involving his mother, a law enforcement official said on Saturday. The Russian authorities informed the F.B.I. in March 2011 that Mr. Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen who had lived in the United States for about a decade, had changed drastically, had adopted extremist views and planned to travel to Russia to meet with underground groups. The F.B.I. sent agents to interview Mr. Tsarnaev and his...

The recently departed Bill O'Reilly would often call his TV show the "no spin zone."... Even the biggest crooks in the world always have a narrative going on in their heads to excuse what they are doing as being perfectly OK. As an extreme example of this phenomenon, consider the lead headline in yesterday's New York Times: "Russia-Trump Tie Was Big Concern Of Ex-C.I.A. Chief.".... Nice try. Here's my alternative headline for the article: "Ex C.I.A. Chief Brennan Offers Preposterous 'Russia' Cover Story To Excuse Blatantly Illegal Government Spying On Trump Campaign." My alternative headline is just the other "spin."...

..."What this Reuters and Washington Post story actually does is prove the Obama Administration was spying on the Trump campaign. That’s the explosive angle to the story. It’s not the nothingburger report that Jared or anyone else was trying to set up communication lines that matters – the real story is Reuters and the Washington Post proving that Obama was spying on conversations about setting up those lines of communication.

For instance, a ruling declassified this month by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) chronicles nearly 10 pages listing hundreds of violations of the FBI’s privacy-protecting minimization rules that occurred on Comey’s watch. The behavior the FBI admitted to a FISA judge just last month ranged from illegally sharing raw intelligence with unauthorized third parties to accessing intercepted attorney-client privileged communications without proper oversight the bureau promised was in place years ago.

Holy congressional probe, Robin! Former FBI chief Robert Mueller is the hero America needs to investigate Russia’s meddling into the 2016 presidential election, his former second-in-charge said Sunday. “A line in New York would be Batman’s back to save Gotham, but I think in this case, Batman is back to save America,” Timothy Murphy told John Catsimatidis during an interview on “The Cats Roundtable.” Murphy served as the agency’s deputy director under Mueller, who was named as a special counsel in the investigation this week, following James Comey’s ouster as FBI director. Murphy insisted any investigation headed by his old...

The blogger behind incredible claims that the FBI had a warrant to examine the Trump campaign's communications is facing serious questions about her legitimacy after making a series of conspiracy-theory claims about elaborate Russian plots that appear to have little basis in reality. Louise Mensch is a British politician turned New York blogger who reported on the website Heat Street that the FBI was granted a FISA court warrant to access communications made by Trump's team during the presidential campaign.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) earlier this week revealed that another senator had told him that he was surveilled by the Obama administration. “I know one other senator who’s already confided to me that he was surveilled by the Obama administration, including his phone calls,” he told Fox News on Wednesday. “So when this all comes out, if there are political figures from the opposition party, it’s a story bigger than any of the allegations with regard to Russian collusion,” he said. Earlier this month, Paul announced that sources have told him that he has been surveilled by the Obama administration,...

Two high-profile officials who served under the Obama administration told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on May 8 that they had reviewed classified information in which Donald Trump, his associates, or members of Congress had been unmasked. When an intelligence agency gives transcripts of intercepted communications, it often seals the names of U.S. citizens. When a recipient of an intelligence report requests to have the name revealed, it is referred to as “unmasking.” The testimonies by Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general, and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence (DNI), raised the question of whether communications of the...

Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was "feeble," "barely articulate" and "stressed" moments after a hospital room confrontation in March 2004 with Alberto R. Gonzales, who wanted Ashcroft to approve a warrantless wiretapping program over Justice Department objections, according to notes from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that were released yesterday. One of Mueller's entries in five pages of a daily log pertaining to the dispute also indicated that Ashcroft's deputy was so concerned about undue pressure by Gonzales and other White House aides for the attorney general to back the wiretapping program that the deputy asked Mueller to bar...

FBI Director James Comey is being thrust into the spotlight as the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s personal email server intensifies. The FBI is investigating the security of Clinton’s email setup, including if classified information was mishandled. The probe is putting the nation’s top law enforcement agency at the center of a political battle leading into the 2016 election. Comey has long shown an independent streak that's gained him wide bipartisan praise and helped him sail to a 93-1 confirmation vote in the Senate. That independence will be tested with Republican lawmakers demanding answers and the Clinton team dismissive of a...

Another explanation is that he sees trouble ahead for Hillary Clinton. Because of his close relationship with former NYC police Chief Ray Kelly and others in the law enforcement community, he might have the inside track on the FBI investigation into the former Secretary of State’s handling of classified documents and questionable foundation-related activities. Democrats have done a fine job of completely dismissing the FBI inquiry, but the possibility that Clinton could face serious legal hurdles may be encouraging Bloomberg’s ambitions. The probe is not, as some Hillary backers have claimed, scandal-mongering by right-wing zealots. It is a serious investigation,...

A former foreign policy adviser to President Trump’s election campaign says his phone may have been tapped in 2016, apparently implying that such action would support claims that Trump Tower was under surveillance. Carter Page, works near Trump Tower in New York and was a frequent visitor during the campaign. In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday, he lays out a case for why he thinks he may have been swept up in any surveillance related to the Trump operation, the Guardian reported Thursday. “Having spoken in favor of some of Mr. Trump’s policies on...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he has asked the intelligence community and White House for any evidence that he was surveilled by former President Barack Obama. "I have formally requested from the WH and the Intel Committees info on whether I was surveilled by Obama admin and or the Intel community!" Paul tweeted Friday. The tweet appears to build off of President Trump's claim, presented without evidence, that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during last year's presidential race. (R-Ky.) says he has asked the intelligence community and White House for any evidence that he was surveilled by former President...