The Best Trump FISA Warrant Understanding: The FBI investigated a Trump server in its Russia probe, but no charges are expected (Part 1)
Mar 10, 2017 16:32:04 #
03/08/2017 The Best Trump FISA Warrant Understanding: The FBI investigated a Trump server in its Russia probe, but no charges are expected (Part 1)
John Solomon, Sara Carter
http://circa.com/politics/fbi-probe-of-donald-trump-and-russia-during-e******n-yielded-no-evidence-of-crimes
Intelligence sources say that the FBI investigated a computer tied to Donald Trump's business but there's no evidence to date that would warrant criminal charges against any of the president’s associates.
The months-long FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 p**********l campaign briefly investigated a computer server tied to Donald Trump's businesses near the end of the e******n but has not gathered evidence of e******n tampering to date that would warrant criminal charges against any of the president’s associates, Circa has learned.
Related:Senators: We want info on Trump wiretapping
http://circa.com/circa-now/happening/atom/the-house-intelligence-committee-will-hold-a-public-hearing-on-russia-in-late-march
Widespread frustration:
U.S. officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said there is widespread frustration among intelligence professionals who have watched in horror as a normally secretive process has been distorted by media leaks and politicians uneducated about how counterintelligence operations actually work.
"I've never seen a case so misrepresented and leaks so damaging to a process that was meant to be conducted in secret."
—U.S. official
“We have people spouting off who don’t know the difference between FISA surveillance and a wiretap or a counterintelligence probe versus a special prosecutor, and it has hurts our ability to get to the t***h and has wrongly created the impression that intelligence officials have a political agenda,” said one source directly familiar with the drama.
It's about Russia more than Trump
Many of the leaks have surfaced since former President Barack Obama in his waning days in office had his intelligence leadership brief a wider than normal audience about the sensitive Russia surveillance. Those leaks have created a false narrative that the FBI has been predominantly focused on Trump ties to Russia, officials said.
In fact, any FBI activity involving the president’s associates or advisers was mostly ancillary to a wider counterintelligence probe into Russian efforts to influence the e******n or curry favor with U.S. figures, the sources said.
“The (Trump-Russia) narrative in the media hasn’t been our primary focus and mostly involves pieces of information that came in incidentally. We check them out and we move on,” one official said, adding most of the work has involved old-fashioned investigative tactics and not surveillance.
Added another official: “I’ve never seen a case so misrepresented and leaks so damaging to a process that was meant to be conducted in secret so that foreign powers don’t know what we know and people’s reputations aren’t tarnished unfairly.”
Several sources with direct knowledge say the FBI’s interest in investigating possible Moscow efforts to influence the 2016 e******n was born out of its long expertise on Russian players gathered back from the 2001 Robert Hansen espionage affair and the 2010 Anna Chapman spy ring scandal.
Russian activity raised suspicions:
Other intelligence agencies also were gathering similar evidence highlighting Russian activity like computer hacking and propaganda.
The bureau, along with other intelligence agencies, had early signs of political-motivated hacking by Russia and uncorroborated information from among others a former British intelligence officer about possible contacts between Russian intelligence and people close to Trump.
“There were indicators of Russian activity and uncorroborated allegations of Trump associates having contact with key figures and we needed to know if they were connected or not,” one source described. “We’d be remiss if we did not answer that question for the national security community.”
Related:Obama officials denies claims of surveillance
Obama officials shut down Trump's claims that surveillance was ordered on Trump Tower
http://circa.com/politics/e******n-2016/atom/president-trump-accused-obama-of-wire-tapping-trump-tower-phones-before-the-e******n
Probe starts into Russian connections with US citizens
Officials decided the best course of action was to pursue a classic counterintelligence investigation focused on what the Russians were actually doing and whether anyone in the United States, including on the Trump team, might be encouraging or facilitating those actions or financially benefitting from them.
One of the documents that agents tried to corroborate became known as the “Trump dossier,” the work of a trusted ex-British intelligence agent hired by political operatives to find damaging evidence on Trump in Russia. Some of the information in the dossier was explicit and salacious and uncorroborated -- like an alleged interlude between Trump and a prostitute in Moscow a few years back and an alleged Russian bribe that could have spelled billions of dollars for Trump’s companies.
Information could not be corroborated:
Agents were able to corroborate some details in the dossier, mostly public source intelligence about meetings and decisions involving Russian figures. But much of the information about Trump and associates could not be corroborated. Some was disproven and other facts took on new connotations when additional investigation was concluded.
FISA used in probe:
For instance, the FBI and Justice Department received a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant in October to help further the Russia investigation. Officials stressed there were no intercepts of Trump’s phone or emails.
Separately, they used traditional investigative techniques to review a computer server tied to the the soon-to-be-president's businesses in Trump Towers in New York but located elsewhere.
Agents were examining allegations of computer activity tied to Russia.. Very quickly, they concluded the computer activity in question involved no nefarious contacts, bank t***sactions or encrypted communications with the Russians, and likely involved routine computer signals.
The towers are home to Trump’s business, personal residence and then-campaign headquarters.
The Flynn connection:
The officials also strongly disputed that the FBI’s intercepts of conversations in December between soon-to-to-be U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were part of a continuing Trump-focused national security investigation. In fact, they were part of a long-established special intelligence program in which the FBI is routinely permitted to review intercepts of Russian embassy officials.
Americans are often incidentally intercepted, and the FBI has authority to review those conversations without a specific warrant when they involve national security matters. Flynn fell into that category in part because he had a security clearance, the sources said.
Related:All the ongoing investigations into Russia
http://circa.com/politics/issues/atom/heres-a-breakdown-of-all-the-ongoing-investigations-into-this-russia-mess
The sources said Flynn exchanged a handful of calls or text messages to the Russian ambassador in December, including holiday wishes and condolences for recent Russian tragedies.
Some involved more substantive policy issues, something the FBI f**gged for the larger intelligence community because Obama was still in power and Trump was not yet in power.
"We'd be remiss if we did not answer that question for the national security community.” —U.S. official
John Solomon, Sara Carter
http://circa.com/politics/fbi-probe-of-donald-trump-and-russia-during-e******n-yielded-no-evidence-of-crimes
Intelligence sources say that the FBI investigated a computer tied to Donald Trump's business but there's no evidence to date that would warrant criminal charges against any of the president’s associates.
The months-long FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 p**********l campaign briefly investigated a computer server tied to Donald Trump's businesses near the end of the e******n but has not gathered evidence of e******n tampering to date that would warrant criminal charges against any of the president’s associates, Circa has learned.
Related:Senators: We want info on Trump wiretapping
http://circa.com/circa-now/happening/atom/the-house-intelligence-committee-will-hold-a-public-hearing-on-russia-in-late-march
Widespread frustration:
U.S. officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said there is widespread frustration among intelligence professionals who have watched in horror as a normally secretive process has been distorted by media leaks and politicians uneducated about how counterintelligence operations actually work.
"I've never seen a case so misrepresented and leaks so damaging to a process that was meant to be conducted in secret."
—U.S. official
“We have people spouting off who don’t know the difference between FISA surveillance and a wiretap or a counterintelligence probe versus a special prosecutor, and it has hurts our ability to get to the t***h and has wrongly created the impression that intelligence officials have a political agenda,” said one source directly familiar with the drama.
It's about Russia more than Trump
Many of the leaks have surfaced since former President Barack Obama in his waning days in office had his intelligence leadership brief a wider than normal audience about the sensitive Russia surveillance. Those leaks have created a false narrative that the FBI has been predominantly focused on Trump ties to Russia, officials said.
In fact, any FBI activity involving the president’s associates or advisers was mostly ancillary to a wider counterintelligence probe into Russian efforts to influence the e******n or curry favor with U.S. figures, the sources said.
“The (Trump-Russia) narrative in the media hasn’t been our primary focus and mostly involves pieces of information that came in incidentally. We check them out and we move on,” one official said, adding most of the work has involved old-fashioned investigative tactics and not surveillance.
Added another official: “I’ve never seen a case so misrepresented and leaks so damaging to a process that was meant to be conducted in secret so that foreign powers don’t know what we know and people’s reputations aren’t tarnished unfairly.”
Several sources with direct knowledge say the FBI’s interest in investigating possible Moscow efforts to influence the 2016 e******n was born out of its long expertise on Russian players gathered back from the 2001 Robert Hansen espionage affair and the 2010 Anna Chapman spy ring scandal.
Russian activity raised suspicions:
Other intelligence agencies also were gathering similar evidence highlighting Russian activity like computer hacking and propaganda.
The bureau, along with other intelligence agencies, had early signs of political-motivated hacking by Russia and uncorroborated information from among others a former British intelligence officer about possible contacts between Russian intelligence and people close to Trump.
“There were indicators of Russian activity and uncorroborated allegations of Trump associates having contact with key figures and we needed to know if they were connected or not,” one source described. “We’d be remiss if we did not answer that question for the national security community.”
Related:Obama officials denies claims of surveillance
Obama officials shut down Trump's claims that surveillance was ordered on Trump Tower
http://circa.com/politics/e******n-2016/atom/president-trump-accused-obama-of-wire-tapping-trump-tower-phones-before-the-e******n
Probe starts into Russian connections with US citizens
Officials decided the best course of action was to pursue a classic counterintelligence investigation focused on what the Russians were actually doing and whether anyone in the United States, including on the Trump team, might be encouraging or facilitating those actions or financially benefitting from them.
One of the documents that agents tried to corroborate became known as the “Trump dossier,” the work of a trusted ex-British intelligence agent hired by political operatives to find damaging evidence on Trump in Russia. Some of the information in the dossier was explicit and salacious and uncorroborated -- like an alleged interlude between Trump and a prostitute in Moscow a few years back and an alleged Russian bribe that could have spelled billions of dollars for Trump’s companies.
Information could not be corroborated:
Agents were able to corroborate some details in the dossier, mostly public source intelligence about meetings and decisions involving Russian figures. But much of the information about Trump and associates could not be corroborated. Some was disproven and other facts took on new connotations when additional investigation was concluded.
FISA used in probe:
For instance, the FBI and Justice Department received a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant in October to help further the Russia investigation. Officials stressed there were no intercepts of Trump’s phone or emails.
Separately, they used traditional investigative techniques to review a computer server tied to the the soon-to-be-president's businesses in Trump Towers in New York but located elsewhere.
Agents were examining allegations of computer activity tied to Russia.. Very quickly, they concluded the computer activity in question involved no nefarious contacts, bank t***sactions or encrypted communications with the Russians, and likely involved routine computer signals.
The towers are home to Trump’s business, personal residence and then-campaign headquarters.
The Flynn connection:
The officials also strongly disputed that the FBI’s intercepts of conversations in December between soon-to-to-be U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were part of a continuing Trump-focused national security investigation. In fact, they were part of a long-established special intelligence program in which the FBI is routinely permitted to review intercepts of Russian embassy officials.
Americans are often incidentally intercepted, and the FBI has authority to review those conversations without a specific warrant when they involve national security matters. Flynn fell into that category in part because he had a security clearance, the sources said.
Related:All the ongoing investigations into Russia
http://circa.com/politics/issues/atom/heres-a-breakdown-of-all-the-ongoing-investigations-into-this-russia-mess
The sources said Flynn exchanged a handful of calls or text messages to the Russian ambassador in December, including holiday wishes and condolences for recent Russian tragedies.
Some involved more substantive policy issues, something the FBI f**gged for the larger intelligence community because Obama was still in power and Trump was not yet in power.
"We'd be remiss if we did not answer that question for the national security community.” —U.S. official
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