Cliff Kincaid
Trump vs. Fox News on wiretapping
By Cliff Kincaid
President Donald Trump is usually a fan of Fox News, but his opinion may now be changing. Fox News has been caught misrepresenting its own interview with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on the subject of alleged wiretapping of President Trump, in order to make Trump look bad. The cable channel also threw one of its own commentators, Judge Andrew Napolitano, under the bus for highlighting a possible British role in gathering intelligence on Trump and his associates.
After having Nunes on the network's "Fox News Sunday" show, Fox News claimed that he said "that phones at President Donald Trump's campaign headquarters in midtown Manhattan were never tapped during last year's election campaign, contrary to Trump's earlier, unsubstantiated assertion."
But if you listen to the video clip or read the transcript, that is not what Nunes really said.
Nunes actually said, "...the President doesn't go and physically wiretap something. So if you take the President literally, it didn't happen." But Trump has referred to "wiretap" in quotes, to refer to surveillance. Nunes went on, "I think the concern that we have is that are – were there any other surveillance activities that were used unmasking the names" (emphasis added).
Unmasking refers to acquiring the name of a U.S. citizen in a surveillance report, even though that citizen's personal privacy is supposed to be protected under U.S. law because he/she was not the target of the surveillance that captured the conversation. Trump press secretary Sean Spicer said on Monday, "Before President Obama left office, Michael Flynn was unmasked and then illegally his identity was leaked out to media outlets, despite the fact that, as NSA Director [Mike] Rogers said, that unmasking and revealing individuals endangers 'national security.' Not only was General Flynn's identity made available, Director [James] Comey refused to answer the question of whether or not he'd actually briefed President Obama on his phone calls and activities."
Nunes explained, "...the one crime we know that's been committed is that one, the leaking of someone's name through the FISA system. That is – that is a crime that's been committed."
At Monday's hearing, Nunes repeated in his prepared opening statement, "...it's still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President Trump and his associates."
The media highlighted FBI Director James B. Comey's statement at Monday's hearing that the FBI and the Justice Department had "no information that supports" President Trump's tweets about wiretapping.
But where could these "other surveillance activities" have originated? We know that a former British intelligence agent was involved in gathering "intelligence" against Trump in the form of the fake "Trump Dossier," and was paid by donors associated with the Hillary Clinton campaign. Parts of that "dossier" were passed on to Trump by the U.S. intelligence community.
As we note in our special report "A Watergate-style Threat to the Democratic Process," it is well-known that the British NSA, known as GCHQ or Government Communications Headquarters, collaborates with the NSA. In fact, a declassified document on the NSA's own website confirms NSA/GCHQ "collaboration" dating back decades. Fox News senior judicial analyst and commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano said his sources confirm there was such an arrangement in the matter of the "wiretapping" of Trump and/or his associates.
Fox News immediately threw Napolitano under the bus. "Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano's commentary," Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said on-air. "Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-President of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way."
The phrase "knows of no evidence" does not suggest any independent investigation of his information.
One of Napolitano's sources, former CIA operative Larry Johnson, came forward to say, "I reached out to friends in the intel community and asked them about the possibility that a back channel was used to get the Brits to collect on Trump associates. My sources said, 'absolutely.' I later confirmed this via a cutout with a person who is a Senior Intelligence Service executive in the CIA."
In the face of this evidence of collaboration, NSA Director Mike Rogers tried to insist at Monday's hearing that the NSA never asked the British to conduct surveillance of Trump. So why did the intelligence community accept and circulate the Trump dossier?
In a letter to Comey, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) noted that not only was the former British intelligence agent Christoper Steele "creating these memos as part of work for an opposition research firm connected to Hillary Clinton," but that the Washington Post had reported that the FBI had reached an agreement a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election "to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between President Trump and the Russians, Christopher Steele, to continue investigating Mr. Trump" (emphasis added).
Grassley said, "The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI's independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration's use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends."
At the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Monday, Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) was still quoting from the discredited Trump dossier.
Although Comey confirmed to the House Intelligence Committee that the investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged relationship with Russian officials continues, there was no firm commitment to get to the bottom of the source (or sources) of the leaks to the media that are designed to damage the Trump administration.
Nunes said his committee wanted to pursue the matter, saying, "Numerous current and former officials have leaked purportedly classified information in connection to these questions. We aim to determine who has leaked or facilitated leaks of classified information so that these individuals can be brought to justice."
As we argued in our column "Investigate and Prosecute the Press," there is a procedure to get to the bottom of at least one of these leaks. That is, to subpoena Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, the recipient of the illegal leak of the classified information naming or "unmasking" Michael T. Flynn.
Here's what Ignatius, a known mouthpiece for the CIA, reported on January 12: "According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking."
Subsequently, the Post revealed that, in regard to the Flynn matter, "Nine current and former officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters."
All of this leaking is illegal, a violation of the Espionage Act. It is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, has a financial relationship with the CIA and the NSA through the provision of computer cloud capabilities.
On "Fox News Sunday," Nunes said that "still remaining out there is the unmasking of names and the leaking of names.... we have a lot of surveillance activities in this country and I think the concern that the Trump administration has is, you know, were they actually using surveillance activities to know what they were up to, because we know that that happened with General Flynn. We know that his name was unmasked and we know that it was leaked out to the press."
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) was unable to get exact figures from Comey or Rogers on the number of people at these agencies able to "unmask" – and therefore leak – a name. Such a number is absolutely vital in any identification of the leakers.
Comey did admit that the heads of the intelligence agencies and various Obama White House officials could have acquired access to unmasked names. But as Spicer noted at the White House press briefing, Comey would not talk about any discussions he may have had with President Obama on the matter.
It looks increasingly like any serious investigation of the illegal surveillance and leaking will have to be led and conducted by Rep. Nunes. But in going forward, it appears that the Fox News Channel has decided not to pursue the line of inquiry already opened up by one of its own commentators, Judge Napolitano.
Predictably, there are now demands that Fox News fire its senior judicial analyst for offering his own informed opinion based on the facts and his own sources of information.
[UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times and other media are now reporting that Judge Napolitano has been suspended by the Fox News Channel.]
© Cliff Kincaid
March 22, 2017
President Donald Trump is usually a fan of Fox News, but his opinion may now be changing. Fox News has been caught misrepresenting its own interview with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on the subject of alleged wiretapping of President Trump, in order to make Trump look bad. The cable channel also threw one of its own commentators, Judge Andrew Napolitano, under the bus for highlighting a possible British role in gathering intelligence on Trump and his associates.
After having Nunes on the network's "Fox News Sunday" show, Fox News claimed that he said "that phones at President Donald Trump's campaign headquarters in midtown Manhattan were never tapped during last year's election campaign, contrary to Trump's earlier, unsubstantiated assertion."
But if you listen to the video clip or read the transcript, that is not what Nunes really said.
Nunes actually said, "...the President doesn't go and physically wiretap something. So if you take the President literally, it didn't happen." But Trump has referred to "wiretap" in quotes, to refer to surveillance. Nunes went on, "I think the concern that we have is that are – were there any other surveillance activities that were used unmasking the names" (emphasis added).
Unmasking refers to acquiring the name of a U.S. citizen in a surveillance report, even though that citizen's personal privacy is supposed to be protected under U.S. law because he/she was not the target of the surveillance that captured the conversation. Trump press secretary Sean Spicer said on Monday, "Before President Obama left office, Michael Flynn was unmasked and then illegally his identity was leaked out to media outlets, despite the fact that, as NSA Director [Mike] Rogers said, that unmasking and revealing individuals endangers 'national security.' Not only was General Flynn's identity made available, Director [James] Comey refused to answer the question of whether or not he'd actually briefed President Obama on his phone calls and activities."
Nunes explained, "...the one crime we know that's been committed is that one, the leaking of someone's name through the FISA system. That is – that is a crime that's been committed."
At Monday's hearing, Nunes repeated in his prepared opening statement, "...it's still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President Trump and his associates."
The media highlighted FBI Director James B. Comey's statement at Monday's hearing that the FBI and the Justice Department had "no information that supports" President Trump's tweets about wiretapping.
But where could these "other surveillance activities" have originated? We know that a former British intelligence agent was involved in gathering "intelligence" against Trump in the form of the fake "Trump Dossier," and was paid by donors associated with the Hillary Clinton campaign. Parts of that "dossier" were passed on to Trump by the U.S. intelligence community.
As we note in our special report "A Watergate-style Threat to the Democratic Process," it is well-known that the British NSA, known as GCHQ or Government Communications Headquarters, collaborates with the NSA. In fact, a declassified document on the NSA's own website confirms NSA/GCHQ "collaboration" dating back decades. Fox News senior judicial analyst and commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano said his sources confirm there was such an arrangement in the matter of the "wiretapping" of Trump and/or his associates.
Fox News immediately threw Napolitano under the bus. "Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano's commentary," Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said on-air. "Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-President of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way."
The phrase "knows of no evidence" does not suggest any independent investigation of his information.
One of Napolitano's sources, former CIA operative Larry Johnson, came forward to say, "I reached out to friends in the intel community and asked them about the possibility that a back channel was used to get the Brits to collect on Trump associates. My sources said, 'absolutely.' I later confirmed this via a cutout with a person who is a Senior Intelligence Service executive in the CIA."
In the face of this evidence of collaboration, NSA Director Mike Rogers tried to insist at Monday's hearing that the NSA never asked the British to conduct surveillance of Trump. So why did the intelligence community accept and circulate the Trump dossier?
In a letter to Comey, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) noted that not only was the former British intelligence agent Christoper Steele "creating these memos as part of work for an opposition research firm connected to Hillary Clinton," but that the Washington Post had reported that the FBI had reached an agreement a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election "to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between President Trump and the Russians, Christopher Steele, to continue investigating Mr. Trump" (emphasis added).
Grassley said, "The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI's independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration's use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends."
At the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Monday, Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) was still quoting from the discredited Trump dossier.
Although Comey confirmed to the House Intelligence Committee that the investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged relationship with Russian officials continues, there was no firm commitment to get to the bottom of the source (or sources) of the leaks to the media that are designed to damage the Trump administration.
Nunes said his committee wanted to pursue the matter, saying, "Numerous current and former officials have leaked purportedly classified information in connection to these questions. We aim to determine who has leaked or facilitated leaks of classified information so that these individuals can be brought to justice."
As we argued in our column "Investigate and Prosecute the Press," there is a procedure to get to the bottom of at least one of these leaks. That is, to subpoena Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, the recipient of the illegal leak of the classified information naming or "unmasking" Michael T. Flynn.
Here's what Ignatius, a known mouthpiece for the CIA, reported on January 12: "According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking."
Subsequently, the Post revealed that, in regard to the Flynn matter, "Nine current and former officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters."
All of this leaking is illegal, a violation of the Espionage Act. It is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, has a financial relationship with the CIA and the NSA through the provision of computer cloud capabilities.
On "Fox News Sunday," Nunes said that "still remaining out there is the unmasking of names and the leaking of names.... we have a lot of surveillance activities in this country and I think the concern that the Trump administration has is, you know, were they actually using surveillance activities to know what they were up to, because we know that that happened with General Flynn. We know that his name was unmasked and we know that it was leaked out to the press."
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) was unable to get exact figures from Comey or Rogers on the number of people at these agencies able to "unmask" – and therefore leak – a name. Such a number is absolutely vital in any identification of the leakers.
Comey did admit that the heads of the intelligence agencies and various Obama White House officials could have acquired access to unmasked names. But as Spicer noted at the White House press briefing, Comey would not talk about any discussions he may have had with President Obama on the matter.
It looks increasingly like any serious investigation of the illegal surveillance and leaking will have to be led and conducted by Rep. Nunes. But in going forward, it appears that the Fox News Channel has decided not to pursue the line of inquiry already opened up by one of its own commentators, Judge Napolitano.
Predictably, there are now demands that Fox News fire its senior judicial analyst for offering his own informed opinion based on the facts and his own sources of information.
[UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times and other media are now reporting that Judge Napolitano has been suspended by the Fox News Channel.]
© Cliff Kincaid
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