Exactly What Kicked Off the Investigation Into Trump's Russian Connections?

Based on some new information I received tonight.

Exactly What Kicked Off the Investigation Into Trump's Russian Connections?

By Miss Fedelm �" May 28, 2018

A standard claim coming from the Trump camp over the past couple of weeks has been that the FBI, or even the Obama administration, spied on the Trump Campaign. And, for the more gullible audiences, this claim is even augmented with the words “For the benefit of Hillary Clinton”.

While it is well known that the FBI did use one or more agents to sniff around the Trump campaign, and that one agent did, in fact, contact three Trump staffers at conventions and other public events, there is nothing unethical or illegal about this. In fact, it's to be expected given that there were people with well documented and suspicious ties to the Kremlin working in the campaign. People such as Carter Page, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. And given this fact, what the FBI did is standard operating procedure. The FBI's did it's job as the job is set forth in it's charter.

On Sunday, Republican Senator Marco Rubio told ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and “This Week” Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz:

“What I have seen is evidence that they [the FBI] were investigatng individuals with a history of links to Russia that were concerning ….. As far as what I have seen to date, it appears that there was an investigation not of the campaign, but of certain individuals who have a history that we should be suspicious of, that predate the Presidential Campaign of 2015, 2016 …. And when individuals like that are in orbit of a major political campaign in American, the FBI, who is in charge of counterintelligence investigations, should look at people like that.”

And while there doesn't seem to be anything illegal or unethical in the FBI's surveillance of those with suspicious Russian ties working in the Trump campaign, the question remains as to what kicked off this investigation.

Trump and his partisan followers have always claimed that the Steele Dossier, originally commissioned by Republicans, and then continued by the Clinton campaign, supported the the original investigation. But, as will be shown below, this was not the case.

Nor was the drunken conversation of George Papadopoulos with an Australian ambassador, where Papadopoulos, a campaign aide, claimed the Kremlin had dirt on Hillary Clinton. Information pulled from hacked emails. But later reports indicate that the FBI already knew about this.

A high percentage of counterintelligence investigations begin with a series of electronic signal interceptions called “Signals Intelligence” or SIGNINT. Once something suspicious is encountered, the FBI, needing more information, begins researching the matter, i.e., looking at available reports, seeking wiretaps and using informants.

The above comes from John R. Schindler, an expert who worked for the NSA as both a civilian analyst and a military officer and who was the technical director of the NSA's biggest operational division. He also worked in counterintelligence in cases similar to the Trump matter.

Schindler states in the May 28, 2018 Observer that: “The counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump was kicked off by not one, not two, but multiple SIGNINT reports which set off alarm bells inside our Intelligence Community.”

http://observer.com/2018/05/what-did-the-fbi-do-in-2016-about-russian-connections-to-donald-trump/

https://themoscowproject.org/collusion/european-intelligence-officials-say-trump-associates-russians-communicating/

The first SIGINT report came from the GCHQ, Britain's NSA. As the Guardian reports:

“GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information. Over the next six months, until summer of 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump's inner circle and Russians … The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence, - known as SIGINT - included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia …. also relayed material … The Dutch and the French spy agency, the DGSE, were [also] contributors.”

The Guardian continues:

“It is understood that GCHQ was at no point carrying out a targeted operation against Trump or his team or proactively seeking information. The alleged conversations were picked up by chance as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets. Over several months, different agencies targeting the same people began to see a pattern of connections that were flagged to intelligence officials in the US. ”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia

As Schindler notes in the Observer article referenced above: “In other words, Western intelligence agencies that were eavesdropping on the Kremlin and its spies "not Trump or any of his retinue, heard numerous conversations about Trump and his secret Russian connections.”

Heard of Trump's Russian connections from the Russians, it should be emphasized.

James Clapper, a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force, and the former Director of National Intelligence, and who is the nation's foremost expert on counter intelligence, recently expanded on his previous statement that Donald Trump was a Kremlin “asset” to say that he had “no doubt” that Russia had “swung the election to a Trump win”. And on the weekend of May 26, 2018, Mr. Clapper said he was “absolutely” unaware of the FBI’s use of informants to gain information about the Trump campaign in 2016.

So it appears that, back in 2015, our intelligence agencies were spying on the Russians, and their contacts with people such as Manafort, Flynn and Page, when the SIGINT indicated there was more in play, and that this needed to be investigated. And this is precisely what Bob Mueller is doing at the present time.

Reviews

[Vivian Fisk]

This is good fresh info...too bad it'll never make it onto Focks & Friends

[Miss Fedelm]

I'm waiting to hear back from a newspaper for it. I hope they take it quick. It will be old news in a couple of days.

[Vivian Fisk]

Whoa! That would be nice!