Under pressure from Trump, FBI and Justice agree to expanded Russia probe

[webfact]

Under pressure from Trump, FBI and Justice agree to expanded Russia probe

By Steve Holland

 

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein departs the West Wing of the White House after a meeting on FBI investigations into the 2016 Trump presidential campaign with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Monday agreed to expand its investigation into alleged Russia collusion in the 2016 election to include "any irregularities" in FBI tactics involving Trump's presidential campaign, a White House spokeswoman said.

 

Trump suggested on Friday that the FBI might have planted or recruited an informant in his presidential campaign for political purposes, citing unidentified reports that at least one FBI representative was "implanted."

 

The agreement came during a meeting that Trump had with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, the spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, said.

 

The Justice Department "has asked the inspector general to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign," Sanders said in a statement.

 

Federal investigators are probing whether anyone in the Trump campaign worked with Russia to sway the election to the Republican candidate. Trump has denied any collusion and repeatedly dismissed the investigation as a "witch hunt."

 

Trump said in a Twitter post on Sunday that he would demand the Justice Department look into whether the FBI "infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!"

 

Hours later, a spokeswoman said the department asked its inspector general to expand a review of the process for requesting surveillance warrants to include determining whether there was impropriety or political motivation in how the FBI conducted its investigation.The FBI was looking into Trump election campaign ties to Moscow before Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over the probe a year ago.

 

"If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action," Rosenstein said in a statement on Sunday evening.

 

Democrats said Mueller and his investigation should be protected and information, such as about any informant, should not be shared with Congress.

 

Justice Department "regulations protect this type of information from disclosure to Congress for legitimate investigative and privacy reasons,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to Rosenstein on Monday.

 

Trump has shown increasing signs of impatience with the investigation led by Mueller as it enters its second year, saying it was politically motivated and had its roots in the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.

 

His Republican allies in Congress, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, have pushed the same message.

 

In March, the Justice Department's inspector general launched a review into allegations by Republican lawmakers that the FBI made serious missteps when it sought a warrant to monitor a former adviser to Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

 

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his review will examine whether the FBI and Justice Department followed proper procedures when they applied for a warrant with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to secretly conduct surveillance on former adviser Carter Page and his ties to Russia.

 

Republican U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin said he and 16 other members of Congress will introduce a resolution on Tuesday alleging Justice Department and FBI misconduct involving surveillance in the Trump-Russia probe.

 

Neither Trump nor his new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, provided any evidence of government infiltration into Trump’s presidential campaign.

 

The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the FBI sent an informant to talk to two Trump campaign advisers, Page and George Papadopoulos, after the agency received evidence that the two men had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign.

 

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last fall to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Doina Chiacu, Roberta Rampton and Patricia Zengerle; editing by Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-22

[alanrchase]

So Trump now wants the investigation - that he calls a Witch Hunt and continuously argues should be shut down - to be expanded?

[jackh]

3 hours ago, alanrchase said:

So Trump now wants the investigation - that he calls a Witch Hunt and continuously argues should be shut down - to be expanded?

Absolutly! Move the investigation to the real criminals, the Deep State and communist Democrats.

[Becker]

17 minutes ago, jackh said:

Absolutly! Move the investigation to the real criminals, the Deep State and communist Democrats.

One piece of advice; before employing big words like "communist" it really is a good idea to find out what they really mean.

That way you come across as looking less like a complete ****. And as a man-child supporter you need all the help you can get.

[attrayant]

This should end well.

 

Trump: "I want you guys to investigate yourselves, and then convince me that you weren’t spying on me."  

 

DOJ: "Uh, sure thing, boss."

[riclag]

 PT has access to all intel ,deep state news has been carrying the news for many days. PT is on the offense. Time to expose all

[attrayant]

Pardon me for not being current on all the conspiracy theory jargon, but what exactly is "deep state news"?

[riclag]

Just now, attrayant said:

Pardon me for not being current on all the conspiracy theory jargon, but what exactly is "deep state news"?

Crossfire Hurricane

[attrayant]

That doesn't help either.  Would it be asking too much to answer with a complete sentence?

 

[edit] Does this have something to do with the conspiracy theory that Trump's own Justice Department is out to get him?

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by attrayant
I took a guess

[Rigby40]

6.More.Years.

[riclag]

23 minutes ago, attrayant said:

That doesn't help either.  Would it be asking too much to answer with a complete sentence?

 

[edit] Does this have something to do with the conspiracy theory that Trump's own Justice Department is out to get him?

 

 

 

"The FBI surveilled Trump's campaign. Only the motive and who gave the orders remains a mystery, but it won't remain for long".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/05/21/fbi-probe-donald-trump-campaign-russia-witch-hunt-column/628652002/

 

[cycolista]

18 minutes ago, riclag said:

"The FBI surveilled Trump's campaign. Only the motive and who gave the orders remains a mystery, but it won't remain for long".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/05/21/fbi-probe-donald-trump-campaign-russia-witch-hunt-column/628652002/

 

One would assume that if you hire people with ties to Russia to run your campaign you should expect to draw the attention of the FBI. 

[riclag]

20 minutes ago, cycolista said:

One would assume that if you hire people with ties to Russia to run your campaign you should expect to draw the attention of the FBI. 

Who are you speaking about  cycolista?Also its not a crime to have dealings with Russia

Edited May 22, 2018 by riclag

[attrayant]

I read that whole opinion piece.  Still no mention of the phrase "deep state media".

 

Figuring this was a dog whistle that I couldn't hear, I had to resort to trolling through the dank underbelly of the internet blogosphere and finally found one mention of it:

 

"In short: The Deep State media game afoot here is to protect the Deep State buddies by slow-rolling out the news that affects them negatively"

 

In other words, Fox News?

[GroveHillWanderer]

16 minutes ago, cycolista said:

One would assume that if you hire people with ties to Russia to run your campaign you should expect to draw the attention of the FBI. 

Exactly - as soon as the FBI had any reasonable basis to suspect that members of the Trump campaign were in contact with a foreign power and potentially soliciting and/or receiving assistance from them in relation to the election campaign, they would be duty-bound to look into it.

[riclag]

3 minutes ago, attrayant said:

I read that whole opinion piece.  Still no mention of the phrase "deep state media".

 

Figuring this was a dog whistle that I couldn't hear, I had to resort to trolling through the dank underbelly of the internet blogosphere and finally found one mention of it:

 

"In short: The Deep State media game afoot here is to protect the Deep State buddies by slow-rolling out the news that affects them negatively"

 

In other words, Fox News?

I never said deep state media, I talked about the deep state in the news is carrying the news for many days

[attrayant]

10 minutes ago, riclag said:

Who are you speaking about  cycolista?

 

Konstantin Kilimnik, most likely.

 

Quote

Also its not a crime to have dealings with Russia

 

If "have dealings with" means solicitation, then yes it's a crime.

 

52 U.S. Code § 30121 - Contributions and donations by foreign nationals

 

(a) Prohibition It shall be unlawful for—

 

(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make—

 

(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;

(B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or

(C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or

 

(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.

 

(b) “Foreign national” defined As used in this section, the term “foreign national” means—

 

(1) a foreign principal, as such term is defined by section 611(b) of title 22, except that the term “foreign national” shall not include any individual who is a citizen of the United States; or

 

(2) an individual who is not a citizen of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 1101(a)(22) of title 8) and who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence, as defined by section 1101(a)(20) of title 8.

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by attrayant

[GroveHillWanderer]

18 minutes ago, riclag said:

Who are you speaking about  cycolista?Also its not a crime to have dealings with Russia

It is, if those dealings involve a Federal election. As clearly stated on the Federal Election Commission's website:

 

Quote

[The] Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) and Commission regulations, [...] include a broad prohibition on foreign national activity in connection with elections in the United States.

Federal Election Commission website

 

Included in the things prohibited (and therefore against the law) is for an individual to solicit:

 

Quote

 any contribution or donation of money or other thing of value

In relation to a campaign.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by GroveHillWanderer

[attrayant]

6 minutes ago, riclag said:

I never said deep state media, I talked about the deep state in the news is carrying the news for many days

 

News, media, isn't that the same thing?  We've been going back and forth on this point so much, I had forgotten what it was I was trying to get a straight answer about.

 

Never the less, it seems like a convoluted way of saying the media is being selective in their reporting.  Do you think they've been aware of all this for some time and just not reported on it?  How do you know?  (expecting the answer "we'll see soon enough")

[riclag]

I sense this is going off topic ,I was responding to cycolista -Post # 13

[Chomper Higgot]

The real story is Rosenstein agrees to Trump’s request, in doing so Rosenstein keeps his job.

 

While Rosenstein keeps his job, so does Mueller - the real investigation into the real crimes continues.

 

For Illiberals this isn’t even a Pyrrhic victory. 

The president has given his approval to expand an investigation he’s all along claimed illegitimate, he’s secured Mueller’s position and he’s distracted his base while the wheels of justice grind on getting ever closer to him and his family.

 

Please illiberals, don’t log off never to be seen again when Trump’s crimes are exposed, we’ll have much to discus and so much fun doing so.

 

The truth will (despite Trump’s best efforts) out.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, riclag said:

I sense this is going off topic ,I was responding to cycolista -Post # 13

Ok, so you mention 'deep state news', when asked to explain can not do that, and in the end decide it is going off topic.

[Bundooman]

1 hour ago, riclag said:

Who are you speaking about  cycolista?Also its not a crime to have dealings with Russia

Depends what the dealings were, surely?

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

Exactly - as soon as the FBI had any reasonable basis to suspect that members of the Trump campaign were in contact with a foreign power and potentially soliciting and/or receiving assistance from them in relation to the election campaign, they would be duty-bound to look into it.

 

Do you think they investigated the very large donation the German government made to the Clinton Foundation to?

[atyclb]

4 hours ago, attrayant said:

Pardon me for not being current on all the conspiracy theory jargon, but what exactly is "deep state news"?

 

some enlightenment on the term "deep state" heres an interesting interview hosted by respected former US senator and surgeon Dr. Ron Paul. 

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

31 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Do you think they investigated the very large donation the German government made to the Clinton Foundation to?

Link?

[atyclb]

21 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

53 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Do you think they investigated the very large donation the German government made to the Clinton Foundation to?

Link?

 

 

one simply needs to google "clinton cash" . a best selling book and documentary you can see free online.

 

to be fair theres crooks in both parties, both sides, it's simply a matter of weeding them out whomever they may be.

 

former independent minnesota governor and navy seal jessy ventura calls it like it is

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

40 minutes ago, atyclb said:

 

 

one simply needs to google "clinton cash" . a best selling book and documentary you can see free online.

 

to be fair theres crooks in both parties, both sides, it's simply a matter of weeding them out whomever they may be.

 

former independent minnesota governor and navy seal jessy ventura calls it like it is

 

 

A good critique of the two party system and the corporate money slushing around government.

 

But no evidence to back up your claim v HC and German money.

[ELVIS123456]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words:

 

 

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.