In case you find yourself having to engage with people being influenced by Trump’s wild claims of Trump Tower being “tapped" by Obama, all the evidence you need was provided yesterday morning by Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post. In his “Fact Checker” operation he posted before Noon a piece titled Trump’s ‘evidence’ for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced report. I have to wonder if key Republicans, who have agreed to the request of Sean Spicer that they investigate the President’s wild charges, had bothered to read this column.
If they had, they would know that the five “sources” other than Breitbart to which Spicer referred are problematic, to say the least.
One, Heat Street, is another rightwing site like Breitbart.
Kessler is very thorough, and takes us through reporting from Britain (by the BBC and the Guardian as well as of a Heat Street piece by Louise Mensch) of issuance of a FISA warrant to examine transactions from two Russian banks that went through a server in the US. However, unlike most of the rpeorting, the server is apparently NOT in Trump Tower, but instead in Philadelphia, and the warrant was for financial transactions that if discovered might well have indicated serious violation of US election law.
Here’s the problem, as Kessler lays it out:
The Washington Post for months has sought to confirm this report of a FISA warrant related to the Trump campaign but has been unable to do so. Presumably, other major news organizations have tried to do so as well. So one has to take this claim with a huge dose of skepticism. Indeed, the New York Times reported before the election that the FBI “ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts” with the Russian banks.
I want to interject that I would be very skeptical of anything offered by Mensch. Yes, she was a Conservative MP (and considered a rising star among Tories) for a brief period. But I can remember her saying that Russians had placed the Huma Abedin emails on the computer of Anthony Weiner when we have a public statement by Weiner that he was responsible, having backed up his wife’s phone to his computer without telling her.
Even if such a FISA warrant was issued — and as of now it is not clear that it was — the first step in the investigation would be to see if (a) the traffic represented financial transactions from outside the country that (b) violated US law in any way- in this case, specifically, if Russian transactions were going directly or indirectly into financing or influencing a US political campaign. If so, such an investigation could have expanded to the recipients of such funds — if in fact there was such a warrant and such an investigation.
Kessler writes
Only one article, with British roots, reported that a FISA court order was granted in October to examine possible activity between two Russian banks and a computer server in the Trump Tower. This claim has not been confirmed by U.S. news organizations. Moreover, no article says that Obama requested the order or that it resulted in the tapping of Trump’s phone lines. The server, in fact, may not have even been in Trump Tower.
(Our colleague Ellen Nakashima reported how difficult it is to obtain a wiretap of a U.S. citizen as part of a foreign intelligence investigation.)
Moreover, the articles do not support the White House’s claim that these were “potentially politically motivated investigations” led by Obama. The articles all suggest that the FISA requests — if they happened — were done by the intelligence agencies and the FBI. The BBC says the investigation was prompted by a tip from a Baltic country about possible criminal activity:
Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was — allegedly — a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign.
It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States. The CIA cannot act domestically against American citizens so a joint counter-intelligence task force was created.
We should also note that a spokesman for Obama has denied the allegation that the former president ordered a wiretap on Trump.
He also reviews the statement by Clapper and the request by Comey with respect to Trump’s charges.
Kessler’s conclusion:
The Pinocchio Test
While the Trump White House cited five news reports to justify its request for a congressional investigation, only two actually are relevant.
It’s certainly ironic that the Trump White House — which has heavily criticized articles relying on anonymous sources — now relies on articles based on anonymous sources that cite information that has not been confirmed by any U.S. news organization. It would be amusing if it were not so sad.
After all, Clapper, who presumably would be aware of a FISA court order, has issued an on-the-record denial.
Even if these media reports are accepted as accurate, neither back up Trump’s claims that Obama ordered the tapping of his phone calls. Moreover, they also do not back up the administration’s revised claim of politically motivated investigations.
We’re still waiting for the evidence. In the meantime, Trump earns Four Pinocchios.
Four Pinocchios
I strongly suggest bookmarking the Kessler piece for further reference.