Allegations of Obama spying on Trump

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Barack Obama (left) and Donald Trump (right)

As part of a large, baseless conspiracy theory, Donald Trump posited that Barack Obama had spied on him, [1] which Trump described as "the biggest political crime in American history, by far." [2] The series of accusations have been nicknamed Obamagate. [3] [4] [5] [6] Obama had served as President of the United States from 2009 until 2017, when Trump succeeded him; Trump served as president until 2021.

Contents

During key points of the 2020 campaign, including the Republican National Convention [7] [8] and both presidential debates, [9] [10] Trump frequently repeated this theory, claiming "they spied on my campaign" in reference to these allegations. [11]

The specific allegations of inappropriate politically motivated surveillance or "spying" all involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump campaign and transition and their ties to Russia.

No evidence has been found that legal surveillance, as part of Crossfire Hurricane, was at the direction of Obama, Obama administration political officials or improper deep state influence, or that the Steele dossier was used to launch the Russia probe, [12] or that the surveillance was designed to surveil the Trump campaign and Trump White House transition team for political purposes.

Trump has claimed that as part of Crossfire Hurricane, his "wires" at Trump Tower were wiretapped. This was refuted by Trump's own Justice Department. [13] In addition, Trump has claimed that after the Crossfire Hurricane investigation recorded Michael Flynn's conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Flynn was improperly "unmasked". This was also refuted by the Trump Justice Department. [14]

Specific actions undertaken by the FBI that have been highlighted include the use of an informant who met with Trump advisors Sam Clovis, George Papadopoulos, and Carter Page, [15] [16] as well as obtaining a FISA warrant to legally surveil Carter Page after he left the Trump campaign.

The Inspector General report on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation did not find evidence that "political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI's decision to seek FISA authority on Carter Page", but did point out serious inconsistencies and improper procedures that were followed with regard to the obtaining of the warrants. [17] The Inspector General wrote that his review "found no evidence that the FBI attempted to place any" FBI source in the Trump campaign. [18] [19] The review also "found no evidence" that the FBI had tried to "recruit members of the Trump campaign" to serve as their sources. [19] Finally, the review did not produce evidence that "political bias or improper motivations influenced" the FBI's usage of confidential sources or undercover agents for interactions with members of Trump's campaign. [18]

Background

According to the results of a U.S. Senate investigation, the government of Russia directly and through intermediaries sought influence within 2016 U.S. presidential election candidate Donald Trump's political campaigns and also to sow discord within American society. [20] [21] [22] Thus, actions taken by the then-current Obama Administration in its investigations into these alleged Russian influences provide the bases for claims that it spied on Trump.

Conspiracy theory elements

Trump campaign figures allegedly spied upon

Obama administration figures allegedly involved

Investigations launched

Trump administration officials or its allies involved

Timeline

May 2020: Trump allegations

On May 10, 2020—one day after former president Barack Obama criticized the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic [50] —Trump posted a one-word tweet: "OBAMAGATE!" [51] On May 11, Philip Rucker of The Washington Post asked Trump what crime former president Barack Obama committed. Trump's reply was: "Obamagate. It's been going on for a long time ... from before I even got elected and it's a disgrace that it happened.... Some terrible things happened and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again." When Rucker again asked what the crime was, Trump said: "You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours." [52] On May 15, Trump tweeted that Obamagate was the "greatest political scandal in the history of the United States." This was the third time Trump claimed to be suffering from a scandal of such magnitude, after previously giving Spygate and the Russia investigation similar labels. [53] Also on May 15, Trump linked Obamagate to the "persecution" of Michael Flynn, and a missing 302 form. [54] [55]

Trump called for Congress to summon Obama to testify about "the biggest political crime". [56] Senator Lindsey Graham, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that he did not expect to summon Obama, but would summon other Obama administration officials. [57] Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr stated that he did not "expect" Obama to be investigated of a crime. [56] Some of Trump's allies have suggested that the "crime" involved the FBI launching an investigation into incoming national security advisor Michael Flynn, [58] or possibly the "unmasking" by outgoing Obama officials to find out the name of a person who was reported in intelligence briefings to be conversing with the Russian ambassador. [59]

In a May 2020 op-ed at the news website RealClearPolitics, Charles Lipson, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago analyzed the content of "Obamagate". He claimed that the concept refers to three accusations: (1) The Obama administration conducted mass surveillance through the NSA; (2) the Obama administration used surveillance against Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and (3) the Obama administration did not transfer power seamlessly to the new Trump administration. Lipson further claimed that "these abuses didn’t simply follow each other; their targets, goals, and principal players overlapped. Taken together, they represent some of the gravest violations of constitutional norms and legal protections in American history". [60]

The Associated Press (AP) in May 2020 addressed Obamagate in a fact check, stating that there was "no evidence" of Trump's suggestion that "the disclosure of Flynn's name as part of legal U.S. surveillance of foreign targets was criminal and motivated by partisan politics." AP stated that there is not only "nothing illegal about unmasking," but also that the unmasking of Flynn was approved using the National Security Agency's "standard process." Unmasking is allowed if officials feel that it is needed to understand the collected intelligence. AP further pointed out that the Trump administration was conducting even more unmasking than the Obama administration in the final year of Obama's presidency. [61]

In May, attorney general Bill Barr appointed federal prosecutor John Bash to examine unmasking conducted by the Obama administration. [62]

August 2020: Yates testimony

The concept underlies in part a 2020 U.S. Senate investigation [63] [64] into the 2016–onward FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation. [65] Former deputy attorney general Sally Yates on August 5, 2020, testified before the Committee that investigators were concerned that the national security adviser to president elect Trump, Michael Flynn, was conversing in private with the Russian ambassador. According to Yates, Obama was interested in whether Flynn ought to be considered a safe recipient for sensitive briefings and Obama "did not in any way attempt to direct or influence any kind of investigation. Something like that would have set off alarms for me." [66] [67] (According to news reports, a belief that Flynn may have violated the Logan Act – a rarely prosecuted and vague law which constrains individuals from countervailing the existing foreign policy of the United States by way of secretive meetings – that supplied the initial rationale for the FBI to target Flynn. [68] [69] )

September 2020: Accusations of political motives

Accusations have been leveled that Senate Republicans used investigations of "Obamagate" to help provide the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign with talking points. [70] [71]

In September, Sen. Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, led Republicans on the committee in securing subpoenas to look into Trump's Obamagate claims. [72] Johnson had received criticism for stating "the more that we expose of the corruption of the transition process between Obama and Trump, the more we expose of the corruption within those agencies, I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden". [73]

October 2020: Trump pushes for arrests

With the news that U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into potential abuses within the Obama's administration's handling of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation would not produce a report or indictments before the 2020 presidential election, [74] President Trump began publicly calling out Attorney General Bill Barr for lack of arrests of major political figures he believes were involved, including his 2020 opponent Joe Biden. [75]

The Washington Post reported on October 13 that Bash's unmasking inquiry had concluded with no findings of substantive wrongdoing and no public report. [76]

On October 25, Trump repeated his allegations in an interview on 60 Minutes, claiming "the biggest scandal was when they spied on my campaign. They spied on my campaign, and they got caught." Host Lesley Stahl challenged the assertion, claiming "there's no real evidence of that. This is 60 Minutes, and we can't put on things we can't verify." Trump disagreed, claiming "they spied on my campaign, and they got caught. And then they went much further than that, and they got caught. And you will see that, Lesley, and you know that, but you just don't want to put it on the air." [77] The dispute was part of a contentious interview that ended with Trump walking out. [78]

See also

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References

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  2. ↑ Stieb, Matt (May 11, 2020). "'Obamagate' As Explained by President Trump". New York Magazine. President Trump had a prolific day online, posting 126 tweets or retweets as part of his Mother's Day celebration. Several of the missives treated a new political project of his: Obamagate.
  3. ↑ Geltzer, Joshua A. (October 13, 2020). "Trump is abusing his power for political reasons — just like he says Obama did". The Washington Post. The president is trying to use the government to skew the election
  4. ↑ John, Arit (June 23, 2020). "From Birtherism to 'Treason': Trump's False Allegations Against Obama". The Los Angeles Times. Trump said ... without evidence, that Obama had committed "treason" by spying on his campaign, in reference to his years-old claim that the Obama administration tapped his phone lines at Trump Tower before the 2016 general election.
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  19. 1 2 Blake, Aaron (December 9, 2019). "4 takeaways from the Horowitz report on the Russia investigation". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019. Third, it addresses allegations that the FBI planted an informant in the Trump campaign, saying "we found no evidence that the FBI attempted to place any CHSs within the Trump campaign, recruit members of the Trump campaign as CHSs, or task CHSs to report on the Trump campaign." [...] One supervisory special agent (SSA) describes believing a confidential human source's (CHS) information because the source was a Trump backer ... But it turns out that not only was the source a Trump supporter, so too were the agents involved in cultivating him.
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  63. ↑ Schwartz, Mattathias (June 1, 2020). "William Barr's State of Emergency". The New York Times.
  64. ↑ Milbank, Dana (August 5, 2020). "Opinion: Our nation is in a free fall. But sure, let's talk about Hillary's emails again". Washington Post.
  65. ↑ Inspector General Report, December 2019, p. 2: "On August 16, 2016, the FBI opened a fourth individual case under Crossfire Hurricane on Michael Flynn, who was serving at the time as the Trump campaign's National Security Advisor."
  66. ↑ Fandos, Nicholas (August 5, 2020). "Sally Yates, Under Attack by Republicans, Defends Flynn Investigation". The New York Times.
  67. ↑ Blake, Aaron (May 21, 2020). "Analysis: 'Obamagate' suffers another significant, predictable blow". Washington Post.
  68. ↑ The Editorial Board (August 7, 2020). "Opinion: Sally Yates Can't Remember". The Wall Street Journal.
  69. ↑ Kalmbacher, Colin (June 24, 2020). "Lawyers: Peter Strzok's Handwritten Notes Expose Biden and Comey's Involvement in Michael Flynn Case". lawandcrime.com.
  70. ↑ Desiderio, Andrew (May 16, 2020). "Trump pushes McConnell to embrace 'Obamagate'". Politico .
  71. ↑ Johnson, Shawn (July 30, 2020). "As Election Looms, Wisconsin's Ron Johnson Readies Investigation Into Joe Biden". Wisconsin Public Radio.
  72. ↑ "Senate panel authorizes subpoenas in Republican probe targeting Obama officials". POLITICO. September 16, 2020.
  73. ↑ Cheney, Kyle (August 13, 2020). "Besieged on all sides, Ron Johnson says his probe 'would certainly' help Trump win reelection". Politico . Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  74. ↑ Treene, Alayna (October 9, 2020). ""A nightmare scenario": Barr tells Republicans Durham report won't be ready by election". Axios.
  75. ↑ "'Where are all of the arrests?': Trump demands Barr lock up his foes". Politico . October 7, 2020.
  76. ↑ Zapotosky, Matt; Harris, Shane. "'Unmasking' probe commissioned by Barr concludes without charges or any public report" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  77. ↑ "President Trump on Christine Blasey Ford, his relationships with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and more". CBS News . October 15, 2018.
  78. ↑ "CBS releases footage of Trump walking out of 60 Minutes interview". TheGuardian.com . October 26, 2020.
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