Thread: FBI Asked Justice Department to Reject Trump Claim: Report

FBI asked Justice Department to reject Trump claim: report


Rebecca Savransky


March 5, 2017



FBI Director James Comey reportedly asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump's claims that former PresidentBarack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower before the election.


Senior American officials told The New York Times on Sunday that Comey has said the president's wiretapping allegations are not true and asked the Justice Department on Saturday to publicly correct the record.


The report comes after President Trump, in a series of early Saturday tweets, claimed President Obama had ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower.


The FBI and the DOJ declined to comment to the Times.


Comey wants the Justice Department to deflate Trump’s claim because there is no evidence to support it, the Times reported, and it insinuates that Comey's FBI broke the law, the officials told the paper.


The president laid out the wiretapping claims without any evidence and questioned whether it was legal for a sitting president to be "'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election."


"How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process," the president tweeted. "This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!"




White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Sunday called the reports about "potentially politically motivated investigations" before the 2016 presidential election "very troubling."


In a series of tweets, he said the president is "requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigation powers were abused in 2016."


Spicer said that neither the White House nor the president would "comment further until such oversight is conducted."


An Obama spokesman said Saturday that Trump's accusations were false.


"A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice," Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement.




http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...-claims-report

FBI chief asks Justice Dept. to reject Trump’s claim that Obama ordered wiretap of him


The FBI director has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down Trump’s claim because there is no evidence to support it and it insinuates that the agency broke the law, officials said.




By Michael S. Schmidt and Michael D. Shear


March 5, 2017




* The New York Times *


WASHINGTON — FBI director James B. Comey asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Donald Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Trump’s phones, senior U.S. officials said Sunday. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.


Comey made the request Saturday after Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter. Comey has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down Trump’s claim because there is no evidence to support it and it insinuates that the FBI broke the law, the officials said.




A spokesman for the FBI declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also declined to comment.


A statement by the Justice Department or Comey refuting Trump’s allegations would be a remarkable rebuke of a sitting president, putting the nation’s top law enforcement officials in the position of questioning the truthfulness of the government’s top leader. The situation underscores the high stakes of what the president and his aides have set out by accusing the former president of a conspiracy to undermine Trump’s administration.






The White House showed no indication that it would back down from Trump’s claims. On Sunday, the president demanded a congressional inquiry into whether Obama had abused the power of federal law enforcement agencies before the 2016 presidential election. In a statement from his spokesman, Trump called “reports” about the wiretapping “very troubling” and said that Congress should examine them as part of its investigations into Russia’s meddling in the election.


Along with concerns about the potential attacks on the bureau’s credibility, senior FBI officials are said to be worried that the notion of a court-approved wiretap will raise the public’s expectations that federal authorities have significant evidence implicating the Trump campaign in colluding with Russia’s efforts to disrupt the presidential election.


One problem Comey has faced is that there are few senior politically appointed officials at the Justice Department who can make the decision to release a statement, the officials said. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself Thursday from all matters related to the federal investigation into connections between Trump, his associates and Russia.


Comey’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering is certain to invite contrasts to his actions last year, when he spoke publicly about the Hillary Clinton email case and disregarded Justice Department entreaties not to.


In his demand for a congressional inquiry, the president, through his press secretary, Sean Spicer, issued a statement Sunday that said, “President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.”


Spicer, who repeated the entire statement in a series of Twitter messages, added that “neither the White House nor the president will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”


A spokesman for Obama and his former aides have called the accusation by Trump completely false, saying that Obama never ordered any wiretapping of a U.S. citizen.


“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” Kevin Lewis, Obama’s spokesman, said in a statement Saturday.


Trump’s demand for a congressional investigation appears to be based, at least in part, on unproven claims by Breitbart News and conservative talk radio hosts that secret warrants were issued authorizing the tapping of the phones of Trump and his aides at Trump Tower in New York.


In a series of Twitter messages Saturday, the president seemed to be convinced that those claims were true. In one post, Trump said, “I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!”


On Sunday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deputy White House press secretary, said the president was determined to find out what had really happened, calling it potentially the “greatest abuse of power” that the country has ever seen.


“Look, I think he’s going off of information that he’s seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential,” Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “And if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that I think we have ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself. And the American people have a right to know if this took place.”



The claims about wiretapping appear similar in some ways to the unfounded voter fraud charges that Trump made during his first days in the Oval Office. Just after Inauguration Day, he reiterated in a series of Twitter messages his belief that millions of voters had cast ballots illegally — claims that also appeared to be based on conspiracy theories from right-wing websites.


As with his demand for a wiretapping inquiry, Trump also called for a “major investigation” into voter fraud, saying on Twitter that “depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!” No investigation has been started.


Senior law enforcement and intelligence officials who worked in the Obama administration have said there were no secret intelligence warrants regarding Trump. Asked whether such a warrant existed, James R. Clapper Jr., a former director of national intelligence, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, “Not to my knowledge, no.”


“There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time as a candidate or against his campaign,” Clapper added.


Trump’s demands for a congressional investigation were initially met with skepticism by lawmakers, including Republicans. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he was “not sure what it is that he is talking about.”


“I’m not sure what the genesis of that statement was,” Rubio said.



Pressed to elaborate on “Meet the Press,” Rubio said, “I’m not going to be a part of a witch hunt, but I’m also not going to be a part of a cover-up.”



http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-w...iretap-of-him/

Drudge Headline: "Comey Turns on Trump"

http://drudgereport.com/

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Mark R. Levin
@marklevinshow
59m


Ok, but release the FBI's 2 FISA applications so we can see what was going on. Enough with the selective leaking. fb.me/5XCwljJRF
View summary ·

https://mobile.twitter.com/marklevinshow

Funny isn't it how quick Comey jumps to exonerate and deny what's been reported about the FBI, but won't do likewise to exonerate Donald Trump from totally false charges of "colluding with the Russians to tip the election."

They are obviously fighting Trump at every turn. This all plays into trying to make Trump look foolish. They don't want these investigations, this in itself is strange; having a chance to prove Trump wrong. I suspect there is some truth to Trumps accusations to make them refuse. If they are false accusations what do they have to loose?

Exactly, posylady. They started this game, the game is on, it's time to confess their bad deeds and crimes or suffer the consequences of losing. Trump won't quit until he nails their butts, and rightly so.

Comey's buddy hillary....comey should step down for the white wash of the emails. Later, he inadvertently helped trump with his announcement just before the election @ more emails but it seemed he HAD to as the dept was @ to walk out, then that got smoothed over & he cleared her again.

Hillary Was Tipped Off On Trump Wiretap – Tweeted About it One Week Prior to Election

Cristina Laila Mar 5th, 2017 3:57 pm

TGP reported earlier that the first FISA request came right after AG Loretta Lynch met with Bill Clinton on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in June of 2016.

The second FISA request was submitted in October of 2016 just before the election. Hillary Clinton sent out a tweet on October 31st stating that ‘computer scientists have uncovered a covert server linking the Trump organization to a Russian-based server’.
It appears she was tipped off to the wiretapping prior to the election.


Here is Hillary Clinton’s tweet from October 31st… Computer scientists?… Connect the dots, folks. This was a well coordinated attack on a Presidential candidate. AG Lynch met with Bill Clinton just before the first FISA request.
After they were successful with the second FISA request in October, it appears Bill Clinton passed on the information to his wife to help her win the election. This scandal is about to blow wide open; it’s not going away any time soon. Stay tuned…

Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2016
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017...rior-election/

"Computer scientists" = FBI

"covert server" = Normal business server owned by private company, Trump Organization, owned by private US citizen and candidate for President, Donald J Trump.

covert definition:

not openly acknowledged or displayed

https://www.google.com/search?q=cove...utf-8&oe=utf-8

LOL!! What business that you know of talks about their business servers or openly displays them??!! Servers are kept private usually in locked rooms to secure and protect them, especially after they've been "hacked".

Trump Hotels attacked by hackers -- again
by Jose Pagliery
April 5, 2016: 9:52 AM ET

Hackers broke into computers at the Trump Hotel Collection, which runs several locations, including the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City, pictured above.

For the second time in six months, the Trump hotel chain is dealing with an attack on its computer systems, potentially exposing information about its customers.

On Monday, the Trump Hotel Collection acknowledged that its computers fell under attack. But it wouldn't release any details about what happened.

The FBI and Secret Service are now investigating the incident, according to Eric Trump, the son of billionaire Donald Trump.

U.S. Secret Service agents investigate hacks that involve theft of credit card data, which hints at what kind of case this is. A spokesman for the Secret Service said the agency declines to comment on active investigations. FBI did not immediately respond with a comment.

"Like virtually every other company these days, we are routinely targeted by cyber terrorists whose only focus is to inflict harm on great American businesses," Eric Trump said in a prepared statement sent to CNNMoney.

He added that the company is "committed to safeguarding all guests' personal information and will continue to do so vigilantly."

That might fall flat with customers. Just six months ago, the company was forced to publicly admit that hackers snuck a computer virus into Trump hotels across the United States and Canada, potentially stealing customer credit card data for an entire year.

That time, the company quickly explained what had happened.

It said hackers managed to place malicious software on the Trump hotel chain's payment systems for a long time. The hotel chain warned that anyone who visited a Trump hotel between May 19, 2014 and June 2, 2015 "may have been affected" -- especially if they visited locations in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Toronto.

But the company didn't provide any additional information this time around, giving customer no clues about what might have happened to their information.

News of the latest incident was first reported as a credit card data breach by cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, who cited anonymous sources in the banking industry.

Donald Trump, who's currently running for the Republican nomination for president, has complained about hackers and lamented that in the United States, "we're so obsolete in cyber."

Trump hotels are only the latest addition to an increasingly long list of hacked companies. In the last two years, hackers managed to steal payment data from Albertson's, CVS Photo, Home Depot, Michaels, Neiman Marcus, P.F. Chang's, Staples, SuperValu and Target.

Like most retail businesses, hotel chains have been a particularly juicy target for hackers because their payment systems are often not properly guarded.

"We've seen that in the hotel industry, the point-of-sale systems are generally the weakest link in the IT chain, and technically savvy criminal organizations clearly have figured this out," said Tod Beardsley, a senior security research manager at cybersecurity firm Rapid7.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/05/tech...hotels-hacked/

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Prior hack event:

Trump hotels hacked, credit card data at risk
by Jose Pagliery
September 30, 2015: 4:17 PM ET

Hackers snuck a computer virus into Trump hotels across the United States and Canada, potentially stealing customer credit card data for an entire year.

The Trump Hotel Collection recently acknowledged the computer infection on its website.

Apparently, hackers managed to hide inside the company's computers for a long time. The hotel chain warned that anyone who visited a Trump hotel between May 19, 2014 and June 2, 2015 "may have been affected."

The list of hotels includes two locations in New York and one in each of the following cities: Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Toronto and Miami.

According to Trump hotels, hackers placed special software on the Trump hotel chain's payment systems. That malware touched sensitive payment information, like credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes on the back of cards.

It seems that, as customers or hotel employees typed in payment information, the malicious software quietly grabbed it in the background. But the company isn't quite sure if the hackers managed to pull out that data from the computer system.

"An independent forensic investigation has not conclusively determined that any particular customer's payment card information was taken," the company stated.

The hotel chain is offering one year of free identity fraud protection to affected customers. And credit cards always have fraud protection. So, at most, this hack will be an inconvenience to any victims.

Trump hotels are only the latest addition to an increasingly long list of hacked companies. In the last two years, hackers managed to steal payment data from Albertson's, CVS Photo, Home Depot, Michaels, Neiman Marcus, P.F. Chang's, Staples, SuperValu and Target.

"Data networks are continuously under attack," said Kevin Watson, CEO of data security company Netsurion. "In the case of Trump Hotels, the bigger the name on the door, the bigger the target."

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/30/tech...p-hotels-hack/

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So Trump Hotels was hacked twice during this election:

September 30, 2015
April 5, 2016

FBI was called in according to the article on the April 2016 event, and was probably called in during the September 2015 one as well although the article doesn't say so.