Author Topic: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS  (Read 1195 times)

Yamcha

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WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« on: March 30, 2017, 02:36:22 PM »
Billy House | Bloomberg

The Trump administration invited leaders of congressional intelligence panels to review documents it said raise questions about whether government spy agencies improperly identified President Donald Trump’s campaign officials and associates in the course of routine foreign surveillance.

In a letter signed by White House Counsel Donald McGahn, the administration said Thursday it was responding to a March 15 request from intelligence committees for “documents necessary to determine whether information collected on U.S. persons was mishandled and leaked.” It asks the committees to probe whether the intelligence was properly gathered, whether names were improperly revealed and “to the extent that U.S. citizens were subject to such surveillance, were civil liberties violated?”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced the invitation during a briefing with reporters in Washington Thursday, shortly after the New York Times reported that two White House officials had provided House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes with reports showing that Trump and his associates were named incidentally by U.S. spy agencies monitoring foreign officials.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, said he’s willing to review the material but questioned the administration’s motives, saying officials may be trying to disseminate information that helps Trump’s case. “I hope they’ll have some kind of explanation for why they chose this path,” Schiff told reporters at the Capitol.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-30/white-house-says-intelligence-panels-can-see-surveillance-data
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Yamcha

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2017, 02:41:34 PM »
White House aides shared intelligence files with Nunes

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/30/white-house-aides-reportedly-shared-intelligence-files-with-nunes.html

Two White House aides have emerged as sources for a top House Republican who said earlier this month that Trump transition team members were incidentally caught up in surveillance conducted on foreign targets after the presidential election.

It had been unclear who showed embattled House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes the documents, though it previously emerged the California Republican viewed the files on White House grounds.

But on Thursday, “several” current officials identified the sources to The New York Times as Ezra Cohen-Warnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, an attorney at the White House Counsel’s Office who previously worked for the House Intelligence Committee.

Fox News has confirmed that the two staffers aided Nunes in reviewing intelligence on White House grounds March 21.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday wouldn't confirm or refute the report; however, he did announce the White House had just hours before submitted a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, inviting them to the White House to "see the information" that had recently "come to light."

"We are willing to provide them the materials that we have come across," Spicer said.

Asked if President Trump specifically directed anyone to look into allegations he had made about the Obama administration spying on him, Spicer said he wasn't "aware of anything directly."

The Times report appears to cast the actions of the White House aides as being undertaken on their own volition.

Earlier this month, after Trump tweeted that former President Barack Obama had “wiretapped” him, Ellis began viewing classified reports that showed “intercepted communications of foreign officials,” The Times reported. The reports mainly focused on foreign officials “talking about how they were trying to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle,” according to The Times.

A spokesperson for Nunes declined to comment on the Times report.
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Nick Danger

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2017, 02:44:52 PM »
Billy House | Bloomberg

The Trump administration invited leaders of congressional intelligence panels to review documents it said raise questions about whether government spy agencies improperly identified President Donald Trump’s campaign officials and associates in the course of routine foreign surveillance.

In a letter signed by White House Counsel Donald McGahn, the administration said Thursday it was responding to a March 15 request from intelligence committees for “documents necessary to determine whether information collected on U.S. persons was mishandled and leaked.” It asks the committees to probe whether the intelligence was properly gathered, whether names were improperly revealed and “to the extent that U.S. citizens were subject to such surveillance, were civil liberties violated?”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced the invitation during a briefing with reporters in Washington Thursday, shortly after the New York Times reported that two White House officials had provided House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes with reports showing that Trump and his associates were named incidentally by U.S. spy agencies monitoring foreign officials.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, said he’s willing to review the material but questioned the administration’s motives, saying officials may be trying to disseminate information that helps Trump’s case. “I hope they’ll have some kind of explanation for why they chose this path,” Schiff told reporters at the Capitol.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-30/white-house-says-intelligence-panels-can-see-surveillance-data

Considering the information came from the White House, why didn't they invite the lawmakers last week instead of putting on the ruse with Nunes?


Things just went from bad to worse for Devin Nunes and the White House

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/30/things-just-went-from-bad-to-worse-for-devin-nunes-and-the-white-house/

Yamcha

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2017, 02:53:41 PM »
Considering the information came from the White House, why didn't they invite the lawmakers last week instead of putting on the ruse with Nunes?


Things just went from bad to worse for Devin Nunes and the White House

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/30/things-just-went-from-bad-to-worse-for-devin-nunes-and-the-white-house/

Hahahahahaha....

Lack of disclosure is now the argument? What if these two officials are whistle-blowers? no right to protect them?

Democrats have already shown that they can't keep classified materials to themselves; they seem to LOVE talking to the press about it.
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Yamcha

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2017, 02:59:29 PM »
See? Their names are already being posted in the press:

Quote
The congressman [Nunes] has refused to identify his sources, saying he needed to protect them so others would feel safe coming to the committee with sensitive information. He disclosed the existence of the intelligence reports on March 22, and in his public comments he has described his sources as whistle-blowers trying to expose wrongdoing at great risk to themselves.

Several current American officials identified the White House officials as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and formerly worked on the staff of the House Intelligence Committee.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Mr. Cohen-Watnick is a former Defense Intelligence Agency official who was originally brought to the White House by Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser. The officials said that this month, shortly after Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter about being wiretapped on the orders of President Barack Obama, Mr. Cohen-Watnick began reviewing highly classified reports detailing the intercepted communications of foreign officials.

Officials said the reports consisted primarily of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how they were trying to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle in advance of his inauguration.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the intelligence and to avoid angering Mr. Cohen-Watnick and Mr. Ellis. Officials say Mr. Cohen-Watnick has been reviewing the reports from his fourth-floor office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the National Security Council is based.

But the officials’ description of the intelligence is in line with Mr. Nunes’s own characterization of the material, which he has said was not related to the Russia investigations when he disclosed its existence in a hastily arranged news conference.

According to Mr. Nunes, he received a phone call from a source the night before, and then rushed to meet the person on the grounds of the White House. He has explained the choice of location by saying he needed access to a secure place where people with security clearances could legally view classified information, though such facilities can also be found in the Capitol building and at other locations across Washington.

The next day, Mr. Nunes gave a news briefing at the Capitol and then returned to the White House to brief President Trump on the information.
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Nick Danger

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2017, 03:06:29 PM »
Hahahahahaha....

Lack of disclosure is now the argument? What if these two officials are whistle-blowers? no right to protect them?

Democrats have already shown that they can't keep classified materials to themselves; they seem to LOVE talking to the press about it.

They're White House staffers...why go to Nunes? Why not give their info directly to Trump and Paul Ryan.

Yamcha

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2017, 03:10:54 PM »
They're White House staffers...why go to Nunes? Why not give their info directly to Trump and Paul Ryan.

Nunes is the head of the current oversight investigation into the matter.
Don't over-think things.
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Nick Danger

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2017, 03:21:36 PM »
Nunes is the head of the current oversight investigation into the matter.
Don't over-think things.

As you and Nunes stated, it had nothing to do with Russia.

If the info is as being reported...surveillance of non-Americans talking about Americans (Trump et al.) will you at least consider it was a White House supported ruse?

Yamcha

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2017, 03:28:54 PM »
As you and Nunes stated, it had nothing to do with Russia.

If the info is as being reported...surveillance of non-Americans talking about Americans (Trump et al.) will you at least consider it was a White House supported ruse?

Quote
Officials said the reports consisted primarily of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how they were trying to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle in advance of his inauguration.

Still should be classified material with U.S. citizens masked. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Nunes was actually one of the individuals that is in these documents.








Hard to know if it is a "White House supported ruse" without even knowing the material in question.
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MuscleManDrew

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2017, 03:35:30 PM »
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Al Doggity

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2017, 05:53:14 AM »
Hard to know if it is a "White House supported ruse" without even knowing the material in question.

Yet, you repeatedly have said that the material in question proves trump's tweets were true?  ???


We know that Nunes received information from White House employees, yet he specifically said the White House was unaware of the info when asked about it in that amateur comedy act/press conference he threw.


We know that Nunes made no substantial claims or confirmations about Obama surveilling trump, but presented his allegations in a vague enough way so that most of the conservative members on this board misunderstood them and claimed they were validation of trump's tweets.

There really is no other way to look at the whole mess as anything other than a white house ruse.

Yamcha

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2017, 05:57:18 AM »
Yet, you repeatedly have said that the material in question proves trump's tweets were true?  ???


I have?
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Al Doggity

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2017, 06:56:46 AM »
I guess you can say it was a matter of interpretation, but here's one example:

http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=627528.msg8747345#msg8747345

I just think Trump didn't know how to spell "surveillance" at 4:30 am.  :D

No, I've believed him since day one. I said I'd eat crow if evidence didn't show up by the 20th... Just 2 days late.

There may be a certain level of jest and casualness here that I wouldn't expect to hold up in a court of law, but you've voiced a similar sentiment in other threads.

Yamcha

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Re: WHITE HOUSE INVITES LAWMAKERS TO VIEW SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2017, 11:45:37 AM »
FOX News guy going off:




Look at this video from Feb.; Dem. states that Trump has been under surveillance since Spring 2015

Mary Anne Marsh, a democrat, reveals that the Obama admin had been investigating Trump since the spring of 2015!!

https://twitter.com/DagnyDelinquent/status/847855393682444292
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