Former DNI James Clapper: “I Can Deny” Wiretap of Trump Tower -NBC NEWS Meet The Press, Sunday, 10:14 AM.
Phew!!!
I am so glad that’s over with!!!
But…
But…
Wait minute!!!
Isn’t this the same James Clapper who testified to the Senate that the NSA didn’t surveille “innocent American citizens???” Sans beard? (Tradecraft gone amok. Maybe he thinks we won’t recognize him?)
Oh.
Yes it is.
Let us look a little deeper into this “denial,” please.
There are so many loopholes in it that it would put a block of swiss cheese to shame.
Read on.
Ready?
Here goes. (All quotes from the same NBC story. And I do mean “story.” Emphases mine.)
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Sunday denied any suggestion that Trump Tower communications were wiretapped before the election.
For the part of the national security apparatus that he oversaw, “there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign,” Clapper told Chuck Todd in an exclusive interview on Sunday’s “Meet The Press.”
Notice the first escape hole. If he wasn’t “overseeing” it, he had no knowledge of it. Plausible deniability 101. “Do whatever you got to do. I don’t want the details. Do it and don’t get caught. If you do get caught, you’re on your own.”
Like dat.
Like Nixon and the plumbers.
When Todd asked him whether he could confirm or deny if a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Act) order for this existed, Clapper declared, “I can deny it.”
But…did it happen without a FISA approval?
Asked again whether there was a FISA Court order to monitor Trump Tower, Clapper said, “Not to my knowledge.”
Translation: “Whatever happened, I didn’t know about it.”
Clapper said that if any wiretap like that occurred, he would “certainly hope” that he would be aware of it.
Hope springs eternal when trying to avoid implication in a crime.
“I can’t speak for other authorized entities in the government or a state or local entity,” he added.
Yup.
Clapper was also asked on “Meet the Press” if he had any evidence that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russian government while the Kremlin was working to influence the election.
“Not to my knowledge,” Clapper said, based on the information he had before his time in the position ended.
Hmmmm…
Maybe he’s…heard things…since then?
“We did not include anything in our report … that had any reflect of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that included in our report,” he said. “We had no evidence of such collusion.”
Followed immediately by:
When asked whether he still believes that Russians interfered in the U.S. election to help Donald Trump, Clapper said, “Yes, I do.”
Blind faith?
Please!!!
On Sunday, he added that “it would be very healthy to completely clear the air on this subject” and noted that the current inquiry by the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence into the matter will be able to look at the issues from a broader context than they would.
“I do have confidence” in the Senate effort, he said, calling it “truly bipartisan.”
True.
“Bipartisan” in a united, Permanent Government kind of way. Aim? To get rid of the new gang in town, of course. Or at the very least, to confine them to penny ante rackets and one ineffective term in office.
Clapper said it was important to get to the bottom of these issues “because it’s such a distraction.”
“Certainly the Russians have to be chortling about the success of their efforts to sew [sic] dissension in this country,” Clapper added.
A “distraction?”
From what, exactly?
Inquiring minds want to know.
All others apparently do not give a shit past getting rid of all of these deplorables now in office or at the very least crippling their attempted takeover of the rackets now in place.
Stay tuned…
Stay tuned for more interminable legalistic parsing of the facts of the matter.
Watch.
This week will be a liar’s holiday.
On both sides.
Watch.
AG