least i think it s because he s not a diplomat. that s the title of one of the chapters in his new book. not a diplomat. in his public remarks and congressional testimony since leaving that very important behind the scenes job, jim clapper has made a habit of saying important and surprising things in a blunt way, in a way that sometimes surprises the people who are asking him questions. let me start with the president s tweets yesterday, this idea that maybe president obama ordered an illegal wiretap of his offices. at this point you can t confirm or deny whether that exists? i can deny it. there is no fisa court order. not to my knowledge. of anything at trump tower? no. that s an important revelation at this point. over the spring of 2016, multiple european allies passed on additional information to the united states about contacts between the trump campaign and
things in a blunt way, in a way that sometimes surprises the people who are asking him questions. let me start with the president s tweets yesterday, this idea that maybe president obama ordered an illegal wiretap of his offices. at this point, you can t confirm or deny whether that exists? i can deny it. there is no fisa court order. not to my knowledge. of anything at trump tower? no. well, that s an important revelation at this point. over the spring of 2016, multiple european allies passed on additional information to the united states about contacts between the trump campaign and russians. is this accurate? ah yes, it is. and it s also quite sensitive. okay. let me ask you this the specifics are quite sensitive. i think this past weekend is
and of course the lack everof ability to cross-examine in-did not deter. they promoted the idea that it undermined the russia probe. the memo itself promoted that type of thinking. and in its introduction, it claimed to evidence a breakdown of the legal processes established to protect americans. but that is not what the memo showed. it sought to politically resurrect the importance of carter page, an individual the president and his campaign had gone to great lengths to diminish. the key claim was that page was surveilled initially based on a fisa court order without court knowledge of who paid for the underlying intel. but it is not clear that the investigator former british spy christopher steele knew who was funding his intel gathering. more importantly, carter page was on the radar of the fbi long before the political rise of donald trump and the russian probe began three months before the initial fisa request regarding carter page. the point is that the russian
deter. they promoted the idea that it undermined the russia probe. the memo itself promoted that type of thinking. and in its introduction, it claimed to evidence a breakdown of the legal processes established to protect americans. but that is not what the memo showed. it sought to politically resurrect the importance of carter page, an individual the president and his campaign had gone to great lengths to diminish. the key claim was that page was surveilled initially based on a fisa court order obtained without court knowledge of who paid for the underlying intel. but it is not clear that the investigator former british spy christopher steele knew who was funding his intel gathering. more importantly, carter page was on the radar of the fbi long before the political rise of donald trump and the russian probe began three months before the initial fisa request regarding carter page.
trouble. september 26, page himself announces that he s taking a leave of absence from the campaign. note that, september 26. october 21st, 2016, the fbi first receives a fisa court order to begin surveillance on page. just two and a half weeks before the presidential election, which would seem to refute republican claims that the fbi conspired with democrats to interfere in the election. october 21st they got the warrant, november 8 was the election. the gop memo states information about the trump campaign aide george papadopoulos triggered an opening of an fbi counterintelligence investigation in late july, 2016. house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes was asked about that this morning. some say, well, what about papadopoulos. they started looking at him earlier. what do you say to that? well, i would say that if papadopoulos was such a major figure, why didn t you get a warrant on him? if papadopoulos was such a major