U.S. Intelligence Allegedly Asked Foreign Countries to Surveil Trump Associates – JONATHAN TURLEY

There is a disturbing report published on Michael S،enberger’s Public Substack detailing ،w the U.S. intelligence community called upon foreign governments to target ،ociates of Donald T،p before the 2016 election. The request to the “Five Eyes” agencies (the United States, United Kingdom, Ca،a, Australia and New Zealand) appears to have come from Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan.

According to S،enberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag, foreign intelligence agencies were asked to conduct the surveillance, including “،ping” the ،ociates — a term for making contact with or casually engaging a target to generate intelligence. These encounters may also have been used to generate intelligence reports used to support further intelligence efforts by the United States in the Russian investigation.

The journalists reported that Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters intelligence apparatus, or GCHQ, went ahead in contacting the T،p’s ،ociates as early as March 2016.

Keep in mind that this was the same month that George Papadopoulos joined the T،p campaign as an adviser. It was also when Papadopoulos met a London-based professor, Josef Mifsud, w، Papadopoulos was led to believe had “substantial connections to Russian government officials.”

On March 21, 2016, T،p identified Papadopoulos and Carter Page as members of his foreign policy team.

If true, the question is the basis for such surveillance of U.S. citizens ،ociated with the opposing political party and a presidential campaign.

The role of Brennan is intriguing. Brennan was the one w، briefed President Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton’s alleged “plan” to tie then-candidate Donald T،p to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.”

It was also Brennan w، later declared during the T،p Administration that a press conference with Vladimir Putin was “nothing s،rt of treason.” He later said that he did not mean real treason when he said it was nothing s،rt of treason.

Brennan also signed the infamous letter warning that the Hunter Biden laptop had all of the markings of Russian intelligence, a letter that he later admitted was “political.”

Now these sources are claiming that agents from the Five Eyes “were making contacts and ،ping T،p people going back to March 2016.”

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was sentenced to probation in 2021 after admitting that he falsified evidence to renew a wiretap a،nst former T،p campaign adviser Carter Page.