One thing that is painfully clear in all of this is the widely divergent frames that can be put around a set of events. Where Trump’s critics see a legal investigation into foreign influence, he (and presumably his supporters) see a “McCarthyist” abuse of power of the same criminal stripe as the Watergate break-in.

Only one of those interpretations can be right.

„Simply because you don‘t like someone doesn‘t give you the right as the sitting president to do something like this. … This was about trying to gain an advantage for his side, this case [Hillary] Clinton,“ he said.

Shaffer also said Trump must have sufficient evidence since he went public with the accusations on Twitter.

Watch the full interview with Shaffer in the video above.

“They asked for that warrant and were denied, went back again [and] got the warrant, found out nothing was happening and went ahead and continued monitoring it,” the national security expert said.

As for Trump proving his claim, Hanson countered: “They did get a FISA warrant, so he doesn’t have to prove that they wiretapped him. They did wiretap him.”

“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with an independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” said spokesman Kevin Lewis. “As part of that practice neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”

The spokesperson did not deny that intelligence officials had requested or employed surveillance of Trump associates.

“While the order would have been requested by some part of the executive branch, Obama can’t order anything. Nor can Trump,” says former NSA lawyer April Doss, who stresses that her comments are based only on public information. “The order has to come from the court, and the court operates independently.”

„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 Saturday. „As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.“

(24.7.2013)In a bizarre and ludicrous attempt at “transparency,” the Obama administration has announced that it asked a secret court to approve a secret order to allow the government to keep spying on millions of Americans, and the secret court has granted its request.

Late on Friday, July 19, 2013, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) – a secret court which operates out of an undisclosed federal building in Washington, DC – quietly renewed an order from the National Security Agency to have Verizon Communications hand over hundreds of millions of Americans’ telephone records to government officials.

Der Vorsitzende Richter des FISC gab als Reaktion auf Medienberichte zu, dass das Gericht keine Möglichkeit hätte, die Nachrichtendienste selbständig zu kontrollieren, sondern sich auf deren Berichte verlassen müsse

(24.1.2014) It may be the most powerful court you have never heard of — operating out of a bunker-like complex blocks from the Capitol and the White House — sealed tightly to prevent eavesdropping.
Its a tribunal that is secret (or supposed to be). Its structure is largely one-sided and its members are unilaterally chosen by one unelected person.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — or FISA Court for short — is a panel that critics contend rubber-stamps nearly every National Security Agency request to snoop that it receives.

Der FISA regelt die näheren Umstände, unter denen der Attorney General und das ihm unterstellte FBI einen Durchsuchungsbefehl gegen Personen erlangen können, die auf dem Boden der Vereinigten Staaten der Spionage für eine ausländische Macht gegen die USA verdächtigt werden. 1978 ging es ursprünglich nur um elektronische Überwachungsmaßnahmen, insbesondere Telefonüberwachung und akustische Wohnraumüberwachung, seit 1994 regelt der FISA auch die Durchsuchung von Wohnungen und Personen.

Dazu wurde mit dem FISA der United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) geschaffen, ein Gericht, das ausschließlich zur Beratung von FISA-Fällen zusammentritt, und die Überwachung oder Durchsuchung anordnen muss. Bei Gefahr im Verzug muss das FISC unverzüglich informiert werden und kann innerhalb von einer Woche die Maßnahme nachträglich genehmigen.

(7.11.2016) Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.

4. October: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found — but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes. The Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.

Trump offered no citations nor did he point to any credible news report to back up his accusation, but he may have been referring to commentary on Breitbart and conservative talk radio suggesting that Obama and his administration used “police state” tactics last fall to monitor the Trump team. The Breitbart story, published Friday, has been circulating among Trump‘s senior staff, according to a White House official who described it as a useful catalogue of the Obama administration‘s activities.

US-Präsident Trump wirft seinem Vorgänger Obama vor, dass er während des Wahlkampfs seine Telefone im Trump Tower abhören ließ.
Zugleich attackiert Trump Obama auf Twitter persönlich.
Beweise für die Anschuldigungen liefert der Präsident allerdings nicht.

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„Die Amerikaner wären sehr überrascht, wenn sie wüssten, dass ihre Regierung Al-Kaida unterstützt“. Die US-Regierung soll ihre Unterstützung für extremistische Milizen in Syrien einstellen. Das fordert die Abgeordnete Tulsi Gabbard gestern in Washington.

Vor dem Gebäude des Kongresses sprach sie mit RT über ihren Gesetzesvorschlag, die Hilfe für ausländische Milizen zu verbieten.

Über die Jahrestagung des 12. Chinesischen Nationalen Volkskongresses (NVK), die am Sonntag eröffnet wird, werden über 3.000 Journalisten berichten, darunter mehr als 1.500 von ausländischen Medien. Dies sagte die Sprecherin der Jahrestagung, Fu Ying, am Samstag auf einer Pressekonferenz.

Beijing: Die fünfte Jahrestagung des 12. Landeskomitees der Politischen Konsultativkonferenz des Chinesischen Volks (PKKCV) ist am Freitagnachmittag in der großen Halle des Volkes in Beijing eröffnet worden.

Eine Partei, 3000 Abgeordnete und vier große Fragen: In Peking kommt das chinesische Parlament zusammen. Worum geht es beim Nationalen Volkskongress? Wer entscheidet? Und was bedeutet das für Deutschland und Europa?