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How Wiretaps Actually Work (washingtonpost.com)
David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security from 2009 to 2011, has responded to the recent accusations made by president Donald Trump. On Saturday, Trump accused former president Obama of orchestrating a "Nixon/Watergate" plot to tap the phones at his Trump Tower headquarters in the run-up to last fall's election. He writes in an opinion piece for The Washington Post: First, the U.S. government needs probable cause, signatures from government officials and advance approval from a federal court before engaging in wiretapping in the United States. There are some narrow exceptions, for things such as short-term emergencies, which are then reviewed by a judge promptly after the fact. This is not something that the president simply orders. Under the law governing foreign intelligence wiretaps, the government has to show probable cause that a "facility" is being used or about to be used by a "foreign power" -- e.g., a foreign government or an international terrorist group -- or by an "agent of a foreign power." A facility is something like a telephone number or an email address. Second, there is no requirement that the facility being wiretapped be owned, leased or listed in the name of the person who is committing the offense or is the agent of a foreign power. [...] Third, government officials, including the president, don't normally speak publicly about wiretaps. Indeed, it is in some cases a federal crime to disclose a wiretap without authorization, including not only the information obtained from the wiretap, but also the mere existence of a wiretap with an intent to obstruct it. With respect to intelligence wiretaps, there is an additional issue: They are always classified, and disclosure of classified information is also generally a crime. The president enjoys authority over classified information, of course, but at a minimum it would be highly irregular to disclose an intelligence wiretap via Twitter.
The president enjoys authority over classified information, of course, but at a minimum it would be highly irregular to disclose an intelligence wiretap via Twitter.
A General Hayden explained on the Late Show the other night that the president can tweet whatever he damned well pleases - Since he's the ultimate classification authority, information just BECOMES unclassified BY being tweeted. Of course this is irregular - We've never had a president who used Twitter (or any social media) the way DJT does. This is just an irregular presidency all together.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Chapter 36 of Title 50 of the US Code *War and National Defense", Subchapter 1, Section 1802
(1) Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath that—
(A) the electronic surveillance is solely directed at—
(i) the acquisition of the contents of communications transmitted by means of communications used exclusively between or among foreign powers, as defined in section 1801(a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; or
(ii) the acquisition of technical intelligence, other than the spoken communications of individuals, from property or premises under the open and exclusive control of a foreign power, as defined in section 1801(a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title;
(B) there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party; and
(C) the proposed minimization procedures with respect to such surveillance meet the definition of minimization procedures under section 1801(h) of this title; and
if the Attorney General reports such minimization procedures and any changes thereto to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at least thirty days prior to their effective date, unless the Attorney General determines immediate action is required and notifies the committees immediately of such minimization procedures and the reason for their becoming effective immediately.
every weekend he flies off to florida to golf and meet with business and foreign leaders right after he shoots off some idiotic tweet that the media eats up all weekend long to take away from what he is actually doing
total justification
"If he wants to speak about classified information than he can, and literally nobody can stop him."
That's true of everyone, not just the president. Doesn't mean there won't be consequences, that's how the law works.
Of course, with the president there can be no prosecution while in office but he can be prosecuted after he leaves office. Furthermore, he can be removed from office through impeachment and disclosing "whatever he wants" could constitute an impeachable offense. You are simply wrong on this, the constitution has more authority than the president and he can't simply do what he wants.
Presidents always have a direct line to public, twitter hasn't changed that and people don't dislike it. People don't like trump for other reasons.
I don't care where you fall on the political spectrum, it needs to be admitted that there are some serious problems affecting Sweden right now.
For example, just look at this list of recent grenade attacks in Sweden.
Sweden's population is only about 10 million people yet they've been suffering from grenade attacks almost every other week for several years now.
That's extraordinarily abnormal, especially for what was once one of the most advanced and peaceful nations on Earth.
It has been particularly bad in Malmö, a city where over 40% of the population are foreigners or not descended from traditional Swedes.
Regardless of your feelings for President Trump, it cannot be denied that he is right about the major problems affecting Sweden today.
Failed immigration policies have resulted in far too many violent criminals from some of the worst areas in the world ending up in Sweden, and they are quickly destroying what was once one of the top nations. The United States should learn a lesson from Sweden.
Turns out trump is the fucking loser we all said he was all along and the first month of presidency is worse than any reasonable person could have speculated.
Trump has accused the former president of a crime that if he was still president would have resulted in an impeachment and likely jail.
From all accounts Trump's accusation are a blatant and flat out lie backed by the power of the president of the united states.
Why should his punishment be less than Obama's would have been if it was true? The presidency is not a toy for Trump to play with the masses with. Impeachment is the only remedy to remove a president that is failing to do his job in a minimally credible manner. He is failing at that. This is not really political. The united states president must have credibility, or he can't do his job. He doesn't have it. He is a lying sack of crap.
From what I've read in the news, the wiretapping wasn't aimed at Trump but at a Russian server operating out of Trump Tower. But, yeah, let's blame Obama for that one too.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html
The president has declassification authority. It is literally impossible for the president to be prosecuted for leaking classified information since he can decide to declassify anything he damn well pleases. Now Congress can be a check on this by impeaching and convicting him because what he declassified had horrible consequences, but he can declassify it and there's no law to prevent it. In fact the law very specifically allows him to declassify it as part of his duties as president.
Let's not forget about the Sharyl Attkisson story. She is still in legal battles over the illegal invasion of her phones, computers, and life because she reported some uncomfortable facts about the Obama administration.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
What surveillance? No surveillance has been established.
Of course your description is not what happened at all. Here's what actually happened.
PRESS: "Wiretaps were used to investigate Trump's possible Russian involvment."
TRUMP: "I was personally wire tapped and Obama ordered it!"
PRESS: "Donald Trump Unhinged! Claims he was Spied On. Unfounded!!!!"
Do you see the huge glaring gap there between the first and second lines? That's the reason for the third line.
There is currently zero evidence for Trump's claim and the president making such a claim about a prior president without evidence is indeed unhinged.
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"The same kind of bullshit Obama used to spew, and the left understood he was "lying" in order to "progress" the narrative. "
Please, give me an example of Obama doing this. Something on par with claiming the prior president had bugged his phones while possessing zero evidence to support the claim please.
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story about how the NYT changed their headline to remove the word Wiretap.
In the story is the ORIGINAL story as NYT printed it. You can't find it anymore because that story/headline proves Trump is correct, and the NYT can't have that.
Yea, NYT isn't biased. The are literally changing previously run stories that verify Trump's claims.
How you like them apples?