{"id":178300,"date":"2019-01-12T19:26:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/01\/12\/i-dont-get-it\/"},"modified":"2019-01-12T19:26:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T00:26:00","slug":"i-dont-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/01\/12\/i-dont-get-it\/","title":{"rendered":"I Don&#8217;t Get It"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Citing numerous law enforcement sources, the <i>New York Times<\/i> is reporting that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/11\/us\/politics\/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html\">the FBI opened an investigation of whether Trump was working for Putin in response to James Comey&#8217;s firing<\/a>, which has described as a &#8220;blockbuster&#8221;.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;First, why is no one looking into Trump being mobbed up.  He has to be, he&#8217;s a developer in New York and northern New Jersey.  (Also, why did no reporters look into it during the campaign)  Second, the report does not mention any specific information.<\/p>\n<p>I am not sure how this is a blockbuster.<\/p>\n<p>Conducting a counterintelligence investigation in such a situation should be standard, just as the obstruction of justice investigation was.<\/p>\n<p>If Trump fired Comey to cover his own ass (probably yes) then there are both criminal and intelligence effects, so an investigation of both would not only not be unusual, it would be almost routine.<\/p>\n<p>Also, given the history of the FBI, it is hardly surprising that there would be leaks regarding such an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation, in and of itself does not constitute a major story.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\"> In the days after President Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/05\/09\/us\/politics\/james-comey-fired-fbi.html?module=inline\">fired James B. Comey<\/a> as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president\u2019s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president\u2019s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/06\/14\/us\/politics\/mueller-trump-special-counsel-investigation.html?module=inline\">long been publicly known<\/a>: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>The F.B.I. conducts <a href=\"https:\/\/vault.fbi.gov\/FBI%20Domestic%20Investigations%20and%20Operations%20Guide%20%28DIOG%29\/FBI%20Domestic%20Investigations%20and%20Operations%20Guide%20%28DIOG%29%202016%20Version\">two types of inquiries<\/a>,  criminal and counterintelligence investigations. Unlike criminal  investigations, which are typically aimed at solving a crime and can  result in arrests and convictions, counterintelligence inquiries are  generally fact-finding missions to understand what a foreign power is  doing and to stop any anti-American activity, like thefts of United  States government secrets or covert efforts to influence policy. In most  cases, the investigations are carried out quietly, sometimes for years.  Often, they result in no arrests. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Citing numerous law enforcement sources, the New York Times is reporting that the FBI opened an investigation of whether Trump was working for Putin in response to James Comey&#8217;s firing, which has described as a &#8220;blockbuster&#8221;. &nbsp;First, why is no one looking into Trump being mobbed up. He has to be, he&#8217;s a developer in &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[482,573,481,523,407],"class_list":["post-178300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-breaking-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-intelligence","tag-journalism","tag-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}