Former FBI Director James Comey called Attorney General William Barr’s suggestion that “spying” on President Trump’s campaign may have occurred at the outset of the Russia probe “concerning,” especially if Barr considers “court ordered electronic surveillance” to be “spying.”
“I really don’t know what he’s talking about when he talks about spying on the campaign,” Comey said Thursday. “It”s concerning because the FBI and the Department of Justice conduct court-ordered electronic surveillance. I have never thought of that as spying and the reason I’m interested to know what he means by that is if the attorney general has come to the belief that that should be called spying– wow.”
Comey: "I really don't know what (Barr's) talking about" with "spying" claims pic.twitter.com/KjnjcI84x1
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 12, 2019
During a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Barr admitted that he thought “spying did occur” by intelligence agencies on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. He later clarified that he wants to look into whether “unauthorized surveillance” had occurred.
Why is he still relevant? Sit out of 2020!
So does this mean that Comey is back to being a Hero of the #FakeResistance again, now that they’ve got Julian Assange to beat up on for this week?
The only place I’d be remotely willing to cite Barr slack on spying is if he was referring to foreign intelligence services.
Even then though, when you literally invite them in, I don’t think you can fairly call it spying.
Just a week ago you told us to give Barr the benefit of the doubt. Stop gaslighting us into believing the white elite is ever going to do the honorable thing at their own expense. Every white male “institutionalist” asshole that gets on TV to defend another white male Republican ends up proven wrong, and yet here they are, once again, defending their country club buddies. Fuck off.
This clip underscores why the debate over ‘spying’ is irrelevant. If you hang out with Russian spies wh undertake an intel op to undermine our democracy, you get surveilled. Most Americans get that. Just relax, let Barr go, and pressure Dems to issue the subpoenas. Once we exercise that power, Barr fades into irrelevance. He can’t do anything more than Sessions did thereafter.