The White House Just Accused Britain Of Wiretapping Trump For Obama
The House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and former director of National Intelligence James Clapper all agree that there is not a shred of evidence that supports President Trump’s outrageous wiretap accusations against President Obama.
So naturally, the White House has decided to double down on the conspiracy theory that President Trump read about in fascist hate-rag Breitbart by accusing our nation’s closest ally of helping President Obama to spy on Trump, according to TIME‘s White House reporter:
Um. Wow. @PressSec reading from podium accusation that former President Obama used GCHQ to spy on Trump.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) March 16, 2017
GCHQ, or the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters, is the British intelligence community’s electronic and signal intelligence (SIGINT) gathering organization.
It will come as no surprise that the GCHQ is not permitted to target American citizens. In the unlikely event they were asked to wiretap Trump Tower, they would still need a warrant from a US court.
Trump may be targeting GCHQ and trying to discredit them in the eyes of his supporters because their intelligence gathering efforts have helped corroborate details of the Christopher Steele “Golden Showers” dossier.
It goes without saying that the White House accusing our closest overseas ally of being complicit in an imaginary plot to secretly spy on Trump’s presidential campaign headquarters is appallingly disrespectful and sets the stage for a major international incident.
Somehow, it gets worse. The source of this shocking information? FOX News’ Andrew Napolitano.
.@Judgenap: Three intel sources have disclosed that Pres. Obama turned to British spies to get surveillance on Trump pic.twitter.com/IghCFm7qhO
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 14, 2017
It’s hard to fully describe just how insane this entire scenario is.
The White House is now actively trafficking in conspiracy theories and fake news for the sole purpose of defending President Trump’s ego after his poorly conceived attempt to distract the nation away from the investigations into his campaign’s potentially treasonous collusion with the Russian Federation blew up in his face.
Nothing that comes out of the White House can ever be trusted again.
Watch Spicer’s comments here:
Here's Sean Spicer citing Andrew Napolitano accusing the British intelligence service of spying on Trump for Obama. #specialrelationship pic.twitter.com/uLtyvFJE45
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 16, 2017
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.