of the trump Team were likely going to be caught being either witting or unwitting Putin Accomplices and were likely going to be prosecuted. So, Obama and others wondered how to deal with this knowing some Trump people were likely going to jail because of having been compromised. This doesn't necessarily mean Trump is in on it but it also doesn't mean he wasn't. So, this was very very problematic because Trump and his team were incredibly careless about how they moved forward in relation to Russian Spies. Trump's team demonstrated incompetence regarding all this at all points from the time Trump declared himself a candidate going down the escalator all the way to the present.
Obama admin discussed how much to share about Russia with incoming Trump team
(CNN)President
Barack Obama met in January 2017 with then-FBI Director James Comey and
other top national security officials to discuss sharing information
related to Russia with the incoming Trump administration, where Obama
stated that the Trump-Russia investigation should be handled "by the
book," according to an email made public Monday and a source familiar
with the matter.
The
previously undisclosed meeting was memorialized in an email written by
then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Donald Trump's Inauguration
Day. A person familiar with the January 5, 2017, meeting said the Obama
administration wanted to know whether the FBI and others in the
intelligence community believed there was a national security reason to
limit conversations with the Trump transition about Russia because some
on the incoming President's team could be compromised.
The email was disclosed by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who sent a letter Monday
to Rice asking why she had sent the email to herself on the day of
Trump's inauguration about an Oval Office meeting on Russian election
interference. The meeting included Obama, Vice President Joe Biden,
Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
"President
Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to
ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence
and law enforcement communities 'by the book,' " Rice wrote. "The
President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or
instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated
that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by
the book."
In
a statement, Grassley and Graham said, "Despite your claim that
President Obama repeatedly told Mr. Comey to proceed 'by the book,'
substantial questions have arisen about whether officials at the FBI, as
well as at the Justice Department and the State Department, actually
did proceed 'by the book.' "
Grassley
and Graham appear to be referencing the opposition research dossier on
Trump and Russia compiled by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher
Steele. The two Republicans sent the Justice Department a criminal
referral of Steele last month suggesting he may have lied to federal
authorities.
"There is nothing
'unusual' about the National Security Advisor memorializing an important
discussion for the record," Kathryn Ruemmler, a counsel for Rice, said
in a statement. "The Obama White House was justifiably concerned about
how comprehensive they should be in their briefings regarding Russia to
members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. General Michael
Flynn, given the concerning communications between him and Russian
officials."
Ruemmler added: "The
discussion that Ambassador Rice documented did not involve the so-called
Steele dossier. Any insinuation that Ambassador Rice's actions in this
matter were inappropriate is yet another attempt to distract and deflect
from the importance of the ongoing investigations into Russian meddling
in America's democracy."
Several
of the 12 questions the senators asked Rice involved Steele, but the
Steele dossier was not the topic of the January 5 meeting, the person
familiar said.
Rice wrote in the email that the meeting she referenced was a "brief, follow-on conversation" after Obama was briefed
the same day by Comey, then-Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan and National Security Agency
Director Adm. Mike Rogers about the soon-to-be-published intelligence
community report that concluded that Russia meddled in the election to
help Trump win. That briefing included mention of the relationship
between incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and
then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, according to The Washington Post, as well as mention of the dossier.
As
a foreign diplomat from a hostile country, Kislyak's communications
were regularly under surveillance authorized by the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. He spoke by phone to Flynn in late December 2016,
when Flynn told Kislyak that the incoming Trump administration would
appreciate if Moscow did not retaliate, according to court filings.
In
her email, Rice wrote that Obama wanted to know whether there was any
reason they should not be sharing information related to Russia.
"From
a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants
to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to
ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully
as it relates to Russia," Rice wrote. "The President asked Comey to
inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect
how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said
he would."
Rice's email was sent at
12:15 p.m., according to the time stamp in the document, which if
correct indicates it was just minutes before the Obama administration
officially left office.
In March 2017, The New York Times reported
that some White House officials in their final days spread information
across the government about Russia election meddling and possible
contacts between Trump's team and Russia.
"Did
anyone instruct, request, suggest, or imply that you should send
yourself the aforementioned Inauguration Day email memorializing
President Obama's meeting with Mr. Comey about the Trump/Russia
investigation?" Grassley and Graham write in their letter.
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