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-Lurid Crime Tales-
FBI chief: No evidence of illegal spying on Trump campaign
2019-05-08
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ FBI Director Chris Wray said Tuesday that he does not consider court-approved FBI surveillance to be "spying" and said he has no evidence the FBI illegally monitored President Donald Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election.

His comments at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing broke from Attorney General William Barr, who has described as "spying" FBI surveillance during its investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Barr has not said such surveillance was necessarily improper, but Trump nonetheless seized on those comments to suggest his campaign was spied on in an illegal and unprecedented act.

Asked by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., if he would say that the FBI is "spying" when it investigates suspected terrorists and mobsters while following "investigative policies and procedures," Wray replied, "Well, that’s not the term I would use."

He added: "I believe that the FBI is engaged in investigative activity, and part of investigative activity includes surveillance activity of different shapes and sizes. And to me, the key question is making sure that it’s done by the book, consistent with our lawful authorities. That’s the key question. Different people use different colloquial phrases."
Posted by:Besoeker

#13  I think pretty much everyone outside the beltway would agree with Barr on the definition of spying (assuming the definition had no attribution so they couldn't put it through the "my team is always right" mental filter).
Posted by: rschwarz   2019-05-08 17:54  

#12  Was that a KFC 12 piece or what?
Posted by: Omorong Black8889   2019-05-08 17:38  

#11  In his mind it as legal spying, thus OK.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-05-08 15:55  

#10  How the hell does Wray still have a job? He should have been fired the moment he refused to investigate Comey's secret gmail account.
Posted by: Woodrow   2019-05-08 12:39  

#9  Mincing word - see #5. Also, "It depends on what your definition if is, is."
Posted by: Bobby   2019-05-08 09:56  

#8  you mean it didn't take the 2 or 3 years too determine this.does't sound like they did a proper investigation.
Posted by: chris   2019-05-08 08:07  

#7  Is this a take on George Costanza - 'it's not a lie if you believe it'?
Posted by: Raj   2019-05-08 07:07  

#6  Remember the mantra of DRT being an "agent of the Russian gov't?"

If it comes to it (and I doubt it will) they'll be siting Para 3.5 of EO 12333. Wait and see.

Until the powerless, notional position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was established, the Director of the CIA was 'THE' Director of Intelligence for the nation. Anyone hear from the notional DNI lately ?
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-05-08 06:49  

#5  "I did not have sex with that woman - miss Lewinsky"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2019-05-08 06:43  

#4  “Of course it wasn’t spying. Spying is what the CIA does. What the FBI does is something else.”
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-05-08 06:31  

#3  We had a corrupt judge approve it, that makes what we did OK!
Posted by: Herb McCoy    2019-05-08 03:58  

#2  Different people use different colloquial phrases."

I'll go with AG Barr's recent definition of spying.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-05-08 02:08  

#1  It becomes illegal if the court approval was obtained through deception.
Posted by: Glenmore   2019-05-08 02:08  

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