Well, this is quite the bombshell from the New York Times:
Breaking: A woman posing as a professor's assistant who had drinks in September 2016 with George Papadopolous, a Trump campaign aide, had been sent by the F.B.I.
by @adamgoldmanNYT @nytmike & @MarkMazzettiNYT https://t.co/605VXbBDcO
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) May 2, 2019
We believe the word you’re searching for his “spy”:
??? Are we still feeling funny about saying "spying"? https://t.co/orSWpYajYJ
— Steve Robinson (@BigSteve207) May 2, 2019
Here’s the opener:
WASHINGTON — The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?
The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.
The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it “Spygate.”
Byron York notes that this information is “now shaking loose in anticipation of inspector general report”:
Appears that information about FBI effort to spy on Trump campaign now shaking loose in anticipation of inspector general report. https://t.co/1X4TFQ5396 pic.twitter.com/O8u449mDN1
— Byron York (@ByronYork) May 2, 2019
Get the popcorn:
Holy … FBI leaks to friendliest of reporters at the Times that they sent multiple overseas intelligence assets to entrap Trump aides as part of their operation against him. This leak is presumably trying to get ahead of Inspector General report. https://t.co/SjYJEVIFEC
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 2, 2019
And Attorney General Bill Barr hinted at this yesterday:
Also, AG Barr broadly hinted yesterday that FBI effort to spy on Trump campaign went beyond what is publicly known about Carter Page FISA warrant and informant Stefan Halper. pic.twitter.com/KHmvT9zlwE
— Byron York (@ByronYork) May 2, 2019
Now we know why Dems are so eager to get Barr:
We now know why the Democrats in Congress have ramped up attacks on Barr. There's an IG report that's coming out that is going to lay bare how the Obama DOJ spied on Trump. here's the first drip.
H/T @ByronYork https://t.co/Fx6I06bJgP
— Rob Eno (@Robeno) May 2, 2019
Exit question: How many more spies will we learn about?
Unbelievable. Just how many spies did the FBI run at the Trump campaign? (BTW, no coincidence things like this are leaking now. Everyone trying to get out ahead of Barr's investigation.)
https://t.co/rJPWp3EHT1— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) May 2, 2019
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