Wire tap

Carter Page was a foreign policy adviser for Trump. On September 23, 2016 two months before the election. The FBI was investigating Page for alleged contacts with Russian officials. Page promptly left the Trump campaign. In October the FBI got a FISA warrant to surveil Page and read his emails. The FBI convinced the judge that Page was a foreign agent. As it turns out he was working for the CIA and the FBI knew nothing about it. Four years later the DOJ concluded that the sureillance was not valid because misstatements in obtaining the warrants. When the FBI was given permission to wiretap Page this opened the door to listen to everyone he talk to and in addition to those whom they talked to, These documents also tell us the FISC routinely includes authorization in their warrants for the government to surveil people in contact with their target, and people in contact with the contact; in a scheme referred to as “chaining,” these authorizations will include 2 or 3 “hops.” While the text of the Carter Page warrant application, and court approval, remain a secret, one shudders to think this authority was used to spy upon other members of the Trump campaign team who were in contact with Page. (The memo of the House intelligence committee’s Democrats about the warrant suggests that some unknown number of Trump campaign advisors were the subject of FBI “sub-inquiries.”) Three hops means that if Page is talking to Smith the FBI can then tap Smith's phone and when Smith talks to Jones the FBI can then tap Jones's phone and when Jones's talks to Abrams then the FBI can tap Abram's phone. This allowed the FBI to listen in to all of the Trump people. They not only did this but they selectively leaked information that would be harmful. On January 27, 2017 just seven days after Trump was inaugurated his entire conversation with the Prime Minister of Australia was leaked to the Washington Post who immediately published the whole thing. This type of leaking continued throughout the Trump presidency. gn power, which was required to him.