United Kingdom

Report: US Asked Allies to Spy on Trump Campaign

Published FEB 14 2024

Story

Image credit: Win McNamee/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images

The Facts

US intelligence sources have reportedly told journalists that agencies, including the CIA, during the Obama administration asked other members of the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance — the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — to contact and manipulate Trump campaign advisors as early as 2015.
Substack
Obama's CIA Director John Brennan reportedly "identified 26 Trump associates for the Five Eyes to target" as early as March 2016, with Five Eyes operatives being sent around the world. The UK's MI6 agency was also "working at an intelligence school they had set up."
The Federalist
This follows a 2017 report from UK-based outlet The Guardian, which claimed that British intelligence "was at no point carrying out a targeted operation against Trump or his team" but rather discovered "conversations" during "routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets."
Guardian
The new report written by Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag, however, claims this is not true, thus alleging the US government broke both espionage and election laws by spying on the Trump campaign without a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant.
Substack
A known FBI intelligence source from the agency's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, University of Cambridge professor Stefan Halper, was reportedly being paid upwards of $400K by the US government to engage with Trump advisors such as Michael Flynn in March 2016.
Substack
This also potentially aligns with reports that Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos was also targeted by London-based professor Joseph Mifsud — who has connections to Western intelligence agencies and diplomats — in March 2016.
The Federalist

Sources Split

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The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

This proves that at the behest of the Obama administration, the entire Western intelligence apparatus was spying on Trump. Not only has the FBI's investigation been proven corrupt, but we now know the intelligence agencies were willing to break the law for political reasons. This raises concerns about politicized, weaponized surveillance.

New York Post

Pro-establishment narrative

Once again fringe members of the media are blowing out of proportion an issue related to the intelligence agencies' investigation of the Trump campaign. The special prosecutor in charge of investigating flaws in the system hasn't recommended any change to FBI policy or the prosecution of individuals. This issue has long been settled.