Skinny Intel Briefings for the Trump Campaign
FACTOID: The White House determines the topics and depths of briefings presidential nominees receive directly after the end of the respective national political convention.
The Intelligence Community, generally led by the Director of National Intelligence packages a domestic and global assessment that is an analytical judgement on all conditions. No top secret material is provided. There are generally less than six sessions with each nominee. Once there is a president elect, the briefings are more frequent as the presidential transition team advances toward Inauguration Day. Those in attendance for the briefing sessions for each candidate must be pre-approved by both the existing White House National Security Team and the Intelligence Community. The briefing sessions for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were very different given Clinton’s knowledge and experience, where for Donald Trump they were more tutorial in nature.
The intelligence briefing program goes back many years are performed not only as a courtesy for the nominees but they also are for the benefit of enemy and allied states around the world so the United States maintains a reputation and standing on policy or approach. World leaders and their regimes keep close tabs on all things United States, read China, Russia and Europe.
Defensive briefings are those prepared by the FBI to inform US leaders and political figures of efforts by foreign operatives to compromise them.
LET THE RESEARCH BEGIN
Political candidates at any level of government mobilize research team to cultivate resumes, history and actions of their respective opponents. At the Federal level, meaning Congress or Presidential, law firms are hired as well as people with portfolios that know where bodies are buried and have inside channels to assemble the dirt. A particular example here is the law firm Perkins Coie and Marc Elias. The DNC, the Obama for America operation and the Hillary campaign all hired them. Perkins Coie and Marc Elias have a steep history with named politicians. Perkins Coie presently works for Kamala Harris’ campaign. His firm is the lobby law firm that hired Fusion GPS. Imagine the emails and chatter that began in 2016 and the developing plots and schemes.
When it comes to that research and the intelligence community, you must consider who and what was springing to action when it comes to Donald Trump. As a suggestion, the spark in the anti-Trump mission was likely Felix Sater. Sater is a Russian born national that for sure had a checkered past that as part of criminal plea deals worked as an FBI informant for many years. Sater was later a business associate of the Trump Organization. Could it be that the top floor of the FBI began the anti-Trump file using Sater as the springboard? Yes. What did the Obama White House receive in briefings? What did the Obama White House ask for to construct the anti-Trump scheme? What was shared with the Hillary Clinton campaign operation? This could be the real genesis of the Russian collusion adventure.
BACK TO BRIEFINGS
Senator Dianne Feinstein received a briefing from the FBI about a Chinese spy in her California office. She allegedly immediately fired that person. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher received several FBI visits warning him that he was being cultivated by Russian operatives. Senator Edward Kennedy was warned by the FBI often about threats of violence and possible extortion against him. The FBI is the single government agency tasked with tracking foreign agents and influence operations in the United States. The FBI is tasked with investigating all threats made against politicians and takes action on the real threats as required to follow the law. This is precisely how Obama knew to expel countless Russians; President Trump later did the same thing.
The FBI has a specific department called the FIFT. It targets traditional intelligence tradecraft, foreign campaign financing and cyber intrusions. This was created by the new FBI Director Christopher Wray yet those operations were performed prior to this new department. Did nominee Trump or President-Elect Trump get those defensive briefings? Per Attorney General William Barr, that answer is no. Why? Consider that plot likely concocted by the Obama White House in coordination with the Hillary Clinton team and Perkins Coie.
What exactly did the intelligence or defensive briefings contain when provided to Donald Trump? Well, they were skinny on substance or silent altogether. What did Special Counsel Robert Mueller know and when did he know it? The same question goes to Loretta Lynch, James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper. How about adding in Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice and John Podesta. Beyond those pesky Strzok/Page text messages, where are the emails exactly?
Are we asking the right questions of the right people using the right names?
