The media punditry in its wisdom has concluded that Donald Trump’s tweets accusing President Barak Obama of wiretapping him were another example of his deranged behavior. Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman have assumed that Trump’s reason for the twitter rants was either an immature and illogical attempt to deflect the media from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal from investigating the Russian hack. Alternatively, Peter Beinart suggests that Trump’s intent was to discredit on-going investigations by claiming that they are motivated by “deep state” Democratic bureaucrats hidden seeking to undermine the Trump Administration.
Trying to deflect Sessions’ recusal from investigating the Russian hack by emphasizing surveillance of Trump brought about by Trump’s involvement in the Russian hack seems a far reach—even for Trump. Tarnishing the on-going investigations, all conducted under the auspices of Republicans, with partisanship seems unlikely to sway any voters other than foolhardy Trump supporters.
But, there is a third possibility. Trump may be providing Putin with a mitigating circumstances claim for Russia’s hack of the DNC. The reason for thinking that Putin is the beneficiary of Trump’s tweet storm is that two days later, WikiLeaks, an affiliate of Russia’s intelligence agencies, released CIA hacked information about the gimmicks they use to surveil people. The leaks show that the CIA’s tools for turning smart phones, televisions, and other electronic devices into methods of surveillance could have been easily and stealthily used to illegally surveil Trump. As former U.S. collections intelligence officer, Malcolm Nance, points out, this information, hacked about August of 2016, was released precisely to coincide with Trump’s tweets.
With the CIA’s means of surveilling Trump accompanying Trump’s accusation of illegal wiretapping, the Republican led Congressional committees will have the opportunity to equate the Russian hack of one Democratic nominee to the illegal CIA hack of the Republican nominee. The Main Stream Media may not be able to resist diminishing acts from which both Republicans and Democrats benefit. And, of course, Trump has already accused of the intelligence community of trying to undermine him.
Equating the Russian hack to an imagined “illegal wiretap” of Trump will not affect a hard headed investigation of Russian interference in an U.S. election. Putin’s objective, however, is not to influence the law enforcement, but to influence the public’s perceptions about Russia. After all, having U.S. sanctions lifted on Russia is one of Putin’s primary concern and the U.S. public’s perceptions of Russia is a key factor in achieving this end.
Of course, instead of a planned operation to affect public opinion, this may simply be an effort by Putin to control the damage Trump did to himself by making a crazy and unsubstantiated charge against President Obama. Nonetheless, whether Trump’s “wiretap tweets” was part of a planned operation or an afterthought to clean up another deranged outburst by Trump, they show yet again how close Trump is to Putin.
Trying to deflect Sessions’ recusal from investigating the Russian hack by emphasizing surveillance of Trump brought about by Trump’s involvement in the Russian hack seems a far reach—even for Trump. Tarnishing the on-going investigations, all conducted under the auspices of Republicans, with partisanship seems unlikely to sway any voters other than foolhardy Trump supporters.
But, there is a third possibility. Trump may be providing Putin with a mitigating circumstances claim for Russia’s hack of the DNC. The reason for thinking that Putin is the beneficiary of Trump’s tweet storm is that two days later, WikiLeaks, an affiliate of Russia’s intelligence agencies, released CIA hacked information about the gimmicks they use to surveil people. The leaks show that the CIA’s tools for turning smart phones, televisions, and other electronic devices into methods of surveillance could have been easily and stealthily used to illegally surveil Trump. As former U.S. collections intelligence officer, Malcolm Nance, points out, this information, hacked about August of 2016, was released precisely to coincide with Trump’s tweets.
With the CIA’s means of surveilling Trump accompanying Trump’s accusation of illegal wiretapping, the Republican led Congressional committees will have the opportunity to equate the Russian hack of one Democratic nominee to the illegal CIA hack of the Republican nominee. The Main Stream Media may not be able to resist diminishing acts from which both Republicans and Democrats benefit. And, of course, Trump has already accused of the intelligence community of trying to undermine him.
Equating the Russian hack to an imagined “illegal wiretap” of Trump will not affect a hard headed investigation of Russian interference in an U.S. election. Putin’s objective, however, is not to influence the law enforcement, but to influence the public’s perceptions about Russia. After all, having U.S. sanctions lifted on Russia is one of Putin’s primary concern and the U.S. public’s perceptions of Russia is a key factor in achieving this end.
Of course, instead of a planned operation to affect public opinion, this may simply be an effort by Putin to control the damage Trump did to himself by making a crazy and unsubstantiated charge against President Obama. Nonetheless, whether Trump’s “wiretap tweets” was part of a planned operation or an afterthought to clean up another deranged outburst by Trump, they show yet again how close Trump is to Putin.