The NY Times asserted Trump was wiretapped

Did the New York Times already tell us Trump was ‘wiretapped’?

By John Crudele

March 8, 2017  

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JOHN CRUDELE

The New York Times has a dilemma. Like every other newspaper, the Times characterized as baseless President Trump’s recent accusation that his campaign was wiretapped. Or, more precisely, the paper said that Trump didn’t provide any evidence of the alleged wiretapping.

Fair enough. Trump didn’t give any proof. He just sent out one of his infamous tweets. But does that mean he’s wrong? I’ll get back to that.

The reason the Times has a dilemma is that, on Jan. 20, the paper ran a front-page story with the headline “Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides.”

There were four bylines on that story, which read, “American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said.”

So, would the Times like to retract the Jan. 20 front-page article? Or would it like to amend its piece about Trump’s allegations that his campaign was wiretapped by adding, “Trump may not have proof, but the Times confirmed back in January that wiretapping did occur.”?

It’s unclear whether the wire­tapping to which the Times is referring was of Trump’s people or whether Trump’s people were picked up on electronic surveillance — which is the proper term — of Russian phones.

Either way, the Times knows — and I’m told its reporters saw transcripts of the conversations — that Trump’s people had been recorded on bugs.

So there are two choices: Either correct the Jan. 20 story or admit that Trump may be at least a little right.

Now, I’m going to take a stab at what really happened based on an educated guess by an intelligence source that has been excellent in the past.

The Obama White House probably didn’t wiretap Trump or hack his emails. Too sloppy. Too obvious. And I’d hope an American president would be above all that.

But that doesn’t mean one US intelligence agency, on its own, didn’t record Trump conversations. And since Obama was president, he could have received the transcripts of those conversations just by asking.

Which agency? My bet is on the National Security Agency, whose job it is to spy on folks, both foreign and domestic.

And that’s how the Times could have come to learn about the wire­tappings. The only people who know the true origin of the story are those four Times reporters and their editors — and, of course, their sources.

So Trump may be right in alleging his people were wiretapped, although maybe not in Trump Tower. The Obama White House is correct in saying it didn’t do anything. And the Times’ Jan 20 story would be accurate, since it probably did learn of the wiretaps through “current and former senior American officials.”

And in the meantime, the Times needs to decide which side of its dilemma it wants to stick to. It can’t have it both ways — Trump is either correct or its Jan. 20 story is wrong.