FBI Admits It Sent a Spy to Spy on a Trump Aide in London; The New York Times Frets That the FBI's Admission That It Spied on Trump Might Give Credence to Trump's Claims the FBI Spied on Him

Yeah probably.

The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign's links to Russia.

The American government's affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it "Spygate."

The decision to use Ms. Turk in the operation aimed at a presidential campaign official shows the level of alarm inside the F.B.I. during a frantic period when the bureau was trying to determine the scope of Russia's attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, but could also give ammunition to Mr. Trump and his allies for their spying claims.

The mathematical fact that 2+2 = 4 might give ammunition to Mr. Trump and his claims that if you have two and add another two, it will give you four in total.

From artisinal 'ette:

Mollie @MZHemingway

One of the reporters on this story, incidentally, is mentioned *all over* the special counsel report, in curiously circular fashion. Perhaps more to say on that later.

More: "Trump poisoned my cat" just made this same point.

"Trump poisoned my cat" speculates that this actually was a CIA spy, not an FBI spy, and that the FBI is taking the blame on behalf of the CIA. I guess maybe because the CIA spying on an American citizen would be even worse.

posted by Ace of Spades at 01:54 PM

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