8 Reasons Why: Sharyl Attkisson on Trump Probe Politicization

There are "troubling signs of misuse of America's intelligence and law enforcement apparatus" against President Donald Trump, journalist Sharyl Attkisson contends.

In a commentary for The Hill, the Emmy-winning investigative journalist points to eight signs of a "counterintelligence operation deployed against Trump for political reasons."

Along with the FBI Trump probe code name — "Crossfire Hurricane" — Attkisson also points to the secret surveillance of seven Trump associates: chief strategist Stephen Bannon, lawyer Michael Cohen, former National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn; adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and foreign policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

She also writes another controversial tool was the reported use of "national security letters" by the FBI to obtain phone records and documents in the investigation, which "bypass judicial approval" and which were "an ongoing theme at the FBI."

Attkisson writes other signs of misuse are:

• Unmasking, or identifying protected names of Americans captured by government surveillance, used by at least four top Obama administration officials who have been Trump critics, including James Clapper, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and Sally Yates.
• Rules changes, including one by Clapper in 2016 that allowed the National Security Agency "to widely disseminate surveillance material within the government without the normal privacy protections."
• A media strategy in which former CIA Director John Brennan and Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, have joined national news organizations "where they have regular opportunities to shape the news narrative — including on the very issues under investigation."
• A "steady and apparently orchestrated campaign of leaks" nearly all of which have been damaging to Trump.
• Use of "friends, informants, and snoops," including that of one-time CIA operative Stefan Halper in 2016, as an informant on Trump officials, and former FBI Director James Comey's friend Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor, who leaked Comey's memos against Trump to The New York Times after Comey was fired.

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