Donald Trump would like you to believe that the whole fuss over Russian interference in the presidential election is fake news. But when he tried to get National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to publicly say so, they both rejected that order out of hand.
But according to former NSA agent John Schindler, Rogers went further than that. Schindler learned from several of his buddies in the NSA that not long after Rogers met with Trump, he told his troops that he has evidence that Trump campaign operatives did indeed collude with Russian interests. Specifically, the NSA has intercepted communications that indicate evidence of “election involvement” by Russia and “questionable contacts” between Trump operatives and Russian officials.
Well, on Monday morning, just as much of the nation was either firing up its grills or walking on the beach, Schindler revealed just how seriously the NSA is taking this discovery. Schindler’s NSA sources tell him that ever since Robert Mueller was named as special counsel for the Russia investigation, the NSA has been “pulling out all the stops” to find any evidence related to Russia’s attempt to hack the election.
Schindler reports that sometime last week, the NSA’s Office of General Counsel–the agency’s in-house legal team–sent a sweeping “preservation order” to the NSA’s largest unit, the Directorate of Operations. The DO, as it is called for short, is responsible for the gathering of signals intelligence, or “SIGINT” as it is called in the intelligence world–thus making it “the most important spy operation on earth.”
The preservation order directs everyone in the DO to track down any and all references to those involved in the Russian hacking effort–including phone calls, telephone transcripts, emails, faxes, online chats, etc.– and to preserve that evidence for the investigation. The DO was also told to focus specifically on any “high-ranking Americans” who might have colluded with Russia–a list that, according to Schindler, almost certainly includes “virtually all key members of Team Trump.”
The DO’s Russia shop received a preservation order several months ago, for obvious reasons. However, according to Schindler, this is the first DO-wide preservation order that has ever been issued in the NSA’s 65-year history. It’s an unprecedented move for an unprecedented situation.
“Although preservation orders have been issued previously, never has the entire DO been told to search all its databases for SIGINT on named individuals, then preserve anything that’s discovered. KremlinGate is a unique event in our nation’s history, with accusations of nefarious meddling by hostile intelligence agencies in our democracy, and it’s bringing about unprecedented developments in our spy agencies too.”
With such an exhaustive search, Schindler believes that it’s a near-certainty that relevant information will turn up. While it may be awhile before any findings are released to the public, you can take it to the bank that anything the NSA discovers that could potentially be relevant to this investigation will be turned over to both Mueller and the FBI posthaste.
It’s very likely the intelligence community is going to be particularly motivated to get to the bottom of this. If you’ll recall, Schindler reported in February that a number of current and retired intelligence professionals have declared all-out war on Trump over his campaign’s apparent collusion with Russia. Consider this development to be yet another salvo. Shortly after this went live, Schindler and several of his friends warned Trump that he brought this on himself.
Making the IC an enemy was not really a smart move by @realDonaldTrump The entire NSA is looking for evidence now…and they'll find it https://t.co/QdgLZIbkuC
— Robert Galbraith (@Jack_o_Clubs) May 29, 2017
Don & Co were warned about going to war with the spooks. Bummer. @TheRickWilson knows who's got the royal flush. https://t.co/Dv1eErZtgg
— John Schindler (@20committee) May 29, 2017
LIVE: The entire NSA staff, after learning Trump's people are defying subpoenas and covering up evidence. @20committee pic.twitter.com/XR2nRSnrCP
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) May 29, 2017
Most media attention is focused on the suspected roles of Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Jeff Sessions in this travesty. However, this development suggests that they aren’t the only ones who better have lawyers on speed dial.
Now you’re probably wondering–if Rogers is already convinced that collusion took place, why doesn’t the NSA open the trap door under Trump now? After all, if this is true, both Trump and Mike Pence would have to resign. Well, if you’re arguing that senior members of a presidential campaign colluded with a hostile foreign power, that evidence has to be absolutely ironclad. It’s very likely that the FBI and Mueller want to amass enough evidence to force anyone involved in colluding with Russia to adopt the posture of supplicants begging for mercy. And when that happens, Trump and Pence will be left on an island.
That being said, if the NSA already has evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, it may not be long before that trap door opens. I’d predicted that Trump would be out of office by mid-2018. At this rate, that day might come sooner than we think.
(featured image courtesy US Embassy Canada, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)
