re: Biden FBI tracked Melania and Barron Trump's travel - even tapped Susie Wiles phone

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I think people are drawing a distinction between the type of overbearing LEO activities us normal folk deal with, and political ongoings.

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They shouldn't. That's engaging in partisan brain rot.

A better way to use that framing, which I've tried to emphasize for years, is if they could do this to a post-President Trump (ignoring his potential illegal behavior and focusing just on the investigatory methods), then they can do it to anyone.

Trying to do the in/out group thing isn't productive and misses the real discussion.

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. Why are you constantly in a position to have to defend(defend might be too strong a word but work with me here) these types of actions by the left?

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Ignoring all the callouts, strawmen, and ad homs, I was discussing this in another thread. When the facts are tainted and dishonest rhetoric is used, a rational, productive conversation cannot be had.

We have a LOT of that behavior going on.

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and the only thing worth talking about is how do we get out from under the left’s grip.

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It's not 'the left's" grip. It's the grip of the police state in America.

Stay home for this election if you want more of this.

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The first family’s trips were traced as the bureau plotted the best time to search Trump’s Palm Beach home

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Seems courteous to me

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to monitor her communications with Trump’s defense attorneys

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- Appears to use FBI investigative tool known as a "Pen Register" to target phone calls of then campaign manager @SusieWiles47

- Allegedly tracked nearly two dozen defense attorneys, five journalists, @FLOTUS, political advisers

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Nothing says "upholding the law" quite like completely disregarding attorney-client privilege.

That said, under specific circumstances, federal regulations allow the U.S. Attorney General to authorize the monitoring of attorney-client communications if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that the communications will be used to facilitate acts of terrorism or violent crimes. These operations typically require a separate "privilege team" that isolates the prosecution from the monitored material.

What Smith was investigating did not come even close to rising to the level of believing the documents would be used to facilitate actos of terrorism nor violent crimes AND they apparently did not have a firewall between the prosecution and the data gathering team.

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Nothing says "upholding the law" quite like completely disregarding attorney-client privilege.

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How do pen registers violate ACP?

This is where the dishonest language comes into play. People are running with the "tapped" language and conflating it with pen registers.

Our Supreme Court permits WIDE usage of pen registers without warrants.

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In Smith v. Maryland, the United States Supreme Court held that installation and use of a pen register by a telephone company does not constitute a “search” within the context of the Fourth Amendment. The Court distinguished pen registers from listening devices because pen registers “do not acquire the contents of communications.” Therefore, the telephone numbers obtained through the pen register were properly introduced as evidence in this case even though the pen register was installed without a search warrant.

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LINK

This same logic about "the contents of communications" would apply to any claim of ACP.

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By bootlickers do you mean the BIden admin or Maga?

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The fact that you tried to turn that into a binary in/out group false choice is

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They shouldn't. That's engaging in partisan brain rot.

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Trying to do the in/out group thing isn't productive and misses the real discussion.

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I don’t think I’m convinced yet.

There isn’t any political bias to what normal folks are subject to by LEOs. We’re all out here facing the same level of bullshite. One person can’t look at another, for the most part, and conclude they’re being disproportionally fricked by LEO tactics when it comes to this type of tracking/spying.

On the other hand, it seems we can very easily conclude one political party is being disproportionally affected. I don’t think I need to explain why that is and should be a major issue.

Do the folks in the FBI and the cops you’re(I think?) alluding to even have to abide by the same rules and standards?

I’m having a difficult time figuring out why the right’s inaction on curbing LEO power needs to be brought up in this particular thread. Especially if they themselves aren’t even taking advantage of it while the left is. Hell, one could even argue the right not abusing that power for political gain is a positive in their favor. But you’ve stepped over the left to condemn the right.

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Remember when Trump accused democrats of tapping his phones and the media and their democrat overlords collectively declared this a slanderous conspiracy theory?

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There is nothing in the article or anything else that has been published that shows that his phone calls were tapped.

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On the other hand, it seems we can very easily conclude one political party is being disproportionally affected.

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It's not party as much as Trump and his inner circle who went full retard after the 2020 election.

That's why all the reciprocal attempts by that inner circle against their perceived opponents have been so futile.

But watch, me commenting those true statements are going to make NPCs rage and derail the thread, now.

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I’m having a difficult time figuring out why the right’s inaction on curbing LEO power needs to be brought up in this particular thread.

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They're bitching about legal (as of now) LEO behavior in response to what appears to be criminal behavior by Trump, or at least articulated facts meeting the probable cause standard. A pro-Trump judge agreed after litigating the issue specifically.

So, ultimately, their fight isn't with LEO or anything against Trump (as nothing illegal or improper has been alleged); it's with the ability of LEO to act in that way that they have a problem with.

That or they're just engaging in partisan brain rot and acting irrationally.

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Unfortunately no one is going to listen to this.

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That's because many will be primed by this dishonest framing

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even tapped Susie Wiles phone

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Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland signed off on the wiretaps

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