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It was called "
Crossfire Hurricane," the FBI counterintelligence operation that targeted Trump figures as part of the investigation into possible campaign ties to Russia. It was a poignant choice of a Rolling Stones song, "Jumpin' Jack Flash,
" that describes a man "born in a crossfire hurricane" who "howled at the morning driving rain."
It could be an apt description of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. After a year of media denials of his claims of surveillance targeting his campaign, Trump can legitimately claim some vindication. Indeed, with his rising poll numbers, the president must feel, in the words of the song, like "it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas."
The
New York Times this week disclosed that
the FBI made a conscious effort to use secret counterintelligence powers to investigate Trump officials and may have had a confidential informant who was used in connection with key Trump figures long before the November 2016 election. (Officials stated anonymously that this was a longstanding source who worked with both the FBI and CIA for years.)In early 2017,
President Trump was widely ridiculed for alleging that the Obama administration placed his campaign under surveillance. The response from experts on CNN and other sites was open mockery. Former Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper came forward to assure the media that he could categorically deny the allegation and stated, "There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign." The range of media analysis seemed to run from whether Trump was a clinical paranoid or a delusional demagogue.
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