Here’s what you need to know about Donald Trump’s new conspiracy theory

Here’s what you need to know about Donald Trump’s new conspiracy theory

This is one of those stories that take a minute to explain. Let’s walk through it.

First, the background: President Trump has been publicly suggesting for over a year that Democrats, Barack Obama, the Clintons, and/or forces within the FBI and the Justice Department aligned with Obama spied on his presidential campaign.

Is any of that true? The claims were refuted by former FBI director James Comey, and then later by the Justice Department.

Okay, so what’s changed? Trump has renewed his claims after recent reporting on the early stages of the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference.

What did that reporting say? The New York Times says the FBI sent an informant to talk to two Trump staffers. The Washington Post says that informant got a meeting with the Trump campaign’s co-chair. Several outlets have identified the informant as professor and longtime FBI source Stefan Halper.

And what did this informant find out? It is not clear what information the informant obtained during these meetings, what information was given to the FBI, or how any of that information was used.

So no one knows anything. Well, here’s an important bit: According to these reports, the informant was not a spy embedded within the campaign. Rather, he was a source who reportedly met a small handful of aides for brief meetings.

So…no one knows anything. Yeah, alright, there is very little that’s publicly known right now about what actually happened here.

And Trump says he knows? Trump is creatively combining these news reports with Fox News commentary and other unidentified “reports” to again try to manifest a scandal “bigger than Watergate.”

Is it working? Trump, ever the branding expert, told reporters outside the White House: “We now call it Spygate. You're calling it Spygate.” This is a bit like trying to make “fetch” happen. (BuzzFeed News is, in fact, not calling it “Spygate.”)

What should I take away from this? There is no public information right now indicating that there was a spy implanted in Trump's campaign or that any official investigation into the campaign was driven by “political purposes.”

Where we do go from here? Hopefully, Mars. But in reality, the reports about an informant, and the rampant speculation about this on Fox News, have given Trump even more ammunition to try to publicly discredit the investigation into Russian interference. This won’t disappear soon.

Source Buzzfeed.com