Guardian: Team Trump Used Israeli Intelligence Agency to Find Dirt on Obama Admin
The New Yorker says it's the same firm used by Harvey Weinstein
Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty
Editor’s note: The headline was edited on 5/8 for clarity.
One effective way to help get yourself through the Trump Presidency is to understand that Trump sees the world the exact same way the infamous mobster Fat Tony does on The Simpsons. “Would be a shame if something happened to X” is basically the fundamental basis of both Trump’s business and political planning. So in light of that—and Washington D.C.’s general ruthlessness where ex-spies and the like find familiar work, but even deeper in the shadows—this story shouldn’t be that surprising. Per The Guardian:
Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a “dirty ops” campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal.
People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.
Colin Kahl detailed a bizarre interaction dredged up in his memory by this story.
This “UK person” said “she” was flying to DC soon and wanted to have coffee with my wife to discuss the possibility of including my daughter’s school in their educational fund network. 3/10
— Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) May 6, 2018
There was a website for the firm (which no longer exists, by the way), but it had no depth to it, and there was no detailed information about the “UK person” who reached out to my wife. 5/10
— Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) May 6, 2018
My wife shared the email with me and a few people we know in both the finance and education fields. All agreed that the entire scenario seemed implausible and seemed like an approach by a foreign intelligence entity. 6/10
— Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) May 6, 2018