Presidential campaign computer networks become national security systems

By simple fiat, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper has designated the computer systems and networks used by the top three presidential campaigns as being of “national security interest.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI have directed the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump to accede to the dictates of the national security state to protect their computer systems from unnamed “foreign hackers.”

The national security state, of which Clapper is now the titular chief, has directed the DHS and FBI to tighten the security of the campaigns’ computers against “cyber intruders.” This, of course, presumes the FBI and DHS, the latter acting on behalf of the National Security Agency, will not install software that will give the national security state “man-in-the-middle” access to all the emails and web transactions conducted by the candidates and their staffs.

The DNI, DHS, and FBI by federalizing any computer intrusions of presidential campaign computers, has also federalized all computer intrusions of campaign information technology assets, something that has always been handled under state laws. Now, political opposition research computer intrusions have been kicked up to the level of a federal national security-related crime. DNI, DHS, and the FBI have basically, without new congressional legislation, included presidential campaign computers as “federal interest computers” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.

Clapper cited computer intrusions of the Obama campaign in 2008. Mitt Romney’s campaign saw intrusions, said to be from China, in 2012. However, as previously reported by WMR, China was interested in Romney’s illegal cash donations being received from the Hong Kong chapter of Republicans Abroad. The Hong Kong group was laundering millions of dollars “won” by Republicans Abroad expatriates at casinos in Macao owned by Sheldon Adelson, the dodgy Zionist casino mogul who supported the Romney campaign. China, aware of Romney’s anti-China campaign rhetoric, wanted to know how much money he was receiving from Macao, a Special Administrative Region of China that enjoys a wide degree of self-government. Neither the FBI nor DNI was interested in Romney’s illegal foreign cash infusions from Adelson’s Macao gambling empire.

When it comes to foreign connections to U.S. presidential campaigns, Clapper, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, and FBI director James Comey are willfully clueless.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).