Analysis: The ‘Deep State’ Tactics Used Against Trump Campaign Were First Employed in GOP Senate Race By Randy DeSoto
May 14, 2018 at 6:28pm
Recent reports that the FBI employed a “human source” to infiltrate the Trump campaign and special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia investigation initiated by leaked documents stirred memories of the same tactics being used to help sway the outcome of a U.S. Senate race in 2010 against the Republican candidate.
The Wall Street Journal reported late last week that House Intelligence Committee members “sniffed out a name,” potentially implicating the FBI under President Barack Obama, of planting an informant close to then-Republican candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
“This would amount to spying, and it is hugely disconcerting,” wrote The Journal’s Kimberly Strassel. “It would also be a major escalation from the electronic surveillance we already knew about, which was bad enough.”
The Washington Post added House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes has subpoenaed the Department of Justice for more information, but the agency has resisted, claiming the individual in question is a “sensitive, longtime intelligence source” for the FBI and the CIA. The informant has also helped in Mueller’s ongoing investigation.
The revelation of an FBI informant being placed close to a Republican political candidate brought to mind an experience I had working on the media team for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller in 2010 in Alaska.
Miller shocked political watchers when he defeated incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Alaska Republican primary. He had been down over 20 points just over a month before pulling off the upset win.
Murkowski — who had the most liberal voting record of any Republican up for re-election that year — responded by recanting on a pledge both candidates had made prior to the primary election day in late August to honor the results. Instead, the senator launched a write-in campaign as an independent in the middle of September in a bid to hold on to the seat that, between her and her father, had been in the family since 1981.
Early polling in the contest once again gave Miller a slight edge, but the race deadlocked by mid-October thanks to two events: the handcuffing of a reporter at a Joe Miller campaign event by an FBI informant and the leaking of the candidate’s confidential employee file to the media.
FBI informant Bill Fulton first showed up on primary election night in Anchorage, unsolicited, volunteering his security services to the candidate that evening following his victory.
Miller did not use security during the race before or after, with one exception of a town hall event at an Anchorage middle school in mid-October, where according to the terms of the contract, security was required. A member of the campaign staff contacted Fulton.
I was at the town hall where the informant took it upon himself after the event to handcuff Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger.
Shortly before the incident, the journalist had broken into a circle of supporters Miller was speaking to and put a handheld camera in his face.
Miller indicated he was not giving an interview and left the room. Hopfinger followed him out into the hallway and ended up pushing an attendee into a set of lockers, apparently trying to catch up with the candidate. Miller left the building and not long thereafter Hopfinger got into a scuffle with the security team headed by Fulton, who ordered the reporter to be detained.
I came out into the hallway in time to find Hopfinger in handcuffs, which I questioned Fulton about, telling him the optics looked horrible, but he did not stand down.
Fulton insisted Hopfinger needed to remain handcuffed until the police arrived and kept him in plain view as numerous reporters circled about, shooting footage of their detained colleague.
In a 2013 Huffington Post article titled “How Bill Fulton Infiltrated Alaska’s Right Wing As An FBI Informant,” the subject revealed that he voted for President Barack Obama and lauded his own actions that day.
“It completely solidified our position within the right wing,” Fulton said of the handcuffing incident. “Because there’s nothing the right wing likes more than you roughing up the left-wing media and such.”
“The left-wing completely attacked me, including Huffington Post, you b—–ds,” Fulton said. “I was working for you, you sons of b—–s, and nobody knew it.” It cannot be overestimated the amount of negative media coverage the Miller campaign received as a result of the incident, with claims the candidate opposed freedom of the press. It did not matter that neither the campaign nor the candidate had directed the handcuffing.
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Poster Comment:
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.