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President Trump suggested that Barack Obama knew of the allegedly illegal conduct committed in order to obtain a warrant to spy on onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

A former low-level attorney with the FBI is being accused of altering a document that led to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court granting permission to spy on Page. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz uncovered the document during his investigation into alleged FISA abuse and passed along the information to U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is pursuing a criminal investigation into the origin of the Russia investigation.

Trump was asked about the attorney who's under investigation during a Friday morning interview on Fox & Friends. He suggested Durham's report will be "historic," leading anchor Steve Doocy to ask if he believes "it could actually go up into the West Wing of the Obama administration?"

"What youre dealing at the highest levels of government," Trump answered. "They were spying on my campaign. This is my opinion. I said it a long time ago. Remember when I put out a tweet? And I talked about the wiretapping, in quotes, meaning modern-day version whatever wiretapping may be. And all hell broke loose."

The president then added, "I think, personally, it went all the way."

"For [John] Brennan, and for [James] Clapper, and for all of these losers that you had over there, I think it is impossible for them to be doing things, and lets see what it all says," he went on. "But its impossible Susan Rice, the person that worked at the United Nations, who went after FISA reports and went after reports like she ate them for lunch. Look at the previous administration; they went after like a few. She was getting them at levels nobody even imagined before. It had nothing to do with her. No, I think this goes to the highest level. I hate to say it. I think its a disgrace."

The change the lawyer who forged the document made was substantive enough to change its meaning. That individual was interviewed by Horowitz. No charges appear to have been filed in court at this time.

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Trump believes Obama knew of forged document related to Carter Page surveillance - Washington Examiner

On Friday morning, President Donald Trump toldFox & Friendsthat spygate the Obama administration's surveillance on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election based on the false pretense of Trump being in league with Russia will be "perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country." He said Attorney General Bill Barr's investigation of FISA abuses and U.S. Attorney John Durham's criminal investigation will prove "historic," and he predicted that the investigations will implicate former President Barack Obama himself.

"Now, what youre going to see, I predict, will be perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country, political scandal," Trump said. "You have a FISA report coming out which the word is, its historic, that is what the word is. Thats what I hear. And if its historic, you will see something. And then perhaps even more importantly you have Durham coming out shortly thereafter. He is the U.S. Attorney and he is already announced its criminal."

"You know, a lot of people say deep state. I dont like to use the word deep state. I just say theyre really bad and sick people," the president added.

Peter Doocy noted that Trump had previously suggested"that this might go much higher than the Department of Justice or the FBI during the Obama Administration." He asked the president if spygate "could actually go up into the West Wing of the Obama administration."

Trump said it traces back to "the highest levels of government. They were spying on my campaign. That is my opinion."

"How high did it go, Mr. President? How high did it go?" Doocy pressed.

"I think personally, I think it goes all the way," Trump responded.

"I hate to say it. I think its a disgrace. They thought I was going to win and they said, 'How can we stop him?' They wrote up the phony, fake dossier, the disgusting fake dossier, and they tried to have it put out prior to the election just to show you how incompetent they were," he said. "They spent millions and millions of dollars, Hillary Clinton paid for it, and the Democrats."

Trump went on to suggest that Ukraine has a Democratic National Committee server that CrowdStrike refused to hand over to the FBI, but he did not name a source for that disputed information. Many have denounced as a conspiracy theory the president's claim that the server is in Ukraine. Whatever the merits of his claim, the Barr and Durham investigations indeed seem likely to be historic.

During the interview, the president also hit on the texts between former FBI staffers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

"I can only say that we have a lot of information that a lot of bad things happened. And when you look at Strzok and Page with the insurance policy where, you know, the two lovers, the two great lovers from the FBI, where he is saying, 'Oh, she is going to win 100 million to nothing, but just in case she loses we have an insurance policy,'" Trump said. "That means, you know, were going to take him down, well take down the president. You wouldnt even believe this is possible. But the insurance policy, that was a very big find."

As Andrew McCarthy explains in his bookBall of Collusion, it was patently absurd to think Trump was in league with Russia during the 2016 election, because the only evidence showed a meeting between Carter Page a very marginal Trump figure and a very marginal Russian figure. Yet the Obama administration launched a counter-intelligence investigation without notifying Trump or alerting him to the danger of Russian efforts in his campaign.

Furthermore, Obama rightly insisted that Russia could not undermine the legitimacy of the 2016 election right up until the point when Trump won. Before that, Obama thought Clinton was going to win, and he didn't want to undermine her legitimacy. There is good reason to suggest spygate traces all the way to the top.

Follow Tyler O'Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at@Tyler2ONeil.

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Trump Says 'Historic' Spygate Investigation Will Implicate Obama - PJ Media

Talk about what steps you'll take beyond this initial phone banking to address these voters, and how else you're fighting this purge?

So voter purges, when they happen, the most important part of the process is ensuring that the people who are likely to be purged know what's coming and know what their rights are. We have been combing through the list since it was released a few weeks ago...verifying names, doing our initial vet of who should have been purged and who should not. There were [some] people whose names were [put] on the list improperly because they've recently voted.

And so what we will be doing is an initial texting and phone banking and that's what's happening on Thursday. That's a massive event where we're taking advantage of the attention that's being paid in the state and the capacity to reach people because they are going to be more alert to this. We're working with other organizations, we're working with the state party and we're working with anyone who has an interest in this across the aisle because voter purges are not [partisan] in Georgia you don't register by party and so we don't know who's being purged. But our mission is to make certain that no one is taken off of the rolls improperly.

On their own I think almost every one of the top-tier candidates has made a statement about voter suppression. [But] we have not heard enough of it on the national stage, and that's why I've been trying to bring the debate to Georgia, and more importantly making certain that this is a [national] conversation. It's hard to come to Georgia and not have a conversation about voter suppression.

I hope to hear, one, an acknowledgment from the moderators that this is a national scourge and deserves the same degree of attention as any other topic. Because all of the progress we speak of as Democrats rests on the ability of voters to be heard and to participate in our process. You cannot have an effective health care system or laws that move our health care system forward, you cannot pass laws to address climate change if we do not have the right to vote. So I want the moderators, because they control the tenor of the debate, to put that forward. And then I want thoughtful answers from those men and women standing on stage. Because because it's how they've gotten their jobs if they've been elected to office. And it's how they will get this job.

Absolutely. I am a Democrat and I would be honored to help the Democratic ticket win and to serve.

No, no, there has not been a single campaign that's reached out about that conversation because it is premature. I do my best to be honest and forthright and to not be disingenuous. And so I'm certainly not going to coyly deny my interest when the question is put to me again and again by reporters and by folks at events. But the sincere desire I have is to serve our country. [And] serving as second to the president of the United States is a very effective way to continue to push forward the expansion of voting rights and the inclusion of our communities writ large and our democracy.

We have 50 primaries and caucuses for a reason. South Carolina is in the spotlight early because it is the state that has the largest population of African American voters. But there is no community that is monolithic, including the black community. The larger question for every candidate is what will they do to make certain that they are speaking to voters in every single state, including Georgia. We may not be a Super Tuesday state, but we're the very next week and we have the youngest population of a battleground state and we have the heaviest African American population.

It's hard to miss it if you turn on television. But the larger ethos is not a conversation of what this means for 2020, it's a conversation of what does this mean for our country and our values. And when it comes up it is usually in the context of worry about the erosion of our values, beginning in the White House.

It is of a piece. But it is not the singular topic that anyone is going to focus on because these are communities that have deep issues. Georgia is one of 14 States that's refusing to expand Medicaid. We are one of the states being hit hardest by the tariffs. Those are immediate issues that families are facing.

Three things: One, this is a moment in time and we have not yet had our first contest and there's a reason that it's a 50-state contest that will stretch until June. No. 2, the distance between the fourth- and 10th-place candidate is not that large. So there's always time for those metrics to shift. Three, I am excited because ... the diversity of this field has forced a complexity of conversation that we have not previously seen. The fact that there are candidates who have to talk about issues they may have thought about but have never had to publicly grapple with that means something. And whether or not that diversity is reflected in the eventual nominee, the diversity of the field has changed the conversation, and I think for the better.

The very vibrant conversations about criminal justice reform, about black economic equity, about immigration as more than just the question of border security, but a question of how do we address the kind of nation we want to be, issues of women's bodily autonomy and how women economics are missing in some of our national conversation. Across race and gender we have seen, and identity writ large, we have seen a deeper understanding of what communities need. You were with me this morning when we had a conversation about the intersectionality of race and physical ability as a point of entry for access to the right vote or is a barrier. We don't have those conversations as often and I know a handful of candidates have already put out plans to talk about how they will continue to work with the disability community to lift up their voices and their needs.

My focus is on getting through the order we have now and making sure we get all the candidates back to Georgia.

We haven't spoken about that direct topic recently, but she and I have had robust conversations over the last year-and-a-half as we've gotten to know each other, and I look forward to hearing what she says.

As someone who serves in a leadership role who was responsible for gathering votes from within my own party and then crossing the aisle to get additional votes, what I know is that change is complex and people are interested in revolutionary change, but they are often reticent about how close that change comes to their lives. And I think that's what the president was speaking to, that we have to not only think about the goal, but think about the process. And sometimes in our politics we are so focused on the goal, we forget that we've got to bring the people along with us for the process to work.

And my take away, not only from the president's comments but my experience, is that often those changes and that revolution requires compromise and engagement and that it's not real if people aren't with you.

What I'm saying is...we should have bold, ambitious goals, but we also have to have patience with the process. And sometimes the conversation about the goals [ignores] the complexity of the process.

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Stacey Abrams talks voter suppression, the 2020 Democratic field and Obama - POLITICO

A year after Ukraine official and alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella left President Trumps White House, a picture of him shaking Barack Obamas hand was published on a close friend's wedding website.

The Oval Office photograph, obtained by the Washington Examiner, is circulating among Trump allies who consider it evidence that the alleged whistleblower is biased against Trump and had partisan motivations when he filed an Aug. 12 complaint that sparked impeachment proceedings.

In the photograph, a smiling Ciaramella, then Ukraine director on the National Security Council at the White House, is shown shaking Obama's hand. They are standing in front of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln by George Henry Story.

Ukraine specialist Eric Ciaramella poses for a photo with former President Barack Obama at the White House. The photo was published on the website for a friend's 2018 wedding.

A Republican close to the White House said the photo was evidence Ciaramella supported Obama and its selection for the wedding website indicated he considered the Oval Office image a "glamour shot." "This photo confirms that career intelligence and foreign service officials serving at the highest ranks of the Trump White House have their own agenda and their own policy viewpoints," the Republican source said.

The website for the September 2018 wedding of Mat Calabro, a Connecticut high school friend of Ciaramella, is now defunct. The two friends traveled through Central and Eastern Europe together in the summer of 2005, and Ciaramella was a best man at Calabro's wedding in Newport, Rhode Island.

An Obama photograph was prized by White House staff during his time in office. When aides departed the NSC, they were given the chance to have a photo with the president, according to former aides. Staff still at the council when Obama left office were given the chance to get a photograph. It appears this was the occasion for Ciaramella to secure his keepsake image. Trump discontinued the tradition of routinely posing with departing staff.

This picture raises serious questions about how this sham impeachment process started, a senior Trump administration official said. Its no surprise that [House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam] Schiff has now changed his story about letting the falsely labeled whistleblower testify.

Ciaramella, 33, is a career CIA analyst who is now a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council under the director of national intelligence. From 2015, Ciaramella was the NSC's Ukraine director, the post currently occupied by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who has testified against Trump and with whom Ciaramella still has professional dealings. The Washington Post has suggested that Vindman spoke to the whistleblower about the July 25 telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Early in the Trump administration, Ciaramella was briefly acting NSC senior director for European and Russian affairs, while still Ukraine director, before Fiona Hill took over. During recent congressional testimony, Hill was unable to recall Ciaramella's name. Ciaramella was cited in a key passage of special counsel Robert Mueller's report in connection with the meeting between Trump and Russian officials in the Oval Office the day after James Comey was fired as FBI director.

The CIA officer worked with Joe Biden, then vice president, on Ukraine policy and was Biden's guest at a State Department banquet in October 2016. Ciaramella finished his White House assignment as assistant to national security adviser H.R. McMaster in June 2017.

Before he left the White House, Ciaramella came under attack from prominent right-wing figures on social media who believed he opposed Trump. Some White House officials suspected him of leaking, but one person familiar with his work under Trump called Ciaramella a nonpartisan patriot who was unfairly smeared by wack jobs.

A whistleblower submitted a complaint to the Intelligence Community's inspector general on Aug. 12 that said Trump pressed Zelensky during the July 25 phone call to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter.

Republicans, led by Trump, are focused on the whistleblower amid a second week of televised impeachment hearings. They claim that the whistleblower coordinated his efforts with Schiffs staff, which he contacted for guidance before filing the complaint.

The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, said during a Tuesday hearing that Democrats flip-flopped on whether the whistleblower should testify. Its as if the Democrats put the whistleblower in their own witness protection program, he said.

Mark Zaid, an attorney for the whistleblower, recently told the Washington Examiner that one potentially favorable outcome would be similar to former FBI official Mark Felt, who disclosed he was Deep Throat in his '90s. Felt had been named in press accounts before Richard Nixons resignation, but a lack of confirmation kept people guessing.

The whistleblowers legal team has declined to confirm or deny reports purporting to name its client. The attorneys and Democrats say his identity is irrelevant. The whistleblower had only secondhand knowledge of details, whereas lawmakers now are questioning witnesses with firsthand knowledge. Republicans believe it is important to establish the origins of the complaint against Trump.

Ciaramella and Calabro did not respond to emails seeking comment.

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PHOTO: Alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella shakes hands with Barack Obama in Oval Office - Washington Examiner

Fox News host Mark Levin vented his spleen about the impeachment of President Donald Trump, and said we need to retroactively impeach President Barack Obama in order to impeach Trump as well.

On Thursday nights edition of Hannity, Levin launched into a rant about the current impeachment inquiry, which just wrapped up a week of public hearings that featured extensive testimony on Trumps plot to extort political favors from Ukraine by withholding military aid.

Along the way, Levin managed to rope in President Obama, our last popularly-elected commander-in-chief, and said If you want to impeach, you need to retroactively impeach Obama.

Unfortunately for Levin, the United States Constitution provides no mechanism for impeaching a president retroactively. The most relevant section to Levins argument would be Article II Section 4, which states:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

The clause clearly states that removal from office shall occur following impeachment and conviction. President Obama won reelection in 2012 earning more votes than his opponent in the process and was constitutionally ineligible to run for a third term.

Once Obama completed his second term in office in January of 2017, and was one of the few who attended Trumps inauguration, he was no longer in office. Hence, Obama could not be removed from office at any point subsequent to that.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

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Mark Levin Wants to Retroactively Impeach Barack Obama, Which Isnt a Thing You Can Do - Mediaite