FBI surveillance was necessary

RE: Byron York's column "Yes, they spied on Trump": I'd suggest that this article should have been titled: "Yes, they surveyed Trump." Surveillance requires a secret court order and it was obtained. The article suggests that the FBI investigation didn't begin until it used the Steele dossier.

That is incorrect. It began its Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence investigation earlier on July 31, 2016, based on a tip from the Australian government that two months earlier Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos had told Australia's top diplomat in London that the Russian government had "dirt" on Hillary which might be released to harm her candidacy. Indeed, WikiLeaks on July 22 began leaking hacked emails from the DNC.

That investigation focused originally on Papadopoulos and spread to Trump senior adviser Michael Flynn, who was paid $45,000 by Russia's state-sponsored TV network for a 2015 Moscow speech, campaign manager Paul Manafort who had been paid millions lobbying for pro-Russian interests in the U.S., and foreign policy adviser Carter Page, who the FBI knew that Russian spies had tried to recruit as an asset.

It was the secret court order in October to have Page surveyed that caused the most controversy later.

The Crossfire Hurricane team didn't receive the Steele dossier until September, by which time the investigation had already started. While much of that dossier has never been confirmed, its overall theme of Russian attempts to influence the election was on target. Mueller's report documented the multiple contacts that Russians had with Manafort and Roger Stone.

The FBI had, as Sen. Marco Rubio said, no choice but to carry out an investigation. That required secret court orders to carry out surveillance.

Arthur Pitz

Elmhurst