National security expert Marcy Wheeler has a theory about where Donald Trump's suspicion of the "deep state" comes from.
In her podcast "Ball of Thread," she claimed connections of Trump's allies with foreign governments, particularly Russia, left him reeling as he tried to become president — and filled with conspiracy theories about secretive "deep state" dealings.
Trump team members Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn were all targets of FBI investigations into ties between Trump's campaign and Russia.
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When it comes to Page, Wheeler explained, "Starting years ago, Russian intelligence ... had started cultivating him, and until 2013, the CIA would go to him and say, 'Hey, do you have these Russian friends?'
The CIA stopped talking to Page in 2013, but the Russians didn't stop building the relationship and, after a 2015 indictment, a suspect gave the CIA a description of somebody they were working with. It fit Page.
In 2016, the CIA reached out to Page, saying they wanted to talk to him about the Russian spies trying to recruit him. Page was open to it, saying he told the Russians he wouldn't snitch on America.
Page then rushed off to Russia to promise them he didn't say anything, Wheeler said.
"Remember, he was a business consultant, and he gave them non-public, non-classified information," said Wheeler. "And later on, he would say to the FBI, "I think that's good. I think it's okay to share non-public information with known Russian spies."
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Then there was Papadopoulos, a former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about Russian contacts in 2016. In speaking to another informant, Papadopoulos claimed, "Yeah, I don't want Trump to win. I just want to exploit my access to him. I can make the most money if he loses and I can exploit my access to him."
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Others had similar connections.
And Trump, according to Wheeler, believes the FBI's focus on these contacts was aimed at hurting him.
"And that is the birth of Trump's victimization. That is the birth of something Trump needed to be true from that point forward," said Wheeler.
"And he found ways to make it true two or three times down the road. That is the birth of Trump's claim, which most MAGAs believe as if it's the Ten Commandments. That the deep state went out after Trump in 2016, that the deep state wiretapped Donald Trump in 2016 and tried to take him down That's where this assault on the deep state really comes from."
