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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   26387 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 3, 2024

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I assume this is a typo on your part but there's an inconsistency between your Wikipedia quote and what I assume is a book cite.

Two phones inside the DNC headquarter's offices were said to have been wiretapped.[25] One was Robert Spencer Oliver's phone. At the time, Oliver was working as the executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairmen. The other phone belonged to DNC chairman Larry O'Brien. The FBI found no evidence that O'Brien's phone was bugged;[26] however, it was determined that an effective listening device was installed in Oliver's phone. While successful with installing the listening devices, the committee agents soon determined that they needed repairs. They plotted a second "burglary" in order to take care of the situation.[25]

...

The only actual wiretap ever found at DNC headquarters, on DNC head O'Brien's phone, was later found by the FBI when the Watergate scandal had already broke, and was so antiquated and weird that many believe it was actually planted by the DNC to be found by the FBI team, to provide proof that Nixon had tapped their phones. It was simply too old and too obvious to have been done by the actual Plumbers team.

As to motivation I don't see why "they thought it would yield intelligence useful to the campaign" is insufficient. Maybe they, themselves, didn't have a particular piece of intelligence they thought it would yield. The way you describe Liddy and Hunt make it sound like they were "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" types.

I probably got it wrong. I love a good nonfiction audiobook, but it's a lot harder to look things up to refresh memory. That scene was like eight workouts and four dog walks and doing all my laundry ago!

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