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The difference is objective-- the purpose of a criminal investigation is to gather evidence to present to a court of for prosecution.
The purpose of a counter-intelligence investigation is to find out what foreign powers are up to and to stop it. The purpose is not to gather evidence for a criminal prosecution.
But there still needs to be evidence of a counter-intelligence threat--- an existence of a fact.
Not really-- because the FBI had the transcript and knew what was discussed (which btw was not about sanctions).
Already did-- the lack of a defensive briefing to the campaign after starting Crossfire Hurricane. If it was just Carter Page the FBI was worried about, you tell a Christie or a Sessions or a Flynn. Then the campaign knows and the campaign can deal with the problem (hopefully by firing him-- which eliminates the the threat and this achieves the counter-intelligence objective). Instead, mum was the word because had they told Christie or Sessions, those guys would have told Trump.
Thus Trump was the target. Can't tell the target he is subject of an investigation. And of course the campaign couldn't very well fire Trump.
Actually, there is NO legal requirement to have evidence for counterintelligence investigation as long as the evidence does not violate constitutional rights. And Flynn gave many clues for becoming a target of counter-intelligence investigation which is the reason why the Inspector General found nothing wrong with the opening of the FBI investigation. So, if x person tells the FBI without proof that a certain person has been used by the Russians to approach a candidate, or if Flynn is caught telling the soon to be VP lies about his conversations with a Russian ambassador, this by itself is enough for the FBI to ask (as they did) Flynn to have an interview with them.
Actually, EXACTLY because the FBI had the transcripts. they knew that he was lying and even TRump and Pence at the time said the same thing.Stop ignoring the posts with the links I posted showing that it was NOT just the FBI which made the claim that Flynn lied.
The lack of briefing does not show that Trump was the FBI's target during the campaign. It shows that Trump was a mere candidate who was not authorized to have classified information, the fact that the FBI does not inform people around the suspect about its investigations, and the fact that the FBI had not enough corroborated information to openly make a case against Flynn. When Flynn also chose to lie to Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, the FBI could make a more solid case. Sorry, NOBODY outside specific people in the federal government have clearance to handle an FBI investigation.