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The National Security Agency (NSA) just deleted all the phone call metadata it has collected since 2015, because it found that it inadvertently collected metadata that it wasn’t authorized to collect. In response to that, President Trump just tweeted this:

Wow! The NSA has deleted 685 million phone calls and text messages. Privacy violations? They blame technical irregularities. Such a disgrace. The Witch Hunt continues!

“Witch Hunt” is how he refers to the Trump-Russia investigation. So my question is, have any White House officials explained what connection he’s drawing between the NSA issue and the Trump-Russia investigation?

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    Absent Trump explaining himself in detail, or having a mind reading machine, how can "what connection is he drawing" be answered objectively?
    – user4012
    Jul 3, 2018 at 18:32
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    @user4012 Well, a statement by White House staff elaborating on Trump's point might answer the question.
    – Keshav Srinivasan
    Jul 3, 2018 at 18:36
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    @KeshavSrinivasan - Not quite (it would be objective but has no guarantee into illuminating what goes on in Trump's mind).
    – user4012
    Jul 3, 2018 at 18:51
  • This really isn't answerable, unless you're able to read Trump's mind. The real question is whether anything he says about the "witch hunt" is objectively true, or whether it's all smokescreen intended to hide his wrongdoing. He's the only one in a position to know the truth of the matter.
    – jamesqf
    Jul 3, 2018 at 20:07
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    I'm voting to reopen this question. The head of state of a nation publicly implies that its national security agency is involved a in a "witch hunt" process against himself. Given the amount unsourced and speculative answers on this site calling for a "mind reading machine" to answer this one has got to be a joke. At the very least very educated (and well supported by sources) answers are possible. And if we are to close this one we would have to do the same to the great majority of questions on the site.
    – armatita
    Jul 6, 2018 at 11:09

1 Answer 1

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Politico asked the White House, but did not get an explanation:

The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on the connection between the NSA and the Mueller probe

The Washington Post asked Richard Burr, but he did not answer:

Spokesmen for the committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), did not respond to a request for comment.

The Washington Examinger says that Charles Carithers also denied requests for comments:

Charles Carithers, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also deferred to the White House.

For context, all available sources say that there is no known connection between the two issues (which may be the reason that apparently no clarification by the White House has been issued). See eg CBS:

There is no evidence or indication this incident is in any way related to the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling.

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