Larry C. Johnson emerges as key figure in spying allegation controversy

Man behind Michelle Obama and John Kerry hoaxes emerges at centre of GCHQ row 

Kim Sengupta, The Independent

Saturday 18 March 2017 18:13 GMT

A former CIA officer responsible for previously peddling false allegations played a prime part in the fake claim that Barack Obama secretly asked GCHQ to wiretap Donald Trump, The Independent has learned.

Larry C Johnson, who made bogus charges that Michelle Obama made a racist speech against white people and that former Secretary of State John Kerry had raped women while serving in Vietnam, has emerged as one of the key figures behind what has become an international diplomatic confrontation between the US and UK.

On 6 March, the week after Mr Trump first accused Mr Obama of being responsible for the wiretap, Mr Johnson “revealed” in an interview with Russian state sponsored network Russia Today that there was a conspiracy between US intelligence and “Britain’s own GHCQ (sic)” to derail Donald Trump’s election campaign. He said he had repeated this to Andrew Napolitano, a retired judge, who made it a basis for his own accusation against Mr Obama and GCHQ on Fox News earlier this week. The falsehood was then given further exposure by Sean Spicer, Mr Trump’s spokesman, at a White House briefing, on Thursday.

The revelation about Mr Johnson’s role in the extraordinary affair came as the Trump administration dismissed an account by Theresa May’s official spokesperson that they had apologised and pledged not to repeat the GCHQ claim.

(More here.)