January 5th, 2017, an Oval Office meeting with President Obama, VP Joe Biden, James Comey (FBI), Michael Rogers (NSA), John Brennan (CIA), James Clapper (ODNI), Sally Yates (DOJ) and Susan Rice.   At the conclusion of the briefing, President Obama asks Sally Yates and James Comey to remain.  Together with Susan Rice, this is where the “by the book” comment comes into play. As recounted by Rice:

“President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.”

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe is now highlighting how the FBI conducted a criminal and counterintelligence operation under the auspices that President Trump was possibly an agent of a foreign government.  Let’s look at the big picture…
FBI Director James Comey told congress (March 20th, 2017) the reason the intelligence community did not disclose their counterintelligence operation against candidate, president-elect and President Trump was “because of the sensitivity of the matter.”  As such the required congressional oversight notifications were bypassed.
We learn in hindsight the Trump Transition team was under electronic surveillance.  This surveillance also included the capture of all of their transition email accounts, the content was later given -without prior approval- to Robert Mueller by the GAO.  This is not disputed.

Remember, as an outcome of the concern and in combination with the counterintelligence operation, the incoming National Security Advisor, General Michael Flynn, was designated as a national security risk by the intelligence apparatus that he would be part of. Flynn was under electronic surveillance as part of the Obama authorized operation.
On January 27th, 2017, FBI Director James Comey attended a Green Room dinner with President Trump just about a week after the inauguration. This is the meeting where, according to Comey, President Trump asked for “loyalty”.  [This is also the date when Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates confronted White House counsel Don McGahn about Flynn’s interview with the FBI a few days earlier on Jan 24th.]
It would only be a few weeks later [Follow Link] when President Trump remodeled the “Green Room” (presidential dining room) adding a flat screen TV and a chandelier he paid for personally. During the remodel the dining room was “taken down to the studs”, and according to a quote later delivered by Time Magazine:

TIME – […] But few rooms have changed so much so fast as his dining room, where he often eats his lunch amid stacks of newspapers and briefing sheets. A few weeks back, the President ordered a gutting of the room. “We found gold behind the walls, which I always knew. Renovations are grand,” he says, boasting that contractors from the General Services Administration resurfaced the walls and redid the moldings in two days. “Remember how hard they worked? They wanted to make me happy.”

On February 14th, 2017 President Trump and James Comey were again alone was in the Oval Office. February 14th was also the day when the head of the Secret Service, Joseph Clancy, announced his resignation.  Clancy’s resignation was effective March 4th, 2017.
After he was fired James Comey testified to congress on June 8th, 2017, saying he delivered his memos of the meetings with President Trump to his friend at Columbia University, Professor Daniel Richman, on/after May 15th. He said the intent was to initiate a “special prosecutor”:

“I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, ‘cause it didn’t dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation; there might be a tape.” [Referring to Monday May 15] “And my judgment was I needed to get that out in the public square so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I Didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. So I asked a close friend of mine to do it.”

However, the content of the memo was leaked to the New York Times on or before Thursday May 11th for an article that was originally posted at 5:26pm:

Quite simply James Comey lied to congress about when and why he initiated leaking the memos to his friends in the media.  Comey claimed a tweet from President Trump spurred him to share his memo.
The tweet from President Trump (May 12th) was in response to the New York Times article (May 11th) which was quoting from the Comey memo.  So Comey was lying when he said he gave the memo to the New York Times (Via Daniel Richman) on Monday May 15th.
This false motive, claimed by Comey, was highlighted by President Trump’s attorney at the time:
I bring up this example because of the Trump tweet that surrounds it.
President Trump tweeted about a “recording” after reading the New York Times article that was written from the memo account of James Comey; however, the tweet was also made after the Green Room was “taken down to the studs” and remodeled.
Everyone assumed President Trump was talking about a recording that he might have made of the Comey conversation; however, in hindsight given the nature of what is described above – wouldn’t it be more likely the recording was external to the White House; as a part of the surveillance.
“By the book”.
If they truly believed a foreign adversary was in control of the Trump administration; a claim they already made to the FISA court; why wouldn’t the Obama intelligence apparatus be wiretapping the White House?  Remember: “by the book.”
In hindsight we already know the Trump campaign, Trump transition team and Trump administration were under surveillance.
♦On May 8th, 2017, President Trump invited three journalists to tour the White House and discuss his first few months in office. [Link] This is where he initially showed part of the redecoration that included the dining room where he and James Comey had discussions.
♦On May 9th, 2017, President Trump fired James Comey.  That evening Andrew McCabe became Acting FBI Director and visited President Trump at the Oval Office.
♦On May 10th, 2017, President Trump invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Kislyak into the oval office.  [We now know that simultaneous to this meeting back at the FBI McCabe had launched a criminal and counterintelligence investigation against President Trump.] Later that same day, May 10th, after the Lavrov and Kislyak meeting, Trump invited McCabe to come back to the White House.
♦On May 11th, 2017, the New York Times using Comey’s leaked information wrote about the “loyalty meeting”.  This same day McCabe is testifying to congress and informing them President Trump’s firing of Comey: “there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.” {Go Deep}
Stand back and think about the sequence above carefully.
I’ll bet you a donut President Trump was aware of the White House being bugged.  That’s why he invited Lavrov and Kislyak to the Oval Office, and then later called McCabe.   President Trump was proving to the listening ears there was no Trump-Russia collusion.
The FBI bugs were known, and allowed to remain in place all the way up to August 2nd, 2017.

(Via Politico) […] building-wide renovation blitz scheduled for the next two weeks, while President Donald Trump heads to his golf club in Bedminster, N.J
The air-conditioning project is bigger project that will shutter the West Wing during Trump’s absence.
“The maintenance people work hard, but when you’ve got a place that runs 24-7, it’s hard to keep it all in decent shape,” said a White House official.
The main situation room was recently closed for two weeks so that the iconic main table could be refurbished, according to a former official.
[…]  “It’s the only ‘leaks’ they can fix,” quipped the former official. (link)

Behind the scenes at the @WhiteHouse – the Resolute desk being removed from the Oval as renovations begin. History: https://t.co/t0alLjNryj pic.twitter.com/8uV1KqxVQC

— Dan Scavino Jr. Archived (@Scavino45) August 5, 2017

The timing was rather interesting and noted by others:

While the renovations may have been planned for months, the timing is extremely interesting, especially when you consider that General Kelly was recently named the new chief of staff.  One has to wonder whether or not the renovations are a cover for what would be a massive undertaking to essentially debug the entire White House which may have surveillance equipment held over from the previous administration. (link)

[Also see CNN REPORT HERE]
What happened at the same time the FBI investigation bugs were removed from the White House?  Well, check out the dates:
August 2nd, 2017, Robert Mueller requested an updated “scope memo” from Rod Rosenstein:
[scribd id=375478974 key=key-4DaehSp6U38EiB8eNVXS mode=scroll]
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Any questions?
Here’s what CTH wants to know.  How long will it be, if ever, before we officially hear that the FBI had planted listening devices inside the White House?
In hindsight, the Kislyak and Lavrov invitation on May 10th is the big “tell”:

WHITE HOUSE – President Donald J. Trump met today with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia, following on the visit of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow last month.
President Trump emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria, in particular, underscoring the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran, and Iranian proxies.
The President raised Ukraine, and expressed his Administration’s commitment to remain engaged in resolving the conflict and stressed Russia’s responsibility to fully implement the Minsk agreements.  He also raised the possibility of broader cooperation on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The President further emphasized his desire to build a better relationship between the United States and Russia. (WH link)

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Now watch again: