As we pull further away from Obama’s tenure as president, more of his secrets are slowly revealed. After almost a half year of freedom, we now know much more about how Obama wielded his powers of surveillance. It’s no secret that he expanded on unprecedented levels of internal spying, but the reality is more disturbing than you might imagine. Obama’s intelligence tactics weren’t just an overreach; they were often illegal.
The Trump Campaign
The media spared no effort in trying to undermine and ridicule Trump’s claim that he had been under Obama’s surveillance. Then, April came with indisputable proof that Trump was right. A leak showed that the FBI received secret court approval to spy on several members of Trump’s campaign staff. The order was of such high origin that it could not have happened without Obama’s support and knowledge.
Despite that, he has still been completely unscathed by any scrutiny or fallout despite publicly claiming that no such surveillance had ever transpired. This is unequivocally an example of Obama using his power against a political rival, and that is highly illegal. Still, there is no outcry for a criminal investigation of Obama’s behavior.
Justice Scalia
In the past week, an interview with Andrew Napolitano revealed disturbing information. Before his death, Antonin Scalia was wholly convinced that the Supreme Court was under strict surveillance by the White House. While the story has not been proven, it has been corroborated by several anonymous staff members.
The claims suggest that Obama used this surveillance to gain a political edge over the court in the face of some of their biggest recent rulings. The decisions to uphold Obamacare and legalize same-sex marriage now carry an immense shadow of doubt that they were made under illegal pressure from Obama.
In case you had any doubt, it is expressly illegal for the president to unilaterally order surveillance of other branches of government. Speaking of other branches of government . . .
The Senate
Senator Rand Paul is now making a formal inquiry into Obama’s surveillance of senators. Paul is leading the inquiry at the behest of multiple sources who have all claimed to have evidence of illegal spying. Paul himself does not have direct access to the information, but assuming proof wasn’t among the mountains of data destroyed by Obama and Clinton, he should be able to find proof without too much delay. If substantiated, these claims would be a third example of Obama illegally surveilling political opponents and other branches of the federal government in a grotesque abuse of power.
The White House
In a slightly less illegal maneuver, it has also come to light that Obama had the White House thoroughly bugged during his tenure. This is within the president’s power, but the truth is not without irony. Trump has come under fire for suggesting that his conversations with Comey may have been recorded, but multiple journalists and government officials have stated that all of their activity in Obama’s White House were always recorded.
In an extreme example, an Obama interviewer discovered that their recording device had failed during the interview. The journalist was able to receive a printed transcription of their entire interview before leaving the White House that same day. It’s ever so interesting that recording Oval Office conversations is only a controversial topic when it involves Trump.
Expanding Surveillance Power
In perhaps the biggest overreach of power, Obama dramatically expanded federal surveillance powers only two weeks before leaving office. The expansion made it legal and easy for the NSA to share data with 16 different intelligence groups. Does that number sound familiar? It’s the same number of groups who claimed Trump was never under surveillance and that there was never any doubt that Russia hacked the election last year.
Despite the obvious fact that this expansion of power came with some final political favors, the real issue runs deeper. A certain amount of surveillance is necessary to protect America, but the average citizen used to have their privacy protected by the simple fact that there was just too much data to manage. The NSA lacks the resources to effectively spy on every American. Now that their efforts are bolstered by the additional agencies, American privacy is at an all-time low, and it was Obama who made this reality.
The media and entrenched left won’t change. They’re going to continue to attack Trump with everything they have, but it will still only slow progress. It’s mostly sad because if they had regarded Obama with even one quarter of the scrutiny aimed at Trump, we wouldn’t have needed to elect him to clean up the mess in the first place.
~ American Liberty Report
