Senator Rand Paul has formally requested intelligence agents to investigate his claim that former president Obama “surveilled” him during the last presidential race. The Kentucky Senator wrote on his Twitter account “I have formally requested from the WH and the Intel Committees info on whether I was surveilled by Obama admin and or the Intel community!” His comment comes on the heels of President Trump’s insistence that Trump Towers was under surveillance and the subject of wiretapping.
Paul didn’t stop there, he tweeted a second time with a followup question “Did the Obama admin go after presidential candidates, members of Congress, journalists, clergy, lawyers, fed judges? Did the Obama admin use warrantless “wiretapping” on other candidates besides @realdonaldtrump?”
Devin Nunes, the chairman of the White House Intelligence Community, refutes the claim and stated he has seen no evidence supporting the inflammatory statement. The senator didn’t stop there, on April 10 he sent a letter to President Trump imploring him to investigate a claim that his name had been ‘unmasked’ in intelligence reports under the Obama administration.
The fear of lose regulations on information collected by the NSA shook up several members of the Trump cabinet and had many Washington bigwigs questioning their privacy. An article by the publication CIRCA claims that, starting in 2011, Americans overseas were subject to having their personal data collected and disseminated by the National Security Agency after Obama loosened the grip on privacy protection.
While Paul seems to have a real fear about his personal information being leaked to the public, the potential for this occurring seems quite low. Unless Paul or his staff were communicating with foreign agents, it is highly unlikely that the Obama administration would have taken much interest in the senator’s activities.
