Sen. Rand Paul has issued formal requests with the White House and the U.S. intelligence community to see whether he was ever targeted for surveillance by the Obama administration.
The Kentucky Republican gave an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Friday and informed his 1.2 million Twitter followers of his concerns that former President Barack Obama may have politicized intelligence agencies.
“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,” the senator tweeted. “Did the Obama admin use warrantless ’wiretapping’ on other candidates besides @RealDonaldTrump? Did the Obama admin go after presidential candidates, members of Congress, journalists, clergy, lawyers, fed judges?”
Mr. Paul, a longtime critic of intelligence programs that capture metadata on innocent Americans, told Breitbart that too many individuals have approached him with the allegations.
Former National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice acknowledged in April that Mr. Trump’s associates were “unmasked,” but denied any wrongdoing.
The Kentucky senator is not convinced.
“We’ve had several people come to us and say that it happened,” Mr. Paul told Breitbart. “I don’t have access to that information, but I’ve been very concerned that too many Americans’ information is being culled through without a warrant. I don’t have any facts to say it happened. But numerous sources are coming to us saying it did happen, so I want to search through, find out why I wasn’t notified. Was it on purpose?”
The senator’s request comes in conjunction with a report that NSA officials honored almost 2,000 “unmasking” requests in 2016.
“We have several sources telling us that members of the Obama administration were looking at politicians, particularly [those] who were running for office,” Mr. Paul told Breitbart.
FBI Director James B. Comey has denied that Mr. Trump’s campaign was ever targeted directly by the Obama administration.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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