In June of 1972 five Nixon operatives were discovered breaking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The purpose of the burglary was to obtain information and to install wiretap recording devices during a presidential election. In January 30, 1973 the five burglars were convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. President Nixon was forced to resign as president of the United States.
In June of 2016, during a presidential election, the Obama Justice Department submitted an application for a surveillance warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Donald Trump was named in the application. The FISA court denied the application. The Obama Justice Department went back to the FISA court in October, a month before the election, and submitted a narrow application that did not mention Trump. This application was granted and the NSA surveilled Donald Trump.
Normally when government officials receive intelligence surveillance reports, the names of American citizens are redacted to protect their privacy. News reports now confirm Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice made repeated requests to "unmask" the names of American citizens tied to Donald Trump. This information was subsequently disseminated throughout the Justice and State Departments and leaked to the media. The dissemination of unmasked names of American citizens is a felony. Senator Rand Paul wants Susan Rice to testify before Congress under oath.
When Donald Trump won the election the DNC refused to acknowledge Hillary Clinton was a poor candidate and instead alleged that Trump colluded with the Russian government. Hillary supporters believed the Russians hacked the DNC computers and gave information to Wikileaks revealing Hillary corruption. Julian Assuage, founder of Wikileaks, denied the DNC emails came from the Russian government. He stated they came from disgruntled Bernie Sanders DNC staffers.
Steve Johnston, B.S., M. Div., J.D.
