4 Apr 2017 4:40 pm
There is no evidence that they abused their office to spy on Trump.Cannonpointer » 04 Apr 2017 3:13 pm » wrote:Two crimes - they abused their office to spy on tRump. That's criminal.
This is what one of Clem's own sources, Eli Lake said.
So I think that one could make a very good argument that the rules regarding unmasking should be tightened up, but right now it doesn't look like Rice acted illegally.Rice's requests to unmask the names of Trump transition officials do not vindicate Trump's own tweets from March 4 in which he accused Obama of illegally tapping Trump Tower.
There remains no evidence to support that claim.
But Rice's multiple requests to learn the identities of Trump officials discussed in intelligence reports during the transition period does highlight a longstanding concern for civil liberties advocates about U.S. surveillance programs.
The standard for senior officials to learn the names of U.S. persons incidentally collected is that it must have some foreign intelligence value, a standard that can apply to almost anything.
This suggests Rice's unmasking requests were likely within the law.
The one crime we know of for sure was the leaking of Michael Flynn's name.