I spent some time replying to commenters on youtube in regards to a John Oliver video:
John Oliver and commenters both laughing at anyone that finds it plausible that the president wiretapped political opponents. My comments provide information and perspective that appears to be scarce about this subject even on alternative media, so I see value in sharing.
(1) Everyone is technically wiretapped anyway because of the NSA.
(2) Since the Carter administration FISA act rulings the president has been able to legally wiretap without telling the intelligence agencies.
(3) People running for high office usually get extra wiretapping.
(4) Obama was under elevated NSA surveillance before even becoming senator.
(5) If Obama did wiretap Trump above the standard NSA wiretapping, there is zero legal requirement or reason to leave evidence, so Trump can never have proof only speculation and whistle-blowers.
(6) The recent Vault 7 leak includes documentation that everyone running for office in 2012 was wiretapped by the CIA along with 35 foreign leaders.
(7) Conclusion: Trump is probably lying about having proof it happened, and the intelligence agencies are misleading about having proof it did not happen.
The source for all of these is government documents and whistle-blowers. As Ron Paul stated: The only thing that would surprise me out of all of this is not if Trump was wiretapped but if there was actually evidence.
"The president doesn't open his laptop, crack his knuckles and go "alright, time to hack" --- Sounds funny, I will give you that, but if you think about it for a bit, the president just needs a user name and password to log into xkeyscore or any other spy database to get already gathered info, and as head of the military can dispatch literally anyone in the military including any of the NSA hackers to do a private task for him if he needs something not already stored in xkeyscore.
"Trump is almost certainly going to be impeached" -- The odds that trump will be impeached in the next 9 months are 17%.
https://www.predictit.org/Contract/5470/Will-Donald-Trump-be-impeached-in-2017#data
@Bogdan Filipescu @bayo salad , @people wanting proof --- "There is no legal backing for what you claim. 18 US Code 2511 specifically interdicts interception and disclosure...." --- So, I read the laws Bogdan provided and they do not conflict with my claim, they just describe standard operating procedure, and not the FISA rulings related to the presidents authority. I was planning to avoid looking up proofs, but since Bogdan did a lot of research, I decided to honor that by researching myself the ruling that says the president has inherent constitutional authority to conduct wiretaps and this authority can be encroached upon by no law. (Horrible ruling... IMO this is opposite of constitutional, but point being this is what the law has become) --- Here is the wikipedia information about the relevant ruling FISA act signed by carter:
"However, in a third case, the special review court for FISA, the equivalent of a Circuit Court of Appeals, opined differently should FISA limit the President's inherent authority for warrantless searches in the foreign intelligence area. In Sealed Case, 310 F.3d 717, 742 (Foreign Intel. Surv. Ct. of Rev. 2002) the special court stated "We take for granted that the President does have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information and, assuming that is so, FISA could not encroach on the President's constitutional power."
To which you say "but only foreign intelligence"? Courts have already ruled that foreign intelligence includes all communications with a foreign target, even if the communicating parties are American citizens or innocent. This is how the NSA justifies bulk collection on American citizens. As John Oliver put it in his interview with former NSA General Keith Alexander: "No, the target is not the American people, but it seems that too often you miss the target and hit the person next to them going, 'Whoa, him!'". So as another commenter has already pointed out, if Trump had interactions with say, Russian politicians, Trump could be wiretapped. Under the circuit of appeals ruling here is how it can work for the president doing the wiretap solo and without documentation.
(1) President decides they want to wiretap Trump.
(2) President logs into xkeyscore and makes sure that Trump has had electronic communications with a foreign person so what he knows what he is about to do is legal.
(3) President now can legally personally wiretap trump tower personally or order anyone in the military to do it for them.
(4) President knows the ruling that no law can ever infringe his constitutional right to do this, but also knows it would cause public relations issues and therefor denies it
(5) Trump discovers he also has this power, but as Edward Snowden said about this wiretap ordeal: Trump is the president, he has the influence to undo this unconstitutional ruling, yet instead he just complains it was used on him, probably because he also wants to spy on political opponents.