Report: Court Served as Obama’s Rubber Stamp on Electronic Surveillance

According to new analysis of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), not even a single one of the 9,400 Obama administration applications “to conduct electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes” was denied in the last six years.

The stunning approval rate hints that the FISC served as a complete rubber stamp for the previous administration during that time, and comes amid fury over allegations from President Trump that Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped before the 2016 election.

Some of the wiretapping and surveillance activities conducted by Obama have been covered at The Political Insider, including high-ranking UN officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Nikolas Sarkozy, and Angela Merkel.

As CNS News reports, based on Justice Department documents:

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court did not deny a single application out of the 9,400 the government submitted over the last six years on record (2010-2015) seeking authority “to conduct electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes” under the terms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to reports filed by the U.S. Justice Department.

The last time the court denied an electronic surveillance application under FISA was 2009. That year, the court denied one application outright and denied another in part.

The latest annual report from the Justice Department to Congress on the disposition of FISA requests was delivered on April 28, 2016. Signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Peter J. Kadzik, it covers calendar year 2015.

You can view the approval rate in the chart below …

While such an extreme approval rating becomes relevant due to our current political battle between presidents Trump and Obama, it should be noted that in 33 years, the FISC has approved over 99% of government applications.

That said, under President George W. Bush, the court denied four FISA applications in 2003, three in 2007, and another in 2008.

President Obama saw nowhere near that many denials.

Last week, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told Congress that “more and more Americans are getting swept up in these (FISA) searches.”

Was President Trump, a candidate at the time, one of those Americans swept up? Time will tell.

Comment: Do you think Trump and his associates were wiretapped by the Obama administration? Share your thoughts below.

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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