The largest mass surveillance of citizens by the government was exposed while Obama was at the helm of the presidency. Outright violation of the privacy of millions upon millions of Americans with the bulk collection of private data without due process. And he didn't push for reform until he was exposed by Snowden.
So is it out of the realm of possibilities....I don't think so.
So, with that apparatus at his evil fingertips, why would Obama and his admin choose to get a FISA warrant, the FBI investigate, etc instead of just having the supposedly corrupted to the core IRS leak Trump's tax returns? You don't think someone with NOC status couldn't have dropped a thumb-drive in the mail full of Trump's returns to NYtimes, WSJ, Politico, WaPo, etc? Because the e-filed version of Trump's tax returns came in the same format they can go out in. In other words, there'd be no way to know who leaked them. Was it an accountant from Trump's own organization? A bank he got a loan from? A partner in a deal that provided financing? The list of potential leakers would be MASSIVE. There'd be zero way to pin it on the IRS.
So why go for a warrant and an investigation not knowing whether or not anything would come from it when back during the actual election you could have exposed hundreds of secrets about Trump? You don't think his tax returns would be chock full of information that Democrats and Hillary could've had a field day with? Everything from how much he paid in taxes to charitable giving, tax credits, how much he actually had in income, crazy deductions, etc?
What is more politically damaging? Putting Trump on the defensive when he is a mere candidate weakened by the p-grabbing scandal among many other things or once he is President and can shutdown an investigation into potential Russian ties? If you are Obama you'd rather Trump become President and then try to take him on with something you aren't sure whether or not is true, or would you leak his tax returns, order Comey not to write that letter, and then let Hillary win?
I just don't understand this argument that this is the tactic someone would have used if they wanted to weaken Trump.
As far as Snowden is concerned -- he didn't expose anything. He didn't truly know what he had until the Russians got ahold of him and told him what he had. The Kremlin controls Snowden like a puppet on a string. Furthermore, the various SIGINT programs you are referencing had their genesis occur under President Clinton and President George W. Bush. Obama simply continued the development of such programs and expanded them. Don't believe me? Go read in-depth about XKeyhole, MUSCULAR, PRISM, or even about Stuxnet.
Snowden is a traitor that should be brought back to the United States and given a fair trial for his crimes. He planned to start his leaks under George W. Bush but waited because he said the thought Obama would be different. So, saying Obama is responsible for mass surveillance of citizens is just fallacious. Of course he was. As has been every single President out there. Including Trump. If they aren't doing it they aren't doing their job.
The vast majority of what Snowden exposed was for foreign SIGINT and has little to no domestic impact. Russia, China, and others certainly want you to believe there was a vast domestic spying scandal. They want to neuter the NSA as much as possible. You think they have any oversight or privacy protection protocols at all compared to the NSA? What Moscow Ed actually exposed and what he claims to have exposed are two totally different things.
Don't take me as someone who is cavalier about the Constitution, privacy rights, or the NSA. There were abuses. There have been issues. But you don't handle it by exposing vital and legitimate programs and in turn give aid and comfort to the enemy.
