[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 4, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H2679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   WAS SURVEILLANCE OF TRUMP ILLEGAL?

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, criminal laws may well have been 
broken when the Obama administration conducted surveillance of 
candidate and then-President-elect Trump and those close to him, 
including his family members.
  It is reported that a former national security adviser under 
President Obama ordered the names of Trump associates to be revealed 
rather than kept confidential, as would normally be the case with any 
American citizen.
  This exposing and disseminating personal information may well have 
been a criminal act. A serious question is: Who authorized the 
surveillance in the first place? To direct intelligence or law 
enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance of political opponents is 
a violation of the Constitution and a threat to our democracy. But the 
Obama administration wrongfully asked the IRS to target conservative 
organizations, so anything is possible.
  One thing is for sure--the American people need to learn a lot more 
about what the Obama administration did and who did it.

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