Rand Paul: Rice ‘May Have’ Committed a Crime, ‘She Did Something Devastating’

Rand Paul sat down for an interview on Thursday for “Kilmeade & Friends” that airs on Fox News Radio.

A bulk of the interview surrounded Susan Rice and the recent reports suggesting that she was the individual responsible for requesting the identities of U.S. persons pertaining to the Trump campaign.

Paul was asked about the severity of Susan Rice’s actions and the impact they may have going forward.

“Did something terribly damaging to the country because we can’t allow — you know, the intelligence community loses a lot of credibility when we find out it’s being politicized. And so, there are dangers really to having political people use top secret information for political purposes. And I think the more we learn about Susan Rice, the more we’re going to learn that she’s been involved, I think, in a lot of shenanigans with using intelligence at the White House for political purposes.”

When Paul was asked whether or not he believes Rice committed a crime, he said “yeah.”

“Yeah. I think she did something that’s devastating, and that is to take top secret information without a warrant for looking at an American individual, and exposed that individual, and then perhaps be associated with people who may have leaked this information.”

Paul continued:

“But you can’t have the executive branch of government listening in on conversations. Think about it, if a US senator is talking to the ambassador to Jordan or to Israel, should the executive branch, the president, be allowed to listen to private conversations between Senators and heads of state? This is what happened. There were senators and congressmen talking to Netanyahu about a year or so ago, and the White House was listening in on these too.

This is a real problem. This is why we need overall reform in how much data is gathered, and I think to unmask an American is something we should obey the Constitution with. Now we have a lower standard for eavesdropping on foreigners, but for eavesdropping on legislators, one, that shouldn’t happen, because there should be a separation of powers and protection of each branch of government’s powers. But two, if you want to look at an American or listen to an American’s phone call, they should go through a regular court and ask a regular judge to listen to it. Having political people, who have been known to be partisans, and very, very biased like Susan Rice, you can’t let those — those people shouldn’t have the ability to look at American’s phone calls.”

Rand made it very clear in the interview that he also had major qualms with the FISA courts and the secrecy in which they operate.

“The FISA court is a secret court. So, one of the problems with a secret court is, you don’t get a lawyer on your side. There’s only a lawyer on one side. It’s a one-sided court, which is a problem. The other problem is that it’s in secret. Now you could say, well we’ll accept a lower standard for spying on foreigners, and even the privacy advocate that I am, I can accept a somewhat of a lower standard for foreigners, but when they’re talking to Americans, to listen to the Americans or to unmask the Americans I think you ought to go to a regular court and have a regular court order or warrant.”

Rand Paul continues to be an American patriot fighting for truth, justice, and liberty. He is a major asset to have in our government.

Here’s the entire interview:

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