[apo]

> On August 8, 2014, dozens of FBI agents raided Hale’s house with guns drawn and searched his computer and flash drives. This all happened during the Obama administration, which declined to file charges. Five years later, Trump’s Justice Department revived the case.

The article fails to point out that it was the Obama administration that really turned up the heat on whistleblowers:

https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jan/10...

I suspect that at the time many Obama supporters simply didn't care. Their guy was in charge and that was that.

Short-sighted to be sure.

Far too few considered the possibility that the opposition was watching and learning what new things might be possible.

[dmix]

Plus the expansion of power and side stepping of normal legal process by the executive branch became normalized under the George Bush administration which was well documented by one of his top White House lawyers, which he well documented in the book ‘The Terror Presidency’ and who later started the excellent Lawfare blog.

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Inside-Terror-American/dp/0...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Goldsmith

https://www.lawfareblog.com/

This included a big expansion of the black budget agencies and their power since it was the one thing the exec has strong control over and little public blowback because of the secret courts and classified nature.

[dmix]

Looks like I linked to the wrong book on mobile:

Correct link: https://www.amazon.com/Terror-Presidency-Judgment-Inside-Adm...

[Buge]

Kind of funny, since some people claim The Intercept has an anti-Obama and pro-Trump bias.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/90qn1h/ecuador_wi...

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/90qn1h/ecuador_wi...

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/90qn1h/ecuador_wi...

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/90qn1h/ecuador_wi...

Even HN sometimes compares The Intercept to Infowars https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17582751

[PavlovsCat]

> Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.

from

http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/

https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://change.gov/agenda/ethic...

yet:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/06/assange-snowden-seek...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/opinion/sunday/if-donald-...

https://www.longislandpress.com/2017/01/14/obamas-legacy-his...

https://www.whistleblower.org/in-the-news/salon-jane-mayer-o...

And so on, and so forth. Let's not pretend this didn't happen and rewrite history just to engage in partisan scapegoating. Let's not normalize revisionism, too.

(edit: I say that because your comment was greyed out when I started writing my reply, which is just intended to elaborate on what you said)