Members of the whistleblowing community took to Twitter to warn advocates of government power after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, noting programs aimed at making it easier to engage in surveillance and conduct assassinations overseas remain on the books.
“Remember how you legalized assassinating anyone, NSA mass spying, prosecuting publishers, CIA drones everywhere,” secret-leaking organization WikiLeaks said. “It’s all Trump’s in 71 days.”
“The powers of one government are inherited by the next. Reforming them is now the greatest responsibility of this President, long overdue,” said Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked details on the agency’s surveillance programs in 2013.
The powers of one government are inherited by the next. Reforming them is now the greatest responsibility of this President, long overdue.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 10, 2016
The powers of one government are inherited by the next. Reforming them is now the greatest responsibility of this President, long overdue.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 10, 2016
Remember how you legalized
✔Assassinating anyone
✔NSA mass spying
✔Prosecuting publishers
✔CIA drones everywhereIt’s all Trumps in 71 days
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 10, 2016
Thomas Drake, a former NSA executive who leaked information that he contended was unclassified but nonetheless faced charges under the Espionage Act, echoed those sentiments. “[National security] authorities under Bush passed to Obama who gives Trump legal framework for mass surveillance & special powers on Presidential platter,” Drake wrote.
Ten charges against Drake were ultimately dropped. He accepted a plea deal to a single misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a computer, though he was forced to work at an Apple store while the legal drama played out.
Snowden is living under asylum in Russia, where he is avoiding charges of feloniously exposing classified information.
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The whistleblowing community, which was relatively hostile to Republicans under President Bush, acted during the 2016 election in a manner generally interpreted as favorable to Trump, the president-elect. WikiLeaks leaked information about Democrat Hillary Clinton, while Snowden complained that he was being held to a double standard relative to Clinton for mishandling classified information.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has resided in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, avoiding extradition on charges of sexual assault that he has denied.
Snowden encouraged readers to work toward scaling back government authorities in a follow-up message. “To be clear, ‘this President’ means this President, right now. Not the next one. There is still time to act,” he wrote.
