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Rand Paul: Obama may have spied on me, other lawmakers using NSA intercepts

WATCH | Sen. Rand Paul talks about allegations that President Obama spied on him

Sen. Rand Paul, the former Republican presidential candidate and vocal champion of civil liberties, has received allegations that the Obama administration sought intercepted intelligence from the National Security Agency on him and other members of Congress and has asked President Donald Trump to conduct a formal investigation, Circa has learned.

Paul quietly asked for the probe nearly a month ago in a letter to Trump that was obtained by Circa.

"An anonymous source recently alleged to me that my name, as well as the names of other Members of Congress, were unmasked, queried or both, in intelligence reports of intercepts during the prior administration," Paul wrote Trump in a letter dated April 10.

"In light of the revelations that the names of persons associated with the Trump campaign were unmasked, I

believe the allegations that myself and other elected members of the legislative branch may have also been unmasked or caught in intelligence gathering warrants investigation."

The emergence of the letter, which also was copied to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon, comes after Circa recently reported that members of Congress and their staffs have been unmasked in NSA intelligence reports as frequently as once a month since President Obama loosened privacy protections back in 2011.

Read Sen. Paul's letter to Donald Trump

Sen. Rand Paul tweets about the unmasking allegations.

Paul's letter offered no further detail on the source of the allegations of any specific incident or intercepts.

A source in the intelligence community told Circa on Friday that they were unaware of any unmaskings of NSA intercepts that occurred in 2016 when Paul was running for president that would have required a notification to Congress. The source did not know about prior years.

Usually if the intelligence community reveals the identity of a lawmaker in an NSA intercept, Congress gets what is known as a Gates notification.

Paul has been a critic of the government use of NSA intercepts to spy on Americans and championed other civil liberty causes, most famously conducting a 13-hour filllibuster in 2013 on the Senate floor to raise concerns that U.S. millitary could use drones to strike U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.

Rand Paul: Obama may have spied on me, other lawmakers using NSA intercepts

WATCH| News organization requests Trump declassify data on NSA unmasking of Americans.

Rand Paul: Obama may have spied on me, other lawmakers using NSA intercepts

WATCH | Republicans lawmakers say they are angry, but not surprised by a new report which shows U.S. intelligence included unredacted names of U.S. citizens in thousands of intelligence documents last year.

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Rand Paul: Obama may have spied on me, other lawmakers using ...

Rand Paul is a U.S. Senator from Kentucky who is running for the 2016 Republican nomination.

Rand Paul, 53, is following in the footsteps of his father, former congressman andpresidential candidate Ron Paul. Despite what many thought could be a successful bid by building on his fathers campaigns in the last two cycles and strong Tea Party support, the younger Paulhasnt been able to break into the top tierof candidates.

Rand shares many of the libertarian views that his father is known for, but also has displayed differences that bring him closer to the mainstream of the Republican Party. He has also been known as one of thestaunchest opponents of the Patriot Act, which has both boosted and cost him support during his political career.

Prior to his time in the Senate, Paul worked as an ophthalmologist.

He is married to Kelley Paul. They have three children Robert, Duncan and William.

Rand Paul dropped out of the Republican presidential race on February 3rd, 2016.

2016 Presidential Primary Candidates (current and former):Jeb Bush|Ben Carson|Lincoln Chafee|Chris Christie|Hillary Clinton|Ted Cruz|Carly Fiorina|Jim Gilmore|Lindsey Graham|Mike Huckabee|Bobby Jindal|John Kasich|Martin OMalley|George Pataki|Rand Paul|Rick Perry|Marco Rubio|Bernie Sanders|Rick Santorum|Donald Trump|Scott Walker|Jim Webb

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Rand Paul: Latest News & Photos - NY Daily News

Lexington Herald Leader

Rand Paul pledges support for Mitch McConnell a day after Trump's attacks Lexington Herald Leader U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Mitch McConnell still has his full support a day after President Donald Trump vented his displeasure with the Senate majority leader several times. Paul, R-Bowling Green, said Trump directed his anger at the wrong person when ... Opinion: Republican Party at critical crossroadsHickory Daily Record Kaiser Health Tracking Poll August 2017: The Politics of ACA Repeal and Replace EffortsKaiser Family Foundation all 575 news articles »

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Rand Paul pledges support for Mitch McConnell a day after Trump's attacks - Lexington Herald Leader

Hemp farmers and processors in Murray presented progress and problems in growing the crop to U.S. Senator Rand Paul on Thursday. Paul is in the region as part of a tour discussing healthcare options and made a stop in Murray to talk hemp ahead of visits to other communities. Afterwords, he also commented on North Korea and health care reform options.

Joseph Kelly operates West Kentucky Hemp LLC. and works with Kentucky 21st Century Agri. He led much of the presentation, briefing Paul on some of their processes and procedures, ambitions and challenges. Kelly and others involved in hemp described its various uses: leaves (producing CBD), floor material (buds) for extracting oil, seeds (as grain and pressed for oil) and other uses involving the fiber.

Farmers say regulations are the 'biggest problem' and much of that has to do with its listing as a federally-controlled substance.

Paul said regulations and 'big government' need to 'get out of the way' of the country's burgeoning hemp industry. He expressed dismay when farmers told him hemp couldn't be used as livestock feed.

"I don't like the idea that we would have to ask somebody in Washington for permission to feed the root of the plant to a chicken or a cow. I think things that God gave us and that grow on Earth really the government shouldn't be preventing you from feeding them to your livestock," Paul said.

Farmers handed Paul a bag of edible hemp seeds for humans imported from Canada and suggested with fewer regulations similar products could be produced in Kentucky. Paul says hemp restrictions make the U.S. less competitive and will seek to address issues in the next farm bill.

Following-up, Joseph Kelly said he is glad to hear Paul involved in hemp and willing to take a look at legislation. He felt Paul's biggest takeaway was the livestock issue, which he said is personally important for his farm and company.

Other topics discussed include trials for herbicides and banking and insurance issues.

Kelly said a processing facility is under construction nearby. He's also looking to expand his hemp crop from 700 acres to 940 acres. Once the processor is up an running, he said, he'll be looking to hire. Describing both the growing acreage and new processing, Kelly emphasized the possibility for job growth in the commonwealth as this could naturally magnify elsewhere. Pointing to hemp's versatility as a crop, Paul also suggested that hemp could be viable in areas of Kentucky that might not be as agriculturally abundant.

"I think hemp has been a step towards a brand new product that has nothing to do with marijuana and has a lot of value as a new crop for us," Paul said.

More about the hemp industry in Kentucky.

North Korea

Senator Paul said both the United States and North Korea should ratchet down the rhetoric and find a peaceful solution.

Paul is referring to rhetoric "in general" and not specifically President Donald Trumps recent fire and fury comments.

Paul said politicians should assure the North Korean regime that there is no desire to occupy or invade their country. He says when people are fearful of invasion there is a danger of an accident occurring.

If I could do anything I would say lets try to ratchet down the rhetoric. Lets try to ratchet down the fear and the bellicosity on both sides. And see if we can get to a peaceful solution," he said.

He said North Korea should be reminded that the U.S. is allied with South Korea and should they unleash an attack it would be the last thing they ever do. He also said the U.S. isnt interested in a preemptive attack and that war should be a last resort.

Health Care

Senator Paul said President Donald Trump could act unilaterally on changes to the health care system. Paul is touring Kentucky discussing efforts to expand group insurance options across state lines. He said he recently spoke with President Trump to consider taking action without new legislation.

We talked about letting people join groups like co-ops or association health plans and I believe that he can act unilaterally through presidential authority to expand the definition," Paul said.

As an example, he said, the National Restaurant Association - of more than 40,000 members - could be legalized to form a group to buy insurance as one body and negotiate a discount in prices. Paul says he believes Trump is very interested in this option.

He said he is disappointed that politicians who promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act went back on their promise but is holding out hope for other options. Three Republicans broke ranks and voted against a proposed Skinny Repeal of the ACA last month.

A bill expanding association health plans passed the House and is now in the Senate.

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Rand Paul: 'Big Government' Needs to Back Off of Hemp - WKU Public Radio

By Joshua Roberts | The Paducah Sun

Sen. Rand Paul, appearing Thursday afternoon in Paducah, called for ratcheting down the rhetoric amid escalating threats of military action between the U.S. and North Korea.

A short time later, President Donald Trump followed his fire and fury comment from earlier in the week with a new warning to North Korea of trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble.

But Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, said war between the nations would be devastating on the Korean Peninsula, putting the Korean War to shame. He hopes war is averted.

Even with conventional weapons a million people could die in two weeks, in South Korea probably, said Paul during a stop at Midwest Aviation at Barkley Airport. I think we need to realize the things we say about nuclear weapons should not be said frivolously.

North Korean leaders need to understand, he said and I think they do, I think most countries know if they attack South Korea or us, the consequences will be mind-numbing, Paul said. It will be the end of North Korea. They need to know that. Thats a deterrence.

And, he added, We dont want to goad them into anything. When people are not completely rational, you dont want to stoke their irrationality.

During his visit, which lasted about 45 minutes, Paul also talked to the media and a small crowd about other issues including health care and Americas growing crisis with opioids.

Concerning painkillers, the senator said there is no easy answer.

More people are dying from opioid overdoses than are dying from car accidents, he said.

We do have to figure it out. I think physicians and health care need to acknowledge they may have been part of the problem, and they still may be part of the problem.

Paul cited a small, poor county in Kentucky with a few thousand residents. There, he said, three million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone had been prescribed.

Those are legal doses for a couple of thousand people, Paul said. Something is wrong with that. Some in the medical community admit that part of it is we are overprescribing.

Paul, who broke from party ranks to vote against the GOPs proposed health care overhaul, advocates stabilizing the individual insurance market by broadening group purchasing. He calls it collective bargaining for the consumer.

For example, he proposed allowing the roughly 15 million employees in the fast-food industry, many of whom arent covered, to buy group insurance through the National Restaurant Association.

My plan has always been to let people get out of the individual market, let them join associations, he said. It could be the National Restaurant Association, National Retail Association, it could be a variety of things.

I even mentioned Costco. There are 85 million people who belong to Costco why not let them buy their insurance through Costco?

There could be all kinds of solutions to level the equation when people are making a negotiation for their insurance. All the power now is with the insurance companies. Ask doctors. Ask nurses. Nobody has leverage. The insurer has all the power.

Before the Affordable Care Act, Paul said insurance companies made $6 billion per year in profit. After Obamacare, profits swelled to $15 billion per year, he said.

And they come to us with their hands outstretched, billionaire beseechers, where they want us to set up a system where they make even more money, Paul said.

The Republican leaderships plan would have provided a $280 billion bailout to insurance companies to offset adverse selection an insurance market top heavy with the sick and elderly, he said.

Im just absolutely against doing that, Paul said.

Giving associations group purchasing power would create leverage, he added, and bring competition back to many counties, many of which are down to one insurer, or in some cases, none at all.

Paul laid out his vision for healing the health care system.

The bottom line is if we want to fix health care, we have to have sufficient confidence in what made us a great country, he said. What made us a great country was basically we largely left you alone. The federal government didnt get involved in your business.

The rest is here:
Rand Paul wants to cool down the rhetoric - Insider Louisville