Donald Trump is now accusing President Obama of tapping his phones.

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Okay as of right now most news outlets have no freaking idea what Trump is talking about here.

Now it is possible that somebody brought an article written by our friend Louise Mensch back in November to Trump's attention.

Here is the article:  

Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia. 

Contrary to earlier reporting in the New York Times, which cited FBI sources as saying that the agency did not believe that the private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower which was connected to a Russian bank had any nefarious purpose, the FBI’s counter-intelligence arm, sources say, re-drew an earlier FISA court request around possible financial and banking offenses related to the server. The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank. While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.

As you can see this talks about a FISA court request from the FBI concerning one particular server.

The fact that they would have needed a warrant of course means that this is NOT, in any way, like what Nixon did during his administration, nor does it necessarily suggest that the FBI was allowed to tap Trump's phones.

What DO know is that American intelligence agencies WERE tracking the phone calls coming in and out of Russia and that THAT was how they found out that a number of Trump's campaign staff and administration staff had been in contact with certain unsavory folks connected to the Russian government.

Apparently Trump's current freakout is linked to Mark Levin's radio show where he cited these articles and then exaggerated what they said to suggest that the Obama Administration used "police state" tactics to undermine the Trump campaign.

Was Obama using NSA against Trump campaign? https://t.co/xzAOf11y3k

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) March 3, 2017

Remember Trump only trusts Right Wing news outlets and talk shows that make shit up, or exaggerate facts to fit their agenda.

I think Trump has really rounded the bend on this one. 

Stephen Colbert on the United States approach to foreign relations.

Okay I know it is done as a joke, but it is also kind of scary how accurate it feels.

Rachel Maddow takes a deep dive into our lack of privacy, the government's domestic spying program, and why we should or should not be upset by it. Update!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A whole lot of you were upset yesterday by my post yesterday suggesting that in a summer of scandals drummed up by the Republican in order to damage the President that the NSA spying one was the most likely to hurt the President far more than the Benghazi "scandal." the IRS "scandal," or the "he's actually a foreign born gay Muslim scandal."

And the reason for that was NOT because President Obama was doing anything worse than the previous administration, but because he was doing things almost exactly LIKE the previous administration.

My point, and I think a whole lot of people missed it, was that this NSA thing had been largely ignored by most of the American people because they were so terrified of terrorist attack they were willing to allow the CIA to bug their phones, monitor their movements, and possibly hide under their beds if it were deemed necessary.

However THIS  President was supposed to change all of that.

He was going to respect the Constitution far more than George W. Bush ever did, and he was only going to use his powers for good. However we have seen him punish whistle blowers at an alarming rate, use drones to kill targets in Pakistan who were very possibly innocent, and now engage in the kind of draconian overreach of powers here in the United States that angered us so much when the Bush administration utilized them.

So yes I am both happy that we know that this is still going on, and saddened that we know this is still going on. And I want the President, his administration, and the Congress that okays this kind of overreach to answer for it.

Which means, just speaking for myself here, that I want this "scandal" to stick.  I want it to have real consequences, and hopefully those consequences will be a reduction of this kind of data mining, or at least stricter guidelines for its use.

Look the President is no longer a candidate, so this cannot hurt any reelection chances, and Hillary is too far removed for it to damage her in any way. And I certainly don't think it will place the President in danger of impeachment, the Republicans have too many domestic spying skeletons in their closet for that ever to happen.

So going forward I see this as an opportunity for the kind of transparency that a certain candidate for President in 2007 promised all of us. And I only see that as a good thing.

Update: The President just addressed this issue and I actually feel pretty good about his response. 

He said he welcomes the questions, thinks it is a good idea that we are questioning these policies, and kind of wonders where everybody has been on this issue.

He also made sure to spread the responsibility around including both the Congress and the FISA court in the decision making process.

When I get the video I will post it.