An NSA whistleblower is backing Donald Trump’s claims that he was wiretapped by the intelligence community. As US News reports:

President Donald Trump is “absolutely right” to claim he was wiretapped and monitored, a former NSA official claimed Monday, adding that the administration risks falling victim to further leaks if it continues to run afoul of the intelligence community.

“I think the president is absolutely right. His phone calls, everything he did electronically, was being monitored,” Bill Binney, a 36-year veteran of the National Security Agency who resigned in protest from the organization in 2001, told Fox Business on Monday. Everyone’s conversations are being monitored and stored, Binney said.

Binney resigned from NSA shortly after the U.S. approach to intelligence changed following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He “became a whistleblower after discovering that elements of a data-monitoring program he had helped develop — nicknamed ThinThread — were being used to spy on Americans,” PBS reported.

On Monday he came to the defense of the president, whose allegations on social media over the weekend that outgoing President Barack Obama tapped his phones during the 2016 campaign have rankled Washington

Again, we have no idea whether or not this is true, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. National security agencies have never beena ccountable to private citizens, and they’ve been caught time and again using their authority to surveil ordinary Americans. Similarly, the Obama White House thought it perfectly fine to spy on members of the press they viewed as hostile, and to use the full force of the internal revenue service to limit the free speech of conservative Americans. 

Americans concerned about civil liberties have asked for years “Who will watch the watchmen?” Now that the intelligence community may be trying to undermine a sitting president who challenges their agenda, it’s time we come up with a good answer.