The Mueller report confirms that the Obama administration, without evidence, turned the surveillance powers of the federal government against the presidential campaign of the party out of power. This historic abuse of executive authority was either approved by President Barack Obama or it was not. It’s time for Mr. Obama, who oddly receives few mentions in stories about his government’s spying on associates of the 2016 Trump campaign, to say what he knew and did not know about the targeting of his party’s opponents.

If he was briefed, for example, on plans by the Justice Department to seek wiretaps on Trump campaign associates, it’s hard to believe Mr. Obama would not have been highly interested in the matter. Going all the way back to his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, Mr. Obama had aggressively advocated for preventing federal abuse of surveillance powers.

In September of 2004, the Chicago Tribune reported that candidate Obama “is ripping the controversial USA Patriot Act for violating U.S. citizens’ civil liberties in the battle against terrorism.” The Tribune reported:

Answering a Tribune questionnaire on the issue of terrorism, Obama vows to support the repeal of several provisions of the act because he believes it failed to strike the appropriate balance between homeland security and protection of civil liberties.

...“The act goes too far in violating our fundamental notions of privacy, thus seriously eroding the very ideals at the heart of our country’s greatness,” Obama said in his questionnaire.

According to the Tribune, Mr. Obama said that “a cornerstone of our democracy” is “that actions of a sometimes overzealous and overreaching Executive Branch are subject to challenge.”

The next month, Madison, Wisconsin’s Capital Times reported on the Illinois candidate’s visit for a campaign event: