One line in the linked article struck me:
Vast amounts of metadata grabbed simply because there’s no legal basis preventing it.
That’s not actually true, because there are plenty of laws to prevent this kind of abuse. Laws do not matter when you are above them - such as when you have the dirt on all 100 US Senators. It has become clear these people believe they can tell any lie, break any law, with total impunity. “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”
