I’m curious about the timeline, since Trump was just one of many candidates at the time and no primaries had taken place yet. Did Obama order spying on all of the candidates? Or did he have access to polling data that suggested that Trump was likely to win, even that early in the race?
Comsidering that the rest of the candidates, IIRC, were professional pols, Obama and his FBI likely already had the goods to handle any getting the nomination.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-republican-field-dwindled-from-17-to-donald-trump/
Except for Trump, all the contenders were pols who likely provided plenty of fodder. And the MSM would have happily sat on any stories waiting for Hillary to say when to publish.
Wasn’t there some info about Hillary surrogates promoting the Trump Campaign early on - an attempt to select her opponent?