“It is legal to intercept communications of an American citizen without a warrant if they intercept it at the end that is on foreign soil.”
The warrantless surveillance program was one of the gifts of the Patriot Act. It only applies to suspected terrorists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_(2001–07)
And didn't the Obama administration, in one of his last acts, declare the "election infrastructure" to be a "critical infrastructure" to the Department of Homeland Security?
Wouldn't that then imply that anyone who tries to "hack" the election would be attempting to attack a critical infrastructure, which would be considered to be a terrorist attack?
Wouldn't that then justify treating the hacker as a terrorist for Patriot Act purposes?
-PJ