Politics

House Intel Dem: If Flynn Was Unmasked, It Would Have To Be Rice Who Did It

Kerry Picket Political Reporter
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WASHINGTON — A Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee agreed that if anyone unmasked President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, it would have to be Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice.

“Well, I haven’t seen the documents yet, but she was the national security adviser. She had the– if anyone had the opportunity to unmask, it would be the national security adviser, because that person is giving advice to the president on issues around national security,” California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier told The Daily Caller Monday night.

Speier said she has yet to confirm if Flynn’s name or any other American’s name was unmasked by the intelligence community during surveillance of Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislayak, but if it was, she said national security issues were likely the reasons.

“Now, if in fact, it was unmasked and if it was General Flynn. You have to understand the context in which it was unmasked. Was it something that was going to impact our national security? We do know that. Ambassador Kislayak and General Flynn were freelancing sanctions relief at the end of December, when he had no portfolio in which to make any kind of negotiations with ambassador Kislyak,” she told TheDC.

Two anonymous U.S. officials told Bloomberg View columnist Eli Lake that Rice requested the unmasking of U.S. persons in a number of intelligence documents that had information related to the Trump transition team and campaign.

According to Lake, the intelligence reports were rundowns of surveilled conversations that were mainly between foreign officials talking about the Trump transition. Additionally, surveillance happened when direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials occurred.

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