Susan Rice Unmasked Trump Transition Team, NY Times Sat On Story | Mike Cernovich Periscope
BY: Alex GriswoldFollow@HashtagGriswoldApril 3, 2017 2:29 pm
Susan Rice, former President Barack Obama"s national security adviser, reportedly requested on several occasions the identities of "masked" U.S. persons in intelligence reports linked to President Trump"s transition and campaign.
White House lawyers discovered Rice"s dozens of requests last month during a National Security Council review of the "government"s policy on unmasking" the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally," Bloomberg"s Eli Lake reported Monday, citing U.S. officials.
But Rice, who Newsweek once called Obama"s "right-hand woman," denied having any knowledge of the intelligence community"s reported incidental surveillance of Trump"s transition team during a PBS interview last month.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,charged in Marchhe had seen evidence that some of the Trump transition team"s communications with foreign actors weresurveilled by the Obama administration.
"What I"ve read seems to be some level of surveillance activity, perhaps legal, but I don"t know that it"s right and I don"t know if the American people would be comfortable with what I"ve read," Nunes said.
Judy Woodruff asked Rice about Nunes" claims on "PBS NewsHour" on March 22.
"I know nothing about this," rice responded at the time. "I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today."
"So, today, I really don"t know to what Chairman Nunes was referring, but he said that whatever he was referring to was a legal, lawful surveillance, and that it was potentially incidental collection on American citizens," added Rice, who went on to criticize Trump for his accusation that Obama wiretapped him during the presidential campaign.
Lake"s reportingon Monday appears to contradict Rice"s answer last month.
Lake"s sources told him that Rice wanted to"unmask" the names of the Trump team members in the intelligence reports, who otherwise would show up with generic titles like "U.S. Person One." "Unmasking" is not illegal when tied to a legitimate investigation, but civil liberty advocates worry the practice allows for backdoor surveillance of U.S. citizens.
"One U.S. official familiar with the reports said they contained valuable political information on the Trump transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates on foreign policy matters, and plans for the incoming administration," Lake reports.
The House Intelligence Committee is expected to soon receive top-secret documents that investigators believewill show whether private communications of Trumpand his transition team were improperly gathered.
Source: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/flashback-susan-rice-said-i-know-nothing-unmasking-trump-officials/
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