By Brooke Singman, David Spunt | Fox News
Top Obama administration officials purportedly
requested to "unmask" the identity of former national security
adviser Michael Flynn during the presidential transition period, according
to a list of names from that controversial process made
public on Wednesday.
The list was declassified in recent days by Acting
Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and then sent to GOP
Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, who made the documents public. The
roster features top-ranking figures including then-Vice President Joe Biden --
a detail already being raised by the Trump campaign in the bare-knuckle
2020 presidential race where Biden is now the Democrats' presumptive nominee.
The list also includes then-FBI Director James Comey,
then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper, and Obama's then-chief of staff Denis McDonough.
"I declassified the enclosed document, which I am
providing to you for your situational awareness," Grenell wrote to the GOP
senators in sending along the list.
Grenell’s note was addressed to Sens. Grassley, R-Iowa,
and Johnson, R-Wis., who had penned a letter to him and Attorney
General Bill Barr regarding the declassification of files related to the unmasking
process earlier in the day.
As Fox News previously reported, Grenell already made the
decision to declassify information about Obama administration officials who
were involved in the “unmasking” of Flynn — whose calls with the former Russian
ambassador during the presidential transition were picked up in surveillance
and later leaked. His case has returned to the national spotlight after the DOJ
moved to dismiss charges against him of lying to the FBI about those
conversations, despite a guilty plea that he later sought to withdraw.
Trump allies claim Flynn was wrongly targeted, and have
suggested high-level involvement in an effort to bring him down. Democrats,
however, claim the DOJ's decision to abandon the case shows how it has
become politicized.
Both the DOJ and Grenell had been discussing these
"unmasking" files, after Grenell appeared to have delivered
those files to the department last week. There were some tensions between the
two offices over who would actually pull the trigger to release them --
ultimately, the publication came from Capitol Hill after Grenell sent lawmakers
the files.
The declassified list specifically showed officials who
“may have received Lt. Gen Flynn’s identity in response to a request processed
between 8 November 2016 and 31 January 2017 to unmask an identity that had been
generically referred to in an NSA foreign intelligence report,” the document,
obtained by Fox News, read.
“Each individual was an authorized recipient of the
original report and the unmasking was approved through NSA’s standard process,
which includes a review of the justification for the request,” the document
said. “Only certain personnel are authorized to submit unmasking requests into
the NSA system. In this case, 16 authorized individuals requested unmasking for
[REDACTED] different NSA intelligence reports for select identified
principals.”
The document added: “While the principals are identified
below, we cannot confirm they saw the unmasked information. This response does
not include any requests outside of the specified time-frame.”
The list revealed that then-U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations Samantha Power made unmasking requests seven times between Nov. 30,
2016 and Jan. 11, 2017. The list revealed that Clapper made three requests
from Dec. 2, 2016 through Jan. 7, 2017; and that Brennan made two
requests, one on Dec. 14 and one on Dec. 15, 2016. Comey also made a
request on Dec. 15, 2016. On Jan. 5, 2017, McDonough made one
request, and on Jan. 12, 2017, Biden made one request.
The day McDonough requested the information is the
same day as an Oval Office meeting that has drawn scrutiny in the wake of the
Flynn developments. The meeting included Obama, Biden, Clapper, Brennan,
Comey, then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice and then-Deputy Attorney
General Sally Yates.
That meeting was the first time Yates learned about
Flynn's calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to
notes from her special counsel interview which were released last week. Yates,
in her interview, indicated Obama was aware of Flynn’s intercepted
December 2016 phone calls with Kislyak during the presidential transition
period.
After the briefing, Obama asked Yates and Comey to
"stay behind," and said he had "learned of the information about
Flynn" and his conversation with Russia's ambassador about sanctions.
Obama "specified that he did not want any additional information on the
matter, but was seeking information on whether the White House should be
treating Flynn any differently, given the information.”
That Oval Office meeting aligns with an email that Rice — on Jan. 20, 2017, the day President Trump was sworn into
office — sent herself documenting Obama’s guidance, evidently in the same
meeting, about how law enforcement should investigate Russian interference
in the 2016 presidential race.
“President Obama began the conversation by stressing his
continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by
the intelligence and law enforcement communities ‘by the book,’” Rice emailed
to herself. “The president stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or
instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our
law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.”
The email also appeared to reflect Obama’s guidance
on sharing sensitive information with both the Russians and the incoming Trump
administration.
Rice wrote that Obama said, “he wants to be sure
that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there
is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.”
Meanwhile, the unmasking documents come just a day after
Biden initially told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” that he knew “nothing
about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” and called the topic a
“diversion” from the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden was pressed on the issue, and then clarified: “I
thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being
prosecuted. I’m sorry. ... I was aware that ... they asked for an
investigation, but that’s all I know about it, and I don’t think anything
else.”
Soon after the release of the documents, Trump campaign
manager Brad Parscale blasted Biden's claim during his "Good Morning
America" interview.
“Joe Biden’s limp claim that he doesn’t know anything
about the railroading of Gen. Michael Flynn just got even more unbelievable.
Biden is listed among the Obama administration officials who requested the
unmasking of Flynn," Parscale said in a statement. "We already knew
Biden was briefed on the Flynn case before President Trump took office and now
we know that he wanted Flynn unmasked."
He added: "Americans have a right to know the depth of
Biden’s involvement in the setup of Gen. Flynn to further the Russia collusion
hoax.”
The Biden campaign countered by accusing the Trump camp
of "lying," pointing to an argument that those on the list merely
made requests that "might" have unmasked Flynn. The documents
released Wednesday give a mixed picture on this, saying the list covers
officials who requested to unmask Flynn's identity, but also saying the
identity they sought was at first only "generically" referenced in an
intelligence report.
In a statement on Wednesday, Andrew Bates, Biden's
Director of Rapid Response, downplayed the latest Flynn revelations.
"These documents have absolutely nothing to do with
any FBI investigation and they confirm that all normal procedures were followed
-- any suggestion otherwise is a flat out lie,” Bates said. “What's more, it's
telling that these documents were selectively leaked by Republicans abusing
their congressional powers to act as arms of the Trump campaign after having
them provided by a partisan official installed for this very purpose."
The unmasking concerns events between the November 2016
election and Inauguration Day 2017. Unmasking occurs after U.S. citizens'
conversations are incidentally picked up in conversations with foreign
officials who are being monitored by the intelligence community. The U.S.
citizens' identities are supposed to be protected if their participation
is incidental and no wrongdoing is suspected. However, officials can
determine the U.S. citizens' names through a process that is supposed to
safeguard their rights.
Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Wednesday penned a
letter to Grenell inviting him to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on
Government Oversight next week about the unmasking of Flynn, noting that he has
questions about what Biden and former President Barack Obama knew.
“During my prior oversight of this matter, I met several
dead ends, and I have many remaining questions in regard to President Obama’s
administration abusing its authority,” Paul wrote to Grenell Wednesday.
“Unlawful unmasking of U.S. persons should never be swept aside in hopes of
being forgotten in time.”
But a senior administration official told Fox News
that Grenell will not testify.
The official said that Grenell will be
"continuing his efforts to be transparent and will continue to be
responsive to congressional requests for documents, but will not appear for
testimony."
Officials in the Obama administration have acknowledged
that they moved to unmask some Americans in intelligence
reports, but insisted that their reasons were legitimate. Those officials
include Rice, Power and former deputy national security
adviser Benjamin Rhodes.
A Justice Department official told Fox News this week
that the DOJ has been reviewing the unmasking of U.S. officials as part of its
broader examination of the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and was
taking a look at the files that Grenell declassified and delivered to the
Justice Department last week.
Fox News' Madeleine Rivera contributed
to this report.
Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News.
Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeSingman.
