Dailymail | President Trump's
acting chief of national intelligence has declassified a list of former
Obama administration officials said to be involved in the 'unmasking'
of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Richard
Grenell, the acting Director of National Intelligence, paid a visit to
the Justice Department headquarters last week in Washington, DC, and
brought a list of former Obama aides with him, ABC News is reporting. They remain a secret from the general public.
'Unmasking'
is the procedure to name - to those with high-level security
clearances -an American citizen whose name appears in intelligence
gathering such as eavesdropping or wiretaps that are initially aimed at
suspected foreign agents.
U.S.
citizens' names are obscured in such intelligence gathering, unless
there is specific permission from the FISA court to eavesdrop on them
over concerns they are working for or influenced by foreign intelligence
agencies.
Supporters of Trump allege that members of
the Obama administration improperly sought to investigate Flynn over
contacts he had with the ambassador to Russia, Sergei Kislyak, during the transition to the Trump administration.
The
FBI and then the Mueller probe focused on Flynn telling Kislyak that
sanctions put in place on Russia at the end of December 2016 by Obama
would be reviewed - which he then denied telling Kislyak to both Mike
Pence and then the FBI.
It is alleged that Flynn's identity was
unmasked during the course of the federal investigation into contacts
held between Russian figures and the Trump presidential campaign.
Flynn's
calls with Kislyak were routinely intercepted because all the
diplomat's communications were the subject of eavesdropping.
Flynn's
name would have been redacted in intelligence reports but some top
officials were then able to ask for the name to be 'unmasked.'
The heads of all intelligence agencies and members of the national security council have such power - as does the president.
Under
the Obama administration, membership of the national security council
included Joe Biden, as vice president, Susan Rice, the national security
adviser, Ash Carter, the defense secretary, Ernest Moniz, the energy
secretary, Jacob Lew, the Treasury secretary, and Samantha Power, the
ambassador to the United Nations.
All were legally empowered to ask for unmasking but leaking an unmasked identity would be a felony.
