Two top GOP senators expanded the scope of their May 12 request related to the “unmasking” of U.S. citizens around the time of the 2016 election to include information as early as January 2016.
The request was made by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in a letter Tuesday to acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
“We’re going to look for a larger body of unmaskings just to find out if this was just a massive fishing expedition on the part of the FBI and the intel community in terms of members of the Trump campaign, the Trump transition. That’s certainly what I want to look into to see if it’s a possibility,” Johnson told the Washington Examiner.
Authorized officials are legally allowed to reveal the identities of U.S. citizens masked in intelligence intercepts of conversations of foreigners. They often do so to better understand the information.
Still, Republican allies of President Trump are concerned Obama-era officials improperly targeted Trump associates during the Russia investigation even as Democrats argue nothing improper took place.
“On May 13, 2020, you provided us with declassified information related to the ‘unmasking’ of Lt. General Michael Flynn, and we very much appreciate your continued commitment to transparency. We write now both to reiterate our request for the declassification of additional information related to the unmasking of Americans around the time of the 2016 election, but also to expand the scope of our request to include information as early as January 2016,” the senators wrote in their letter. “Based on our investigation and recent press reports, we are increasingly concerned that the surveillance of U.S. persons affiliated with the Trump campaign began earlier than the opening of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation in late July 2016.”
“As we explained in our May 12, 2020, letter to you, one of the most significant unanswered questions about what occurred during the 2016 election is how many Americans were ‘unmasked,’ at whose request, and for what purpose,” they added. “It has become evident that the FBI, and possibly members of the U.S. Intelligence Community, were focused on U.S. persons affiliated with the Trump campaign in early 2016, if not even earlier. One example is that, in April 2016, FBI headquarters directed its New York Field Office to open a counterintelligence investigation of Carter Page, which on August 10, 2016, became part of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
The letters come after Johnson released the fully declassified email former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself describing an early January 2017 Oval Office discussions about the Flynn investigation.
“We’re just going to continue to get more and more information. I’m just very appreciative that we’ve had Rick Grenell there as acting DNI. Hopefully, John Ratcliffe will be every bit as transparent. I have every expectation he will. And let’s get this information out. I just want to get to the truth. If something happened, I reckon people need know,” Johnson said, referring to the Texas congressman whose nomination to take on the director of national intelligence role now heads to the Senate floor.
He added, “I think what we are really starting to paint a picture of is not a peaceful, cooperative, well-wishing transition of power here, but a corrupted one. One that was literally meant to sabotage and hamstring an administration. I think that’s the picture that’s being painted here. It’s very sad and needs to be revealed.”
Also on Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, sent a one-page letter to Attorney General William Barr and Grenell, asking them for a list of Obama officials who made unmasking requests between Trump’s November 2016 victory and his January 2017 inauguration regarding the identities of other people in Trump’s orbit beyond just Flynn.
