Joe Biden’s presence on the declassified “unmasking” list related to retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has quickly become an election issue, but there are many unanswered questions about how he fits into wider controversies surrounding the Russia investigation.
The former vice president is just one part of a large web of officials, characters, and events being scrutinized as part of what President Trump has dubbed “Obamagate”: the suspicion that government officials abused power and worked to sabotage Trump’s presidency under the guise of an investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
With Biden now the presumptive Democratic nominee, some Republicans argue that the revelation of his name on the unmasking list and the possibility that he personally worked to upend the incoming Trump administration should disqualify him from the presidency.
Democrats and the Biden campaign accuse Trump and Republicans of manufacturing a controversy in order to distract from the coronavirus crisis, note that the list does not prove any illegal activity, and argue that a large number of top Obama officials interested in Flynn is an indication that incoming Trump officials were involved in highly suspicious activity, not that the Obama White House was conspiring against the incoming administration.
Here is how Biden’s name on the list is drawing calls for him to reveal more information, how the list fits in with what we know about his involvement, and Biden’s reaction.
Flynn and the unmasking list
Flynn, whom Trump picked to be his national security adviser on Nov. 18, 2016, became the subject of intense media scrutiny and a cornerstone in arguments that the Trump campaign had ties to Russia.
A Washington Post column by David Ignatius on Jan. 12, 2017, contained classified details that kicked off a media frenzy. Citing a “senior U.S. government official,” he wrote that Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak spoke on the phone on Dec. 29, 2016, the day that former President Barack Obama announced sanctions on Russia and suggested that Flynn violated the Logan Act.
Flynn later resigned and pleaded guilty to making false statements in a conversation with the FBI regarding his calls with Kislyak. The Justice Department dropped its charges against Flynn on Thursday following the recent release of previously concealed documents. Some of those documents showed that now-fired FBI agent Peter Strzok and the FBI’s “seventh floor” leadership stopped the bureau from closing its investigation into Flynn in early January 2017, in spite of the fact that investigators had uncovered “no derogatory information” on Flynn.
The content of Flynn’s conversations with the Russian envoy would have been picked up by intelligence agencies monitoring communications with foreign targets. Names of U.S. citizens are normally concealed in intelligence reports, but U.S. officials with clearance can legally request to learn who the U.S. individual is in a process called “unmasking.”
A list of officials who received information in response to unmasking requests, declassified by acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and obtained by the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, shows that 16 individuals made 49 unmasking requests related to Flynn between Election Day 2016 and Jan. 31, 2017. The newly public National Security Agency document shows 39 Obama officials who received the unmasking intelligence. To some, it is a list showing individuals who could have leaked the classified information about Flynn, an act that set off Flynn’s downfall and gave legs to a yearslong investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
One of those senior officials was Biden.
Biden ties to Flynn saga in January 2017
An unmasking request with Biden as the authorized recipient was either made or received on Jan. 12, 2017, the latest date listed on the document.
That is the same day the Washington Post published the column that contained leaked classified details from Flynn’s call with the Russian ambassador, but Biden is not the only official who requested or received information around that date. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew was listed on the same date, and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power apparently received information on Jan. 11.
It remains unconfirmed, however, whether Biden personally made the request and whether he looked at the information gleaned from the unmasking.
The unmasking request list also does not indicate which conversations Flynn was part of that Biden, or other officials listed, thought necessary to reveal Flynn’s identity — the Dec. 29 calls or others. Thirty-seven of the 49 unmasking requests on the list were dated before Flynn’s controversial phone calls with Russia’s ambassador.
There is clear evidence Biden heard about the FBI’s interest in Flynn at least a week earlier.
He attended a Jan. 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting with Obama, Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former FBI Director James Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-national security adviser Susan Rice, and others. According to an internal memo about the meeting that Rice emailed herself on the day of Trump’s inauguration, Obama asked Yates and Comey to stay behind when the meeting concluded, while Biden and Rice also stayed behind. Obama was said to have stressed that he wanted these investigations handled “by the book.” Yates told Robert Mueller’s special counsel team that it was during that meeting that she learned about the Flynn-Kislyak intercepts and the FBI’s investigation into Flynn from Obama himself.
Mueller’s 448-page report, released in April 2019, said the Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion,” but it “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia. No one was charged with crimes related to Russia collusion.
The notes from Yates and Rice did not describe whether Biden had prior knowledge of the Flynn call or an investigation into him.
Biden spoke with reporters about the White House meeting a week later in a session with multiple news outlets on Jan. 12, 2017 — the same day that was listed beside his name on the unmasking list, and the same date the Washington Post column was published — following BuzzFeed News’s decision to publish British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier. Biden said intelligence officials brought up the dossier because they were preparing to brief Trump on it, but he called it “totally ancillary” to the primary purpose of the meeting and did not mention Flynn.
Also, on Jan. 12, 2017, Biden mentioned Flynn in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. He said of Flynn: “He’s a very smart guy. He’s very well-informed of the importance of intelligence. We may disagree on the use of it and may disagree on emphasis.”
May 2020: Biden downplays Flynn revelations and campaign responds
Biden sought to distance himself from the FBI’s Flynn investigation during a Thursday interview on MSNBC.
“Mr. Vice President, what was your involvement in the investigation of Michael Flynn and the FBI investigation of Michael Flynn?” host Lawrence O’Donnell asked.
Biden replied: “I was never a part or had any knowledge of any criminal investigation into Flynn while I was in office. Period. Not one single time.”
The Trump campaign quickly pointed out that Biden didn’t talk about his knowledge of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Flynn, which had been initiated in August 2016.
And Biden contradicted himself when asked about Flynn in a Tuesday interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos after the Justice Department filed to drop its charges against Flynn. The former vice president audibly sighed when the question came up, first denying knowing about an FBI investigation into Flynn in early 2017, and then correcting himself.
“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden said, adding that Trump’s focus on Flynn ”is all about diversion” and a way to divert attention “from the real concerns of the American people.”
Stephanopoulos noted that Biden was present at the Jan. 5 meeting.
“I thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted,” Biden replied, after fidgeting with his earpiece. “I was aware that there was, that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it.”
After the unmaking list went public on Wednesday, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates issued a statement that accused Trump and Republicans of attempting to distract from the coronavirus pandemic and portrayed the unmasking requests as a normal procedure.
“These documents simply indicate the breadth and depth of concern across the American government — including among career officials — over intelligence reports of Michael Flynn’s attempts to undermine ongoing American national security policy through discussions with Russian officials or other foreign representatives,” Bates said.
Bates then denied that Biden knew Flynn’s identity before he received unmasking information: “Importantly, none of these individuals could have known Flynn’s identity beforehand. 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.”
The Biden campaign did not respond to a request to elaborate on what Bates meant about the unmasking requests having nothing to do with an FBI investigation.
Unanswered questions
While Biden’s name on the list prompted accusations from Republicans about whether Biden played a role in pushing the FBI to investigate a Trump ally, the new information raises more questions than answers.
Republican Sens. Ron Johnson and Charles Grassley, who received the unmasking list, said: “The officials listed should confirm whether they reviewed this information, why they asked for it, and what they did with it.”
It is also unknown whether Biden personally made an unmasking request or whether it is simply in his name, and whether the information was requested on Jan. 12 or received on that date.
Biden’s campaign did not respond to questions about whether the unmasking request for Biden was made in response to the Jan. 12 Washington Post article that contained classified information, whether Biden or anyone from his office leaked the Flynn information, or whether he knows who leaked the information.
U.S. Attorney John Durham is conducting an investigation into the unmasking saga and the criminal leaks.
